California
- March 2005 |
Monterey
Jumbo 747 at Heathrow
15/03/2005 - We arrived in San Francisco after an 11 hour flight from Heathrow and made our way to the car hire company in the airport. As always getting out of the airport is the main problem, once on the freeway it was fairly easy driving, well almost! We managed to miss the turning to Monterey due to a error on my part, never agrue with the navigator. Arriving at the motel finally, we had been up for 23 hours. From the airport to Monterey I had seen band-tailed pigeon, turkey vulture and red-tailed hawk.
Monterey Harbour and 17 Mile Drive
16/03/2005 - Up early for a walk around the motel, crossed the street where I found some parkland and soon new species. Back for breakfast, then off to the harbour to find more species. We walked along the harbour seeing various divers, grebes, ducks and harbour seals and eventually found the boat moorings to book a trip in the afternoon for whale watching. We then decided to try and find the monarch butterfly winter roost, though seeing some flying around, we failed to find their winter roost. This wasted alot of time making us late arriving at 17 mile drive, we managed half the drive before having to go back for the whale watch. This is a must if going to Monterey, with some beautiful coastal scenery.
Californan Ground Squirrel - Harbour Seal - Rossi's Dolphin - Brewer's Blackbird
Arriving back at the harbour, we boarded the boat and headed out to sea to search for grey whales. On the way out we saw two species of dolphin and one of porpoise. Luck was in today, with the skipper being a bird watcher was looking for whales as well, as calling out birds over the loudspeaker for me. We only had brief views of grey whale, but the birds were much better. Arriving back in the harbour we saw our only sea otters. Still having some energy left, we had a walk around Channery Row. New species for the day pacific diver, black-footed albatross, brandt's cormorant, pelagic cormorant, harlequin duck, black turnstone, surfbird, heermann's gull, western gull, pigeon guillemot, rhinoceros auklet, violet-green swallow, bush tit and scrub jay.
Elkhorn Slough - Californian Poppy - Long-billed Dowitcher
17/03/2005 - Again up early for a walk around the motel, before leaving for Elkhorn Slough on the way to Yosemite National Park. We found Elkhorn without to much trouble, my wife Carole sat in the car while I went for a walk as she would later be driving. I spent a couple of hours walking around this scenic reserve before we set off on the next step of our journey. After driving through some fantastic countryside, we arrived late afternoon at Yosemite. New species for the day allen's hummingbird, chestnut-backed chickadee, pygmy nuthatch, acorn woodpecker, pine siskin and pacific golden plover.
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Andy Vidler Wildlife Photography
