Beer Tasting in Cambridge

Besides birds, I have developed a taste for beer, which is lovely since Cambridge is full to the brim with pubs carrying all sorts of proper ales. We set up a little beer tasting evening at an out of the way pub called Live and Let Live. Let me tell you, this was probably my favorite pub in all of Cambridge. On first glance, it doesn't appear all that different from the other pubs I'd been into, but then a quick look at what was on tap changed that. In Cambridge, most pubs serve Greene King ales, which though good, are entirely too abundant.

The bar owner came over with a pitcher of our first of 6 beers, this was was a fruity, bitter lightly-colored beer called Nethergate Umber Ale. 3.9% alcohol. It had hints of the coriander it was made with, but was too bitter for most of the participant's taste.

The second beer was a more traditional style beer, Everard's Tiger, which at 4.2% alcohol was much lighter tasting, medium colored, and with a slight scent of strawberry. It was brewed using English hops, which are less bitter and citrus-y than American hops.

Our third beer was called York Decade, 4.2% another paler beer with a much more intense flavor than the mellow Tiger. This one was tangy, quite bitter or hop-y, and had a grapefruit-y smell and taste. It was quite dry and had a bite to it.

Fourth in line was Pot Belly Brewery's Yellow Belly Beer, 5.2% and lighter, hop-y, and almost no smell. It was good, refreshing, and the type of beer I could probably drink more of in one sitting.

Nethergate Umber Magna

Our fifth beer was possibly my favorite, another Nethergate beer - called Umber Magna. A very dark beer, made of roasted malt instead of hops, which gave it a very caramelized almost Guinness-like flavor (less filling and sweeter than Guinness though) This beer also contained a hint of coriander, which I could smell but barely taste.

For our last beer, we had a Belgian ale, called Saison Dupont, coming in at a stronger 6.5%. It was sweet, slightly bitter, very hop-y, and almost had a sudsy texture to it. Strong smelling, tasting, and hitting. Also the bartender's favorite.

I loved the evening, and would go back for another round of beers, the bar man was knowledgeable, and let us pipe in with our untrained opinions. It is a great bar to get a break from the typical pub crawl, and if you truly enjoy Belgian beers, they have a huge selection of ridiculously strong Belgian choices.

Birding in Scotland

I met up with a birder from Scotland named Torcuil Grant, who graciously drove 2 hours to meet me and show me some birds around the Edinburgh area. We drove to the coast of the Firth of Fourth where I immediately got a lifer after lifer upon exiting the car, Eurasian oystercatcher, sandwich tern, bar-tailed godwit, common redshank, and more. When you go somewhere new, lifers are like shooting fish in a barrel, and Torcuil was almost laughing at how easy it was to find me something new and exciting.

Bass Rock

We wandered up the coast, stopping every once and a while and adding new birds, great cormorant, northern lapwing, common shelduck, common kestrel, on and on. One of the most phenominal sights of the trip was Bass Rock, which is home to a giant colony of nesting northern gannets. The rock appears white at first, and upon closer inspection you realize those are all bodies of seabirds coating the surface of the rock, and wheeling around above it. Incredible.

Black-legged kittiwake

We stopped for lunch in Dunbar, where we found a wall in the harbor with nesting black-legged kittiwakes, which you could litterally walk right up to without seeming to disturb the birds at all. Amazing to get, as he dubbed it, "porno views of kits," hahaha.

Hills covered in heather

Moving inland we got looks at common stonechat, northern wheatear, and cmmon buzzard. Linnets and gorgeously glowing yellowhammer were around, and meadow pipits crossed in front of our car as we drove through fields of heather and sheep (which delighted me to no end - I kept exclaiming "sheep"!). A family of common stonechats just as the rain picked up was positively exciting for me, and non-native red-legged partridge running across the road beside the car was amusing.

By the end of the day, we were both worn out, him from the driving, me from the constant over-stimulation of lifers galore. It was great to get out of Edinburgh and see the Scottish countryside and birds with a personal tourguide, thanks Torcuil!

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND

Well we went to Scotland Thursday through Sunday which was quite an experience. Scotland was MUCH colder than Cambridge, and rainy much of the time. It was like the European version of New York, especially since the Fringe Festival was underway and the streets were literally packed wall to wall with people walking around, and performers trying to earn some coins from passersby as well as people handing out flyers to entice you to come to various performances.

Possibly my favorite photo of the trip so far

I decided to do a lot of my city shots in black and white, it just seemed to really make them stand out better, and with the rainy weather, that's often how the city appeared.

View from my breakfast table

Chapel

Thursday we spent mainly on a bus to Scotland from England, which was probably about an 8 hour trip. We stopped for lunch in a town called Richmond, which was very scenic and cute. There was a castle we went to, where I snapped some cool shots.

Castle in Richmond, England

This river was in Richmond, and due to the peat, was brown...

Which I thought made it look like a river of Guiness

Headed to Scotland

Quick update, no photos to post - the classes and such have kept me busy, and the jetlag and 24/7 pace caused me to hit a wall. The good news is, today we head to Scotland, so I should have all sorts of new photos and birds to post when I arrive there =)

Birding Pembroke Gardens

I woke up early this morning, funny how beer does that to me, and decided to take a walk around the gardens of Pembroke College (the college in Cambridge University where I am studying). It is the first really bright sunny day since I've arrived, and man does it get chilly without the cloud cover! My first bird of the day was a European robin, which might possibly be my favorite bird at the moment. They look as if someone picked up a drab brown bird, and dipped the head and chest in rust-colored paint - so cute! I spooked up a wood pigeon, who was as uncooperative for the camera as the robin had been.

Moving toward the library, I encountered tit calls, which after being distracted by some male and female blackbirds on the lawn, I discovered were blue tits feeding and behaving like bushtits do back home. This time the camera was uncooperative, I had managed to push a button without realizing it, and none of my gorgeous, out in the open, feeling and preening blue tit shots came out....

Next a carrion crow called as it flew over, and trailing behind it was a new lifer for me - gray heron!! I was too busy staring to snap a photo of him either, I'm embarassed to be calling myself a photographer at this point ;-) The chill drove me inside to wait until the sun reached into the garden to warm me, guess I should go buy myself a Cambridge University sweatshirt like every other tourist in the town at the moment. I am loving being here more than I can even convey - new birds, gorgeous gardens, incredible architecture, buildings older than my country - and did I mention the accents?!?

Photos of Cambridge

I just got my permanent internet running, so I should have more frequent posts now. To start, here's just a taste of the incredible scenery here...

The view from my room

Pembroke is gorgeous

The green my building overlooks

Garden's are a photographer's delight

Birding in Cambs - Day One

Today was my first day birding in Cambridge, and I spent it around town with a birder friend of mine, Richard Hall, who lives in the UK but did some post-doctorate work at UC Davis, where I met him through friends. We wandered along the River Cam, and through the various college gardens and picked up 24 lifers for me, great, blue, coal, and long-tailed tits, dunnock, European robin, goldcrest, greenfinch, treecreeper, spotted flycatcher, sparrowhawk, house martin, chiffchaff, magpie, song thrush, carrion crow, wood pigeon and more!

It was a delightful introduction to British birding, especially the part where it suddenly began pouring and we ran for shelter at the nearest pub, The Mill where we grabbed a half pint and waited out the rain. Eventually it lightened enough for us to carry on, turning to full warm sunlight not too long after. Futher along, I tried my first Pimms with fruit at a pub called Red Bull, which was delightfully refreshing...
I LOVE it here. LOVE LOVE LOVE. =)

Leavin' on a Jetplane

Well, the next time you all hear from me, I will be in the United Kingdom! My flight is at 6pm tonight, and I'll arrive by noon tomorrow in London. Here's to hoping it's a safe, exciting, and amazing adventure.

Cheers!

HBWC Wetlands Survey

This morning I participated in a bird survey in Huntington Beach. Me and my partner, Irene Horiuchi were assigned to the central portion of Brookhurst Marsh - an area between Magnolia and Brookhurst on Pacific Coast Highway. We were documenting species in this area, because they are about to begin restoration construction, and want a clear picture of what is currently there, and what it'll be like after rehabilitation.

Resortation success story, Bolsa Chica

When we finished our survey area, we drove over to Talbert Marsh and met up with a UCI grad student from Thailand, Pornpat Nikamanon, to check out the gull-billed tern being seen there. The bird is very cool, and has a clearly visible aluminum band on it's left leg, which Lena said indicated it had been banded in San Diego. County bird for Leigh, sweet!

Gull-billed Tern, Talbert Marsh

The three of us then headed to Hariet Weider for a quick check in, and finding nothing besides a kestrel on the hunt, and a very dry overlook that's usually filled with water, we headed north to Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve. Bolsa Chica is a conservation success story, it was fought for, preserved, and then restored, and it currenty flourishing. While there we saw thousands of terns and gulls, endangered snowy plovers and least terns, as well as a reddish egret doing it's "running-crazy" foraging pattern.
Snowy Plover - endangered and too cute!

We ran into a birder friend of mine, Tom Wurster, without his usual partner in crime, Leiga Auzins. He needed gull-billed tern for the county, so after a quick walk out to the observation point, he and his companions headed to Talbert to catch the bird before they locked the gate. Overall it was a gorgeous day to be out birding, and I was very happy to help with the survey - hopefully I'll be able to help with the next one, which I believe was scheduled for October.

California Least Tern - endangered and cute!

When I spend such a beautiful day in the field, it reminds me how much I love Southern California, and how I will miss it when I'm in the UK. Hopefully I'll come back with lots of great photos, stories, and experiences - and come home a better birder than I left!

Bolsa Chica is an absolute photographer's delight - terns fly inches overhead providing a photographer with a plethora of opportunities to get cool shots =)

Back Bay Birding

I woke up early enough to sneak a little birding into my day. I cruised down to Upper Newport Bay to bird along Back Bay Drive. It was absolutely gorgeous out, sunny but with a steady cool breeze. In typical summer fashion, it was fairly subdued bird-wise, but I had some nice surprises, like a great look at a vocal black-headed grosbeak, a close fly by barn swallow, and a Cooper's hawk that nearly took off my face.

Gray Hairstreak

Audubon Cottontail

Elderberry

It was a very nice day, but to be perfectly honest, I'm having a hard time focusing on birds here when visions of blue tits, European robins, and little owls keep dancing through my head! An ecologist in the Cambridge area has graciously extended an offer to arrange to let me tag along on a banding program at Monks Wood Nature Reserve - that's gotta be the best way to learn new species, see them up close and personal! 10 days and counting...

Countdown to Cambridge!

I leave for Pembroke College of Cambridge University, in England in 21 days and I couldn't be more excited. I've decided to take a page out of Amy Hooper's book and asking for some travel advice. I've never been to the UK before, and I've definitely never birded there.Hopefully I'll have shots of my own that look like this to post here in August =)

I'd appreciate any advice on what to bring with me for birding and just general everyday (don't worry, the raincoat is already in my suitcase), where to go on my free weekends - again birdwise and in general, preferably by foot or public transport - no way I'm attempting to drive.

 Another big help would be a smallish list of which birds to study up on beforehand (I bought the Birds of Europe guide by Mullarney, Svennson, et all) taking into consideration that I'll be there the month of August, and some of September.

San Elijo Lagoon - 4th of July

I birded San Elijo Lagoon in San Diego county on the 4th of July. It was muggy, and not too birdy, but I still got a nice walk in, and saw some beautiful birds and butterflies during my short walk.

Highlights included multiple Lorquin's admirals and a blue species I need to identify. Birdwise, I saw the expected least and forster's terns, as well as plenty of house finches, goldfinches, and both CA and spotted towhees. An osprey carrying a fish was a nice sighting, but was too far off for a decent photo, dang.

At my aunt and uncle's beautiful home in Del Mar, CA, where I spent my 4th of July, I saw a red-tailed hawk fly by at eye-level from their deck that overlooks a valley, straight out to the ocean! Ravens were also incredibly abundant, with their croaky calls.

I'll post photos if they turned out well when I return to Orange County - I hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day!

Chat with a Chat

Forgive the corny title, I birded SJWS today. It was a breezy, slightly humid 76 degrees. I encountered a few of my old campers as I showed up at the tail end of marsh camp - which they are now old enough to be junior naturalists at. They had grown since I last saw them, I must be getting old, my "little campers" are now high schoolers nearly as tall as I am! Yikes. I admit I felt a certain measure of pride at seeing them still birding two or more years since I'd last seen them, hope that means they're hooked for life =)

The birds reflected my lazy mood as I walked around the ponds, they meandered around feeding. Terns, skimmers, and swallows flew circles above the ponds, as avocets, stilts, and mallards all fed and played on the water. The babies were adorable, fuzzy stilt and avocet babies wobbled around, and miniature mallards swam in little flotillas behind their parents.

Black Skimmer

I wandered around the back ponds, and saw the bird that inspired my title, a gorgeous yellow-breasted chat. He called from his perch and when I pished a little, he really got vocal. We went back and forth for a while, as I shot photo after photo in hopes of capturing a good shot of the little fellow mid-song, to which end I did not have success.

Gray Hairstreak

But I couldn't be too disappointed in missing that shot when there were so many other good things to photograph, like gray hairstreaks, skimmers, and some summer flowers.

Ruddy Duck

Mallow spp.?

Bushtit

eBird

I don't know how many of you keep lists, life lists, year lists, trip lists... ect. but there is a website that if you haven't heard of, you really need to visit. It's called eBird, and it's a website that allows you to input the birds you've seen at a particular location, say for example I birded at San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary - I could click on it in the "birding hotspots" or find it using their interactive map, then go onto a checklist and tick off each species I saw. eBird then tallies it up and keeps a running total of your month, year, life, and county lists. Best of all, the information you input is used as scientific data that helps give us a picture of bird movement, population levels, and other important stuff like that.

You can backlog your trip reports too, which is how I added to the life list, going back through my notebooks of trips, and even using the back entries of this blog to remember trips and birds. It's not up to my actual life list yet, but I'm adding to it. I love this website, and I love that it emails me my trip lists all typed up. If you haven't, you should definitely consider getting an account (free) and starting your own lists, for memory, for personal record, or for the sake of adding to a body of scientific knowledge.

Birding @ UCI

Well today was a quiet day on campus. I rode my bike over to bird around a bit. There were the usual suspects, American Robins, Western Bluebirds, vociferous little House Wrens, and Black Phoebes. House Finches, American and Lesser Goldfinches, and Bushtits were all present and calling.

A single Olive-sided Flycatcher was a treat, sitting near the statues on the left side of the park by the bridge. A Cooper's Hawk buzzed overhead circling the park. Crows and Ravens mobbed it, and then sat at the tops of the sycamores cawing and croaking.

Up near the Science Library there were Rufous and Anna's Hummingbirds feeding on the honeysuckle. Behind some portables near the library there is an area of some odd pines, and willows and such - a small riparian area of sorts. In this, there were all three of the previous finches, Nuttall's Woodpeckers, and delightfully, a family of Hooded Orioles.

Near Steinhaus Hall there was an incredibly vocal Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon type). These little guys really please me for some reason, I think it's the cute pink bill that stands out against their dusky heads. Other sightings of interest included a flyby Forster's Tern in Aldrich, a White-throated Swift near Steinhaus, unfortunately, a flock of European Starlings over by Campus Village, and cutest of all, a mother Killdeer with babies in the open field across from my apartment complex, Vista del Campo Norte. It was a nice day out, but suprisingly quiet bird-wise, this really has been a subdued spring/early summer season.

Summer Plans

Memorial Weekend was not at all what I'd planned. Instead of birding my head off in the desert I was stuck at home sick. Not fun at all. On the bright side, classes are winding down, the sun is out, and I have some awesome plans for this summer to look forward to.

I will spend the first half here, birding and attending summer school at UCI. The month of August through September 15th I will be at the University of Cambridge in England!!! There is a summer study abroad program through UCI that allows me to take classes there and live in the dorms. So it looks like my year list will include quite a few birds of the British variety =)

I also have side trips lined up to bird with friends who live in and around the Cambridge/London areas, woo hoo! We get three day weekends the entire time to facilitate side travel. I also signed up for a painting course which is held, weather permitting, in the gardens. We all know my ulterior motive for this was to be outside more often so I can get as much birding in as possible. (my other class is one that applies to my major)

The official program ends on the 6th of September, but I plan to stay in Europe for a week or so afterwards to travel around and get some extra birding in, maybe head back to Scotland, since our 5 day side trip won't be nearly enough time there for me.

Quick Stop for YHBLs

On my way home from work today, I stopped by the FDA building off Jamboree to check for the yellow-headed blackbird flock there. There was a blackbird flock, but they were Brewer's, not yellow-headed, with a few grackles mixed in. House finches also sang from the fence line as I cruised by... I'll have to try again later and see if I have better luck.

Mother's Day at SJWS

I went for a walk at the marsh today after making breakfast for my mom. It was overcast, but surprisingly humid. There were plenty of western warblers in the meadow. Yellow, hermit and orange-crowned, and cute little Wilson's warblers all called as they foraged in the cottonwoods next to the Duck Club. Warbling vireos were present, as was a very vocal yellow-breasted chat by the boardwalk.

The most pleasing find of the day was a vociferous Bell's vireo, which with a small amount of coaxing, came out to investigate me and my clicking camera for a moment before heading back toward its friend (mate perhaps?) in the bushes.

It was pretty warm by the time I finished, so I headed back to my car to relax and enjoy the rest of my day with my mom. Happy mother's day everyone.

San Diego and Mexico Pelagic

Today I went on a pelagic out of Point Loma, San Diego. We were aboard the Grande, of Point Loma Sportfishing. We went out to 9 mile bank to bird in San Diego/ABA waters, where we saw pink-footed and sooty shearwaters, northern fulmar, black storm-petrels, Xantus murrelets, cassins auklets, red-necked and red phalaropes, pacific and common loons, Brandt's, double-crested and pelagic cormorants, surf scoters, caspian terns, and a black-footed albatross!

Point Loma Lighthouse

American x Black Oystercatcher

From there we left the U.S. and headed into Mexican waters to the Coronado Islands to look for boobies. We had a brown boobie buzz the boat headed toward the islands. When we reached them, we saw black oystercatchers, one American-type (likely hybird) oystercatcher, baby brown pelicans, Brandt's cormorants in breeding plumage, and best of all, baby brown boobies!

Black-footed Albatross with Western Gulls

Brown Booby

Brown Pelicans with Chicks

On the way back, we had much less success with birding, although we did come across the same black-footed albatross, allowing the photographers on the boat to get another round of photos. Our trip leaders included Oscar Johnson, Jon Feenstra, Guy McKaskie, Todd McGrath, and others.

Northern Fulmar

Harbor Seals with a few Elephant Seals Mixed In

All in all, it was a very successful boat trip for me, and I am looking forward to going on more pelagics in the future!

My shitty Pink-footed Shearwater shot, boooo

Birding @ UCI

Today was overcast and cool, but the birds were out in abundance. On my way to class there were bluebirds swooping down from the branches to grab insects from the grass, and robins foraging for worms and other tasty items. Not one, not two, not four, but five, yes five black phoebes were on a small patch of lawn flitting around and seemingly playing tag with one another. I assume they were probably fledglings, simply adorable. 

In the bushes and trees, song sparrows were singing, bushtits called out to their companions as they moved around Aldrich park, and even a nuttall's woodpecker called from high in a sycamore. I was surprised to hear cedar waxwings calling from above the tops of the trees, perhaps getting ready to leave the area. Another good spot was a dark-eyed junco (Oregon type) at the base of a tree, I love the way their pink beaks seem to pop out against the dusky color of their heads.

Orange-crowned warblers and yellow warbers sang from the trees, and common yellowthroats called from the low bushes. House finche's bubbly songs were abundant, and house wrens singing rounded out the chorus of birdsongs I heard today. It was wonderful to get some birding in, however brief, considering how busy I've been with midterms.

I attended OC-SCB's meeting, it was a wonderful presentation on the dolphins that have been coming into the bay in Newport. The speaker was Dennis Kelly, a professor at Orange Coast College. On my walk home, I went through Aldrich park again to see if I could hear the great-horned owl that was near Humanities Hall last quarter. No such luck, but I did hear a barn owl screech only once, probably flying over?

I will be spending memorial weekend birding in the desert with some friends, so I should have some photos and plenty of updates!

Birdathon 2008

Saturday the 26th was the annual Sea and Sage Audubon Birdathon or Big Day. This is a day where teams compete to see the highest number of species in a 24 hour period. Wouldn't you know it, this year it fell on one of the hottest days to date. My team, composing Mark Singer, Tom Benson, Vic Leipzig, and myself, sweated our way through a brutally bird-less day. We had a rough time picking up reasonably expectable birds, and as a result, had a much lower species count this year than our number for the previous year.

The biggest miss we had was the rails at Upper Newport Bay. To our amazement and frustration, after three tries, we struck out on clapper and Virginia rail. I hope that doesn't indicate a decline in the species, as I cannot recall a time when I haven't heard a rail there when I expressly tried for them. Yikes.

Despite the heat and low numbers, it was as always, a great experience. There were some cool highlights, like wonderful views of a greater roadrunner, and the lesser nighthawks buzzing by our heads calling as dusk fell. For probably the first time in two years, I spent an entire day birding without once bringing out my camera, so I have to apologize for a text-only post. 

Well, all I can say is that I'll be looking forward to better numbers next year =)