Ever heard of Santa Catalina Island? We hadn't either, before we researched where we might find a Spotted Dove. Turns out, these little guys have made the 20-ish mile trek across the Pacific to one of the Channel Islands, and just a few days ago, a Helpful Birder reported a few of them on Santa Catalina.
Thus, we had a choice: head back to Compton and attempt to fit into the 'hood while searching the only mainland location they were reported recently, or take a cushy boat over to an island that's been described as reminiscent of a Mediterranean resort village? Hmm... decisions...
Day 4 of our Tour de LA began as so many other days have begun in the past few months: up before dawn, slurp down mediocre hotel coffee, then drive to a harbor.
With glassy waters and a few Shearwaters for company, we were at Catalina in just over an hour. And, the steep hillsides, notched with houses, surrounding a crystal blue harbor, does look like something you'd find on a postcard for the South of France:
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| The giant yachts in harbor are not shown in this picture, so as not to give you a feeling of inferiority, financial or otherwise. |
The first reported location for the dove was vague: "in the village". But the village is only a few blocks square, so we decided to try wandering around to see what might turn up (and to pick a place for déjouner, mais oui). Pigeons, a few ravens, and the Ubiquitous House Sparrow were easy to spot, but no dove...until we checked out the downtown mini golf course (what, doesn't every European village have mini-golf?). Foraging near the windmill on the 4th hole, there he was!
12 minutes down, 6 hours and 18 minutes until our boat left. Now what?
A couple miles up the road was a botanical garden rated highly on Yelp, so we walked there to see some sights, and because 9:12am is a little early for lunch.
While the gardens made for good wandering, the highlight was an enormous memorial to William Wrigley, Jr., he of the chewing gum fame:
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| A tribute to a True American Hero, a man who figured out how to make millions of dollars from a substance you put in your mouth, chew to receive no nutritional value, and then spit out. |
Apparently, he was a huge fan of Catalina Island and invested a lot of money to make it a destination. He even had the Chicago Cubs do their Spring Training activities on the island for many years, which is why the island's barber is being interviewed about the Cub's playoff chances.
After a nice walk back to town and lunch at the harbor, our boat carried us back to Long Beach, with the accompaniment of dolphins this time:
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| Last one to the buoy has to go poke the Great White Shark in the tail! |
The next day was our return home, and a shot at our last target for the trip, California Condor. The condor was actually declared extinct in the 1980's, as the wild population dwindled to zero and the last few were captured for breeding programs. Thanks to those programs, more than 400 condors exist today, of which over half are soaring free over California, Arizona, and Baja Mexico.
In California, condors can be seen over Pinnacles National Park, a few other areas around the Central Valley, and the Big Sur coastline. But, we didn't have time for all these places, so picked Big Sur given that it had the highest number of recent reports...but was that because condors were easier to see there, or because the number of visitors is higher, and so more eyeballs are looking?
After the LONG, windy drive up Highway 1 from San Luis Obispo, we had seen many vultures, ravens, and other dark soaring birds, but no condors. Pulling off the highway in the traffic jam around Julia Pfieffer Burns State Park, we noted two things: 1) OMG, we forgot how busy the coast is during the summer, even on a weekday, let's not do this again, and 2) a condor.
Yes, soaring directly over the entrance to the park, way up high, drifting between indigo blue sky and misty clouds, was an unmistakable California Condor, #633 for the year!
And so concluded our wildly successful trip south. Six targets, 100% hit rate, and only a few frazzled nerves. We were even starting to like the LA area...small parts of it, anyway... very small parts.
What's next? California's Volcano Country for mountain and forest birds, Nevada for an attempt at the famous Himalayan Snowcock, then off to Colorado for more mountain birds.
Grateful to have no more boat trips in the near future,
Me.
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