Interesting, they are just so beautiful.
Cheers,
Jennifer Fury
Saltwater is the cure for everything, sweat, tears, or the sea 🌊
Hello! Spotted a common loon today in Bellena Bay, west of Doug Siden Visitor Center, about 10am, in breeding colors! I didn’t think they were around this time of year.
Greetings Mendo and Bay Area birders (and sorry for the cross-posts):
Just a quick note that on a fishing trip yesterday there were two Hawaiian Petrels and 4-5 Murphy's Petrels along with 35+ Black-footed and two Laysan Albatrosses, 100s of shearwaters, Sabine's Gulls, Tufted Puffin, etc. just 2.6-2.7 miles from shore off the Cabrillo Light Station:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S344059540
There's something unique about the waters off Noyo Harbor that brings pelagic species close to shore.
We still have 2-3 spaces remaining for our full-day pelagic trip on May 30th. There are also 1-2 scholarship slots available for students to go for free (contact Tim Bray - cc'd above - if interested in one of these) and we have a campsite available at MacKerricher State Park.
To sign up: https://noyopelagics.com/
If the above can be seen in three hours out there, imagine what can be encountered in eight hours!
Cheers, Peter
Bird Friends,
Rob Fowler up in Humboldt has organized a pelagic trip for Monday May 25th (Memorial Day). The trip needs a couple more sign-ups to go. Email Rob if you are interested (
migratoriusfwlr@...)
Here are the details from Rob:
Hi all,
Whelp it seems like the 3rd time is a charm?! This is the third reschedule I have made for my May pelagic and it looks like the weather might actually be favorable this time around!
I still have 4 spots that need to be filled to make this trip a go. Usual price $165/per person and $135/student.
Hawaiian Petrels have been seen from shore a few times from Monterey lately and Manx Shearwater has been seen daily down there, too. On the May 9th Cal Poly pelagic we had two Manx together. And, just as a reminder that trip had over 100+ Murphy's Petrels! That big pink-billed albatross is still on the menu, too!
Anyways, hit me up ASAP if you would like one of the four spots to make this trip a go!
Thanks,
Rob
Rob Fowler
McKinleyville, CA
--
Chuck Dresel
Napa, CA
Just back from a GGBA Field Trip walk in northwest Wildcat Canyon. We got good looks at a light morph Swainson's Hawk circling in the area of the Belgum sanitarium and then heading more or less up the canyon towards Tilden/Berkeley. This was around noon today. I believe this is the first time I have seen one in the East Bay hills. Second new bird in as many weeks, the first being the Northern Parula in Alvarado Park last week.
Our walk followed a loop from the Alvarado Staging Area parking lot up Wildcat Creek Trail, up the Belgum Trail to the top of the ridge and back towards Monte Cresta/Bonita Trail and back down to the parking lot.
Other highlights included at least 5 singing Grasshopper Sparrows, at least a half-dozen singing Lazuli Buntings, several calling Ash-throated Flycatchers, and a few Hooded Orioles. Near the top of the ridge we had a meadowlark and flyover flicker which seemed borderline late to me although I haven't checked the bar charts in eBird. We also had all 5 common swallows together along the ridge near the Monte Cresta water tanks.
Good birding,
Alan Krakauer
Richmond, CA
Hi everyone, the California Bird Atlas is holding our first Big Weekend June 4th-7th to welcome new atlasers and to expand coverage. Locally we're holding several field trips, but I want to highlight a social event to kickoff the weekend:
Thursday June 4, 6:30 pm to 9 pm
Bay Area Atlas Social
1620 18th Street, Oakland 94607
This is super informal and registration is not required, but please RSVP so I have an idea of how many people to expect in case I need to try to reserve tables. Otherwise, just look for me wearing as much bird swag as I can. More info and registration here:
link
The full list of events is here:
https://www.californiabirdatlas.org/bigweekend. You can register your own if you have plans to bird and would like company; trips don't have to be through a formal organization. Click on "submit an event" on the map.
Additionally, Science Director Sam Safran created a new tool called the Blockboard to view atlas blocks, effort, and what species have and haven't yet been confirmed per block. It's really cool and another great resource:
californiabirdatlas.org/blockboard
Some regional atlas stats so far:
San Francisco: 82 confirmed species, 147 species coded over 3233 hours
Alameda County: 108 confirmed species, 193 species coded over 3608 hours
Contra Costa County: 101 confirmed species, 181 species coded over 1992 hours
Megan Jankowski
Oakland
Hi Claude,
This is a House Finch. The bill looks large because it’s partly open with a seed wedged in it.
Male Purple Finches have more extensive diffuse pink tinting on the upper and lower parts, including the flanks and feather edges on the wings and tail, and usually a darker ‘cheek’ patch. The dark belly/flank streaks in Purple Finch tend to be more blurry and diffuse, with usually a pink rather than white background color.
I hope that helps,
Claude
On May 19, 2026, at 1:41 PM, Claude Lyneis <cmlyneis@...> wrote:
I was sorting out my camera focusing settings in the backyard yesterday and thinking the bird on the feeder was one of the many House Finch, who come by. However, the bill on this one looked too big. It looks too big for a Purple Finch also, but the markings match.
Here are three shots on Flickr including its mate.
| <55281402864_e91038e991_c.jpg> |
|
Claude Lyneis
cmlyneis@...
Claude Lyneis
cmlyneis@...
Here are three shots on Flickr including its mate.
Claude Lyneis
cmlyneis@...
During my morning yard and sky watch in front of my house in central Albany today, there was a nice showing of migrants, with movement likely boosted by the combo of warm weather and a gentle N to NE breeze.
The moment I walked outside, there was a Western Warbling Vireo singing up the street (perhaps my 3rd yard record). Over the course of the next hour and a half, I saw 5 Western Tanagers fly by, heading N to NE (at least 3 male, one female), sometimes in duos, with one male perching at the top of my backyard redwood and singing a few times. Others gave their "weee" flight calls. I believe this was a yard high count for this species. My personal highlight was a first-for-the-yard Cassin's Vireo, that seemed to magically appear near the top of my backyard redwood (visible from the street in front of my house), nicely sunlit. It stayed for a few seconds before moving on to the NE.
Most of these migrants were quiet and not super obvious, but today was one of the better migrant pushes I've experienced from my tightly packed urban residential neighborhood. My yard / sky watches tend to be somewhat reflective of what's happening generally, so I wasn't surprised to hear reports from Vollmer Peak this morning and yesterday morning of a nice variety of migrants / rarities, plus a variety of reports from San Francisco.
Happy spring birding,
Zac Denning
Albany
Like Forrest, we were wondering if Elegant Terns would be nesting this season on the Richmond Breakwater.. Although some had been appearing at various locations along the breakwater, there didn't seem to be a consistent group where they had nested last year near the Caspian Terns that have nesting here for some years. However, over the last week they began increase in the area of previous year's nesting as well as at another location near Brooks Island. Yesterday we took the Richmond-SF ferry to get a better look and some photos to confirm. Using the photos I made an estimate of 1800 Elegant Terns and 180 Caspian Terns. These are conservative counts due to the tightly packed groups with the two species intermingled. There was the usual large California Gull colony along with a Western Gulls nesting along the breakwater as well as one of the channel markers. Here is an eBird checklist with some photos from the return leg of our trip:
https://ebird.org/atlascalifornia/checklist/S339086855
I believe this must be the northernmost Elegant Tern nesting colony. I understand that they have been nesting in the South Bay and at Alameda since about 2019.
Tony Brake
Point Richmond
Hi all,
Last week I spent some time birding around Richmond and stumbled upon some notable breeding birds. Most significant was a group of 8+ Pigeon Guillemots on 5/3 just off the Richmond Long Wharf, with some of the birds seen flying directly under the pier. These numbers and behavior are highly suggestive of nesting, and would be the furthest the species has nested within the bay as far as I am aware. Confirming this species won’t be easy unless you have a kayak, but Miller/Knox is a good place to view them with a scope.
In hopes of further success with expanding breeders, I have been closely monitoring the Elegant terns on Brooks island. As of May 3rd, there are about 250 birds but few are showing any signs of breeding so it seems they may not nest this year after all. For reference, last year, courtship began by 4/12 and birds were sitting on nests by the end of April. Numbers were also significantly higher. A Red-winged Blackbird pair on the island seemed incredibly out of place next to the heron rookery but appear to be attempting to breed.
On 4/28 I hiked some of my favorite spots in Wildcat Canyon. The highlight was a MacGillivray's Warbler singing territorially from an eastward facing slope near the intersection of the Belgum and Monte Cresta trails amongst a large swath of poison oak & bay trees. Although there are several reports of MacG’s within the park that support breeding, this would be the northernmost to date for the county if confirmed. Also of note were 4 pairs of Rufous crowned sparrows, my highest count for the park. While there has been a known population at the sage patch along the Oil Well trail, many of these birds were instead found along the upper reaches of the Belgum trail in areas that looked more suitable for Grasshopper Sparrows. Perhaps this species is also expanding in the region?
Forest C
El Sobrante
A well seen Townsend's solitaire was on the north side of the ridge about here: 37.878960, -121.930470. Photos later. In the gray pines.
Alan Bade
Pleasant Hill
Hi folks
This morning I went to scout out a potential new morning flight spot --sorry, on private property--on the east side of Mt. Diablo, east of Morgan Terr. Rd., and then do some atlasing for the California Breeding Bird Atlas closer to Morgan Territory Road. I arrived to find my hoped for flight spot with patchy fog around and overcast above, not ideal, but I still had over 100 migrants fly by me between 5:50 and 8AM. The biggest movers (identified to species, most were sps.) were Townsend's Warblers (15), Lazuli Bunting (22), Western Tanager (18), and Wilson's Warbler (21). Bonus points for a Gray-headed Orange-crowned, seen well when it paused in a blue oak on the ridge top. My previous records of this taxon, presumably ssp. orestera, in spring in interior Contra Costa County are on May 9th and May 10th. And the only other on eBird in spring in the Contra Costa Diablo Range is a bird Kai Mills, Armin Adly, and Jaedon Tembrevilla had May 5th, 2024, in Mitchell Canyon. The tight temporal clustering is neat.
Hiking down back to Morgan Terr. Rd., I ran into a singing Say's Phoebe and a pair of Horned Larks (one singing) set up on a bare grassy knoll at about 2000'. I then spent until noon moseying around Morgan Territory Preserve and along the main road. The highlight was a Townsend's Solitaire chowing down on mistletoe just east of the Preserve parking lot, but scattered flocks of Hermit/Townsend's Warblers and a scattering of Hammond's Flycatchers were nice. On Morgan Territory Road, I followed around a Sharp-shinned Hawk for a while in an attempt to find a nest (no cigar) and counted at least 8 Cassin's Vireos apparently on territory.
Yesterday evening I made a run through the delta, highlighted by what may be a first-for-Bethel Island (off the top of my head, I can remember no others) Brown Pelican on Frank's Tract! This was an adult that spent its time with a feeding mass of ~100 Cormorants and sea lions. I also found a Western Gull among the Californias--the first I have seen here in a while. I finished my evening at Clifton Court Forebay, where I unsuccessfully checked for nighthawk. But I did manage a female Red-breasted Merganser, almost certainly a spring migrant, as well as 3 Common Mergansers, and lingering pairs of Lesser Scaup and Common Goldeneye. I only saw 4 Bonaparte's Gulls among what I thought was over 5000 California Gulls.
Best
Ethan Monk
Hello! I spotted a red throated loon today around 1:00pm, in Ballena bay west of Crab Cove in Alameda, close to shore along the walking path.
Greetings all,
We've been having a good time so far up here; see our most recent trip report (for 19 and 26 April), with some photos of Bay Area folks here:
https://noyopelagics.com/april-19-26-deepwater-pelagic-birds-and-mammals/
Highlights for these trips include Cocos Booby, one each of Murphy's and Cook's Petrels just 11 miles from shore, 3-4 Laysan Albatrosses, Scripps's Murrelet, spectacular loon and scoter migrations, all the regular pelagic seabirds, plus Guadalupe Fur Seal, friendly Humpbacks, an estimated 100,000,000 Velella, pelagic nudibranchs and more.
We still have a few spaces left for our May 9th trip:
https://noyopelagics.com/
At this stage NW winds are predicted which, we have learned, are good for seeing Pterodroma petrels, albatrosses, and, generally, all pelagic seabirds. Last year in May we had some 65 Murphy's Petrels, 3-4 Hawaiian Petrels, two Short-tailed Albatrosses, and more during NW winds:
https://noyopelagics.com/trip-report-noyo-pelagics-9-may-and-11-may-2025/
https://noyopelagics.com/pelagic_calendar/saturday-5-24-25-half-day-noyo-canyon-mammal-dedicated/
To help with lodging costs on our trips, Mendocino Coast Audubon Society is now reserving group camp sites for the nights before trips. We have a site at Van Damme State Park for the night of the 8th that can take up to eight campers (I believe we have four now). If you are interested in camping in this redwood canyon park and waking up to Canada Jays (if you are lucky) contact Roger Adamson <radamson@...>.
I will be missing this trip but Caitlin, Marty, and Ed Corey, veteran of Cape Hatteras trips and Wings guide on reposition cruises will be leading. Have fun, and hope to see you on our next trips on May 30th and June 14th.
Peter
Hi all,
Just wanted to mention, in case anyone might like to try to refind it, that I had a Yellow-breasted Chat at Shadow Cliffs Regional Park this morning.
It was initially heard at around 9:30am. Later I saw it at around 11am. It was last seen at around 1 pm at 37.66872, -121.8471. (This area is along the creekside trail on the south side of the arroyo, west/downstream of the concrete bridge. It's near a 3-way trail junction.) The Chat was singing very loudly and distinctly among the vegetation in the very weedy, large overgrown field near that trail junction.
Not sure how long it will hang around, but basically it seemed to be staying in that field singing all this morning, at least between 9:30am to ~1pm. (After that I gave up on photo and left.) So perhaps it may still be around this weekend.
When I initially heard the song at 9:30am, I didn't realize it was a Chat. I thought it had this jumbled quality to the song, that reminded me of a Northern Mockingbird. So I dismissed it. Later at around 11 am, as I walked by I heard it again. This time, after consulting the Merlin app, I realized my error. I was eventually able to see it singing in an upper part of a medium-size shrub in the weedy field from a distance of about 40 feet.
The song was loud and very distinctive, yet the bird was very hard to locate it, in part because it kept moving around. (I made some audio recordings, which I will upload to eBird when I file an eBird checklist a little later this afternoon. I know it will be flagged for a review anyway, so I thought I would send this message first.)
Best of luck and good birding,
-Akira
Akira So
Pleasanton, CA (ALA)
Hello all
Our Saturday trip has had to be rescheduled due to weather to Sunday May 3. The Sunday weather is quite good, and the blow and waves from Saturday might mean that some of the offshore birds will be pushed closer to shore by Sunday. We shall see if that is the case. Water offshore is 57-58 F, which is exceedingly warm for this time of year, highly unusual. As noted the other day, this is good water for petrels at this time of year. The hope is that Murphy's Petrel will show up, or Hawaiian and or Cook's. The warmer water is particularly good habitat for Cook's and Murphy's. Also, early Scripps's Murrelets are a possibility. It is a great time for Laysan to be in amongst the Black-footed Albatross. Arriving migrants, such as jaegers, Sabine's Gulls, shearwaters should be out there and the residents such as Rhinoceros Auklet, and Cassin's. Tufted Puffin is a good shot as well. There are few spring pelagic options, and this one looks to be in good weather. Whales and dolphins are out there as well, including migrating Grey Whales close to shore. Lots to see offshore!
To signup, the link is below. Use the
https://www.alvarosadventures.com/pelagic-dates-2026.html
Good seabirding to you all!!
Alvaro
Alvaro Jaramillo
alvaro@...
www.alvarosadventures.com
Hello all
I hope the spring migration is treating you well. Offshore, conditions are warm. The new normal perhaps, although there is a slightly different spin to what is going on right now. Since 2014 our section of the Pacific has had multiple notable "marine heat waves" what was originally termed "the Blob." These are becoming more regular, and some previously unusual birds, fish and mammals are now more regular. For example, Bluefin Tuna is now expected in our region in summer and into fall. Similarly, boobies have become regularly occurring since the heat waves began. What is unusual about this year is that spring upwelling season has been late to start, or weak. As such the warmest spring ocean temperatures since recording has happened, have been seen this spring. Pacific Bonito, a fish from the southern warmer waters has been caught, and the salmon are very deep in the cold water this year. Odd water temperatures are frightening overall, but at the same time they can be good for unusual birds. Cook's and Murphy's Petrels were seen recently offshore; Nazca Booby is in Monterey and surely there are a few others about. These conditions are also good for early Scripps's Murrelets, and eventually for sightings of the rarer Craveri's and Guadalupe murrelets later in the season. Laysan Albatross continue to become more and more regular, and multiples have already been found on offshore boats, and repositioning cruises.
We have a trip this Saturday from Half Moon Bay (Pillar Point) May 2. Conditions right now show typical NW winds and NW swells, which can be good for Pterodroma petrels once one gets out to the offshore waters. We also are offering a May 10 trip from Pillar Point Harbor. Both currently have multiple spots available. Spring is THE time to look for the uncommon Murphy's Petrel, and if water is warm, Cook's Petrel might also be found, Hawaiian Petrel begins to show up at this time of year. Migrant Sabine's Gulls, jaegers, and arriving southern breeding shearwaters will be out there. This is also a great time for numbers of Black-footed Albatross and possibilities for Laysan Albatross. Assuming conditions do not deteriorate, this could be a good short this Saturday for Murphy's.
To signup, the link is below.
https://www.alvarosadventures.com/pelagic-dates-2026.html
Good seabirding to you all!!
Alvaro
Alvaro Jaramillo
alvaro@...
www.alvarosadventures.com