To view a Slideshow of Pacific Coast Birds click on SLIDESHOW
The U.S. Pacific Coast rivals coastlines anywhere in the world for its beauty. It is also a great place for birding, both land and sea birds. The Oregon Audubon Society publishes a list of the best costal birding sites for the Northern, Central and Southern coast. The number of birds is very dependent on the migration season with March, April and May for spring migration and September and October for fall migration. Unfortunately, we made our month long birding trip down the Washington, Oregon and California Coast in August, between migrations. None-the-less it was a good trip, considerably enhanced by three pelagic trips:
1. Protection Island (sponsored Port Townsend, WA Marine lab) – Tufted Puffins, Common Murres, Pelagic Cormorants, Brant’s Cormorants, Bald Eagles, Glaucous-backed Gulls, Western gulls, and others.
2. Perpetua Bank Pelagic Trip (sponsored by The Bird Guide, Newport, OR) – Black-footed Albatross, Northern Fulmars, Pink-footed Shearwaters, Red-necked Phalaropes, Arctic Terns, and others.
3. Monterey Pelagic Seabird Trip (sponsored by Shearwater Trips, Monterey, CA). Black-footed Albatross, Northern Fulmars, Pink-footed Shearwaters, Buller’s Shearwaters, Red-necked Phalaropes, Arctic Terns, and others.
In addition, a visit to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport provided an opportunity to photograph Tufted Puffins, Rhinoceros Auklets, Common Murres, and American Oystercatchers up close.
In total this site includes 48 species, over half of which have not been previously shown in any of the prior ComingsBirds.com/site specific web sites.
June 2011
The LA Audubon Society sponsors pelagic trips off the West Coast. On June 4th I went on a pelagic trip to Santa Cruz Island, one of the Channel Islands. It is famous for the Island Scrub Jay, a species unique to that island. Other new birds photographed were the Sooty Shearwater, Cassin's Auklet, Xantus Murrelet, Pacific Loon, and Ash-throated Flycatcher.
