Coast Starlight: Northbound

Time always flies when you're having fun, and our California trip was no exception. On the morning of Friday, February 24th it was already time to check out of our hotel, but before we left we took another walk along the bluffs and the beach. There were lots of surfers out, and lots of birds too! I saw a northern mockingbird (151), which I thought might be a "big miss" on the trip. On the rocky part of the beach was a single northern tattler (152), and perched on a wire near a residential neighborhood was a Say's phoebe (153).

Right after our walk, the fog moved in really quickly, and the temperature dropped accordingly. Goodbye, warm California weather! It felt like it was happening to make it easier to leave. Because of the chill, we decided not to walk on the beach near the butterfly grove again, instead exploring part of the town of Pismo Beach which we hadn't done yet. The highlight was walking out the Pismo Beach Pier. In addition to getting a different perspective by looking almost straight down on the surfers, there was a lot of wildlife activity just beyond them. Bird-wise, there were brown pelicans, common murres, lots of gulls, and a couple of loons - one of which was close enough to differentiate as a red-throated loon (154). There were also some great mammals to be seen - sea otters, a pair of sea lions, and best of all - a small pod of dolphins!! I first spotted their dorsal fins just beyond the surfers, and they seemed to be surfing themselves. Then two of them jumped in synchrony, completely clearing the water! It was awesome. The volunteer in the information booth on the pier said he'd seen gray whales and porpoises from the pier before but not dolphins. I'm guessing they were probably bottlenose dolphins, but it was hard to tell through the fog.

After lunch, we headed inland to drop off the rental car and wait at the train station for our ride back north. Away from the coast, the sun was still shining, and it was warm enough to sit outside on a bench in a T-shirt and read for an hour before the train came. You can be sure I soaked up every ounce of California sunshine I could! Here was the view from my bench:

In that hour I also saw/heard an impressive 15 species of birds. Most entertaining were the three kestrels - one female and two males seemingly competing for her. One of them definitely had the upper hand - I actually saw him mating with her twice, but the other male was making quite a racket trying to get in there, too. There was also a very vocal pair of red-shouldered hawks that flew by twice. Spring was most definitely in the air!

Our train came, and I enjoyed the last couple of hours of daylight as we started our trek north. As the sun was setting over the hills to our west, this was the scene from the train just before it got dark:

That was the last we'd see of the warmth on our trip! When we awoke, it was near Klamath Falls, Oregon, where the temperatures were below freezing, the breeze was blowing, and we saw occasional snow showers. It was still pretty, though.

After pulling out of the Klamath Falls train station we passed right along Upper Klamath Lake, where there were eagles, ravens, and lots of scaup, bufflehead, and common mergansers.

I also saw a couple of black-billed magpies (155), which I figured would be my last species for the trip. We then headed up into the Siskiyou Mountains where more snowy scenes awaited us.

We descended back into the Willamette Valley and just before pulling into Portland, I added one more year bird - a wood duck (156) near Gladstone! We spent the night at my parents' house, and before heading back north to Washington the next day, I also got to see the evening grosbeaks (157) that had returned to their feeders while we were on the trip. Amazingly, from when we left Friday Harbor until we returned, I added an impressive 49 year birds to my total for 2012, including 3 life birds. That was way beyond my expectations!

While driving north through Washington we experienced every type of weather - sun, rain, snow, hail, and back again - and when we got on the ferry the sun came out again to welcome us home, even though the temperature was now about 45 degrees colder than in California!

Coast Starlight: Southbound

On Sunday afternoon we took off from Union Station in Portland heading south on an Amtrak train along the Coast Starlight route. The first part of the trip traversed territory I'm pretty familiar with, but as we got further south in Willamette Valley we entered more rural country and ended up seeing just about every possible farm animal. The highlight was a newborn sheep that was too young to even stand up yet!

We headed through the mountains in the dark, though I could tell there was snow on the ground. I look forward to seeing that section of the trip in the daylight when we head back north. In the morning, I woke up as we pulled out of the Sacramento station. We had breakfast along San Pablo Bay, where there was lots of bird activity. I saw my first year birds of the day - a turkey vulture (111 - they'll be reaching Oregon and Washington soon!) and a western grebe (112). 

One reason train travel is so fun is because you get to see things you otherwise wouldn't be able to see - the train often travels where roads don't. I've taken the Empire Builder from Portland to Chicago three times, and you get to see a lot of stunning scenery with no roads in sight. On this trip, one thing that stood out as we traveled through several big cities was the human side of things that are often out of sight: homeless camps, trash, and graffiti - everywhere.

Not exactly the most pleasant thing to look at (though some of the graffiti is pretty impressive), but interesting nonetheless. After getting through the Bay Area, there were more natural areas to take in, and that meant more birds.

Near San Lorenzo I saw a pair of snowy egrets (113), near Morgan Hill I saw a flock of wild turkeys (114), and then as we traveled along the Elk Horn Slough (pictured above) I added willet (115), black-necked stilt (116) and western gull (117).

As we continued south, the sun came out and the climate became more arid. Between Salinas and Pasos Robles I saw an immature golden eagle (118) riding the thermals over a cliff. That was the last year bird for the train ride, but I was pretty amazed I added eight year birds while traveling at such speeds!

Here are a couple more pictures from the train before we pulled into San Luis Obispo - our stop:

When we stepped off the train, the sweatshirts came off, the sunglasses came on, and I could almost feel my body sighing in relief as it soaked up the sun for what felt like the first time in months. It was warm! This is what we came for. And this - the view from our hotel room porch:

After settling in, we had time before sunset to go for a walk and explore the trail down to the beach. In half an hour I added three more year birds - black phoebe (119), white-throated swift (120), and a single whimbrel (121) down on the rocks with two pairs of black oystercatchers. The swifts were the biggest surprise, and it took me a moment to identify them. I first detected them by their descending call, which I finally located as coming from up overhead. There was a flock of about fifty of them swarming around, I'm assuming gathering up before roosting for the night. They look like ants in this photo, but it was impressive - you'll have to take my word for it!

There were lots of surfers enjoying the last few waves before sunset:

And it was a very spectacular sunset!

Next up, our first full day at Pismo Beach: butterflies, birds, and horses!

Train Trip Back Across the Country

The months of the year, from January to June, are a geometric progression in the abundance of distractions....January observation can be almost as simple and peaceful as snow, and almost as continuous as cold. There is time not only to see who has done what, but to speculate why. ~Aldo Leopold

Macro photograph of snowflakes at a station stop in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Near white-out conditions in North Dakota

Snow-covered hay bales in eastern Montana

Sunset in central Montana

Misty morning in the Columbia River Gorge, looking from Washington to Oregon

 

Train Trip Across the Country: Part 2

We woke up in Minneapolis, Minnesota to more snow on the ground, but blue skies and bright sunshine above. Gone, however, were the open landscapes of Montana, and we were surrounded by more cities and industry than the day before as we traveled through the mid-west. The juxtaposition of the natural and the man-made still made for some pretty scenic views.

I'm not even sure how the day passed so quickly. We didn't read many of the books or play any of the games we brought along - instead my mom and I were both glued to the window until the sun set near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The view was more smokestacks, this time with hundreds of gulls circling in the blue-orange sky:

We pulled into Chicago's Union Station two hours behind schedule. Many travelers missed their connection but luckily we had a long layover in the Windy City and still had several hours to kill. That gave us time to grab some dinner and tour the impressive train station. It was much larger than Portland's Union Station that we departed from, not to mention all the tiny stations in towns across Montana and North Dakota.

Having traveled the Empire Builder from one end to the other, we hopped on the Lake Shore Limited to travel from Chicago to Buffalo, New York. It was an overnight trip of about 10 hours, and while we had a sleeper car for the first two nights this third night was spent in coach, where it turned out to be much more difficult to sleep comfortably! We woke up after a fitful night's sleep at dawn to spend the last couple of hours on the train taking in part of the New York countryside before pulling in to Buffalo.

I was exhausted by the time we arrived - kind of amazing since all I did was sit on a train for two and a half days, but I definitely hadn't slept the best for the previous three nights. Still, I wasn't ready to crash until I spent some time scanning the backyard bird feeders at the house I'm staying at in New York, eager to pick up some eastern year birds before the end of 2010. My hosts graciously started filling the feeders a month ago, so the birds didn't disappoint. Before falling asleep for my three hour nap, I added the red-bellied woodpecker (230), tufted titmouse (231), and northern cardinal (232). The next day I also added the blue jay (233).

Coming up in the next couple of posts: the 2010 year list in review and a look forward to 2011, plus photographs of all the great backyard birds here in New York.

Train Trip Across the Country: Part 1

Christmas morning started out with a bang as a quick trip to north Portland successfully yielded a black-crowned night heron (year bird 228), which will be my last west coast year bird of 2010. By early evening my mom and I had boarded the Empire Builder train which heads from Portland to Chicago. I've done this route once before in the spring, so it was much lighter then, but this time the whole first part of the route through the Columbia Gorge was in the dark.

First thing the next morning, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise in the Rocky Mountains in Montana:

This is some of the most beautiful terrain on the train route, winding through the snow-capped mountains, and on this morning it was definitely top notch scenery with the mist-filled valleys and the sun shining on the trees. This photo looks back after we've gone around a bend on some of the train tracks. You can just see the moon over the hill on the right:

We were pretty much in the snow from Tri-Cities, Washington for the rest of the trip, and with the sub-freezing temperatures the bird life was pretty minimal. The first bird of the trip was a bald eagle cruising over a river in the Rockies, and I saw several more throughout the rest of the trip. The only other species up in the mountains were some common ravens.

All too soon we left the Rockies behind and started entering the flat plains of eastern Montana:

I was amazed at how many ring-necked pheasants I saw in this part of the country. The males were everywhere and sometimes there were flocks of a dozen or more feeding around a bale of hay. Unfortunately none of my photos of them turned out since we were traveling so fast (up to 79 mph!), but I did catch this flock of rock pigeons flying over a farm:

There were also lots and lots of white-tailed deer - probably more deer than I've ever seen in one day ever before. Many of them were hanging out in herds almost like the cattle we passed attempting to graze through the snow on the ranch lands. I like how this photo turned out, and it kind of captures the essence of the landscape:

The other big surprise in terms of wildlife sighted were a couple large herds of pronghorn. Pronghorn are an antelope-like species that seem somewhat out of place in North America, even more so when you see them in the snow! I've seen them several times before in the west, but never in the winter. This isn't a great photo, but it documents the sighting!

The day started with a spectacular sunrise and ended with a brilliant sunset:

All of our daylight hours were in the state of Montana. That's one reason I like traveling by train - it really gives you an idea of how much distance you're covering when you travel. I realized once again just how big of a state Montana is! After dark we entered North Dakota, then the next morning we woke up in Minnesota which is where I will pick up the next post.

Trains and Flowers in Skagway

Location: Skagway, Alaska
Population: 892

Today we had a full day in Skagway and we took the vintage White Pass and Yukon Railroad tour up into the mountains. We passed multiple waterfalls and gorges on our 20 mile, 2865 foot climb to the White Pass summit. This train route was built during the Klondike Gold Rush to connect the seaport of Skagway to the interior at Whitehorse, and the tour retraces part of this historic route.

The tour, like everything else in Skagway during the mid-day hours, in the summer season was swamped with tourists from the pair of cruise ships docked in the harbor. The cruise ships provide the lifeblood for the local economy here, and the main street through town is dedicated to souvenir shops and, interestingly enough, diamond and jewelry stores for daytime visitors. While I know a lot of very nice people who travel by cruise and met some nice folks from the ships today onboard the train, I have to say that after experiencing the cruise ship rush in Skagway I'm grateful we don't have that type of tourism to deal with in Friday Harbor!

After disembarking the train we drove over to Dyea, which was the beginning of the historic Chilkoot Trail that led from the coast to the Yukon goldfields during the Klondike Gold Rush. It's also a nice estuary habitat in the Taiya Inlet that we read was a good spot for birding. Aside from the three squabbling wandering tattlers (year bird 182), the birding was rather underwhelming, but there were some neat wildflowers around.

For me, going to a new region and trying to identify wildflowers is kind of like immersing yourself in a new language that you are barely familiar with. I learned about vascular plant families in a college course and started identifying local flowers in earnest last spring, but here everything is all different. I may recognize a plant as being in the violet family, but the species is entirely new to me. In some cases, I have no idea where to start! Luckily, I picked up a nice field guide for the region that has been helping me learn some new plants. This one that I discovered today is the Alaska violet (Viola langsdorfii):

This one I knew I had seen in field guides before but I had never found it in the field. It's the dwarf dogwood or bunchberry (Cornus canadensis). The greenish-white flowers are very distinct, which is nice when you're trying to identify a new wildlfower.

Tomorrow, we're off on the ferry to Haines, known for being a little bit off the path usually taken by the cruise ships. I've heard great things about the town, so in addition to getting out on the water for the first time this trip I'm looking forward to seeing the sights in this town!