April 22, 23 and 24 - had no internet for two days and catching up

April 22

 April 22, 2016 - Denver to John Wayne Airport in Orange Country California to VenturaDenver to California – 

We had no internet for two days in this place, so will send it when I get internet access.  This post is the catch-up. 

This is was a travel day flying on the 8 am flight from Denver to California and then getting the rental car, organizing our bags, bags, and more bags in to car and then driving to Ventura.   We were settled into the Motel 6 in Ventura (recommendation is to never stay in this place but it is clean).  Then we went to check into the boat trip to Santa Cruz Island tomorrow (Saturday).  Everything was organized. 

We then found a place to bird just by the Ventura Water Reclamation plant and saw our first California Towhee, Bushtit and Western Gulls.  There were many more ducks and other birds too.  The place was covered with flowers such as Coreopsis and succulents too.  It was beautiful.  Also someone had put out tape to stay away from the poison oak.  I now know what poison oak looks like.

 When we got back to the motel, we met up with Jeff who had flown into California in the afternoon for supper and we went to a fish place, Lure, which was excellent.  I had the Idaho Lake Trout with pineapple coleslaw and corn with coriander.  Everyone had a great dinner.

Ventura is a nice place with plenty of history and it has a very nice downtown restaurant area which was close to the hotel.

April 23 – Island Packers boat ride to Santa Cruz Island  for the day

There were lots of birds including the lifer Island Scrub Jay, Orange crowned Warblers, and humming birds, Allen’s and Broad-tailed.  The island was very interesting with various habitats.   WE were thrilled to see the new birds.   Connie and Jane and Jeff stood at the front/aft of the catamaran for the whole 1.5 hours of the boat trip to the island.  On the way back to the mainland Jane and Jeff stood for the whole boat trip again and Connie joined me on the chairs long enough for a nap and then went to stand.  I was amazed at their ease in standing there.  I last about 5 minutes at the start, ended up on my knees crawling for the seats, the boat was so tippy with the big waves.  It was a rough crossing.  During this time I was also starting to feel nauseated despite taking two Gravol pills and some ginger.  I knew this was not going to be a good trip.  Once I got on the chair, I was still in the cool strong wind and felt better but not good enough to stand.   I enjoyed the island.  It really is a great place with lots of different habitats.   Everyone enjoyed the place.

Here is the Island Scrub Jay along with its colour bands.

On the return trip, the water was a bit better with fewer up and downs but more rocking side to side.  There were many whitecaps on the water.  The highlight of the trip was the Island Scrub Jay and the Island Foxes which were visible during the day, wandering around  the arrivals area.  The foxes were chubby and more like a dog than a fox. 

We came back and had supper at another restaurant in Ventura, this time a Thai place which was very good.  It was a another early morning rising at 4 am for the next day.

Here is a photo from today

April 24, 2016 - from Ventura to Zuma Canyon to Maronna Marsh in Torrance to Buellton north east in the hill/mountain country.

 We left Ventura early so that we could be at Zuma Canyon Park at first light to see the Nanday Parakeets and the other parrots come by before they dispersefor the day.  And we saw the Nanday Parakeets, the Lilac-crowned Parrots and the Red-lored Parrots!  Each species was beautiful.  We also saw the Anna's, Allan's and Rufous Hummingbirds and the California Thrasher to name a few birds.  We also had a coyote follow us on the trail  Zuma is the perfect place to bird for us.  It has picnic benches, bathrooms/johnny on the spot and great birding.  We could be happy here birding all day.  It is a super spot.  We had Jeff with us here and so Jeff identified the birds which was great.  If we didn't have Jeff with us we would have had  to take photos  of the birds then discuss each bird and agree on the ID, which would take up the evening or more.  We have been known to discuss one bird for three hours.  So we were so lucky to have Jeff with us.  This is a Black Phoebe.

From there we traveled to Torrance, to the Maronna Marsh in hopes of viewing the Scaled-breast Munia or Nutmeg Manekin.  We walked around this place for 3.5 hours and we did not see the bird.  It got hot and it was sunny so it felt like a long time.  We met up with several locals who gave us advice but we had no luck.  We finally had to leave to travel north so we could meet up with Wes our guide for the next two days.   On the drive we followed the PCH for a long time and so we had the view of the ocean and the coast and the lovely beaches on a Sunday.  We saw surfers, wind surfers and also something that looked like cliff jumpers with parachutes.  After all this is California.  We saw many beautiful homes and cars and people out at the beach on Sunday.  It was beautiful.  We left the PCH and then headed into wine/hill country to Buellton.  We went through the top Danish town in the US just before Buelton and it looked like a Danish town.   There were quaint homes and restaurants made to look like those one would see in Denmark.  We will find out from Wes tomorrow why there is such a Danish influence there.  The drive through the San Marco Canyon Pass is stunning in the sunlight and the views were really impressive. 

Here is a Green Heron and several ducklings that we saw.  

Once we arrived at Buellton, Wes came over to meet us, find out what birds we had seen to date and to plan the next two days.  Wes is a character and once he saw our scopes on the shelf in our room, he commented that the Kowas were all stacked like logs in a woodpile!  We start out with Wes tomorrow at 7 am which is really sleeping in for us.  He also commented on our large motel room and told us we did well with our huge room which is costing us $59.95 per night!   Wes is an all-round naturalist expert in addition to be being a birder so we are looking forward to asking our questions tomorrow.

So the adventure continues and we figure we have picked up several lifers just in our trip into Zuma Canyon  today which would be a perfect location for us to explore and bird the canyon longer, but that would have to be for another trip.  I am going to keep this one on the wish list, it is just a super place.