Date: 4/27/26 10:01 pm From: Logan Kahle via groups.io <logan...> Subject: [Mendobirds] Mendocino County Big Day 4/25 174 species; Baird's Sandpiper, Short-eared Owl (long)
Hi All,
On Saturday, 4/25 Team Aztec Batman consisting of Marty "this is almost as cool as San Mateo" Freeland, Jonah "let's walk all of ten-mile beach" Benningfield, and Eric "the hazinator" Heisey embarked on a 23 hour hour, all out Mendocino Big Day effort. It was a hardcore effort, and we ended up driving over 400 miles and were in the car for over 12 hours of this period (much at night). We ended the day at 8pm with 174 species. This surpassed the previous record set by Bob Keiffer, Chuck Vaughn, Jerry White and George Chaniot on 4/30/2005 of 167 species. More on that below. A big thank you to Chuck Vaugn, Peter Pyle and Bob Kieffer for tips on where to find stuff, and to Eric for driving the entire day! Species in caps were new for the day.
We all met around 11pm in Willits, consolidating into one car and heading back south. We arrived at our first destination, the area around Hopland, at 11:55pm. Getting there a bit early, I decided we might as well try to get a screech owl going for midnight. We got out of the car at a patch of oaks and a screech-owl was already bouncing away! What luck. Of course, while the owl was calling we were also chattering away and at 11:59, the bird fell silent. Completely. Not a peep. What the hell. We decided to whistle at it a little. Nothing. A NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD sang out in the distance and a CANADA GOOSE honked in the darkness. We waited 5 minutes. After about that time, the WESTERN SCREECH-OWL flew into a tree next to us and eventually started calling. Good stuff.
We decided to roll farther down the road. Eventually we hit a nice big open field adjacent to a vineyard. We thought this seemed perfect for Barn Owl. We waited. Nothing. We listened. Silence. Not even a Great Horn. After about 10 minutes, a lone BARN OWL cried out. But no Great Horn? I wanted to get Great Horned out of the way while we were still in the hopland area. So we tried at a few other spots and even tried Great Horned playback. Nothing besides some more screeches and barns. Surreal. But we had to roll.
Our next stop was the Reynolds Highway. In scouting I'd had both common rails and American Bittern here and we entered with high hopes. We arrived just before 2am. As we got out of the car, a YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT made its presence known, and a MARSH WREN clattered away in the distance. Another Screech-Owl was sounding off. After a bout of clapping some VIRGINIA RAILS sounded off, and after playing a few calls a SORA piped up. Things were going well. But still no bittern, and still no Great Horns. Eric scanned the marsh with a thermal camera and picked out a Great Horn perched way out on a snag in the marsh. You could tell what it was: the size and shape were diagnostic. But something about telling the bird purely off heat signature seemed wrong to me. Anyways, we kept trying for Bittern. Nothing. We decided to try a different patch of the highway.
Pulling into the west side of the marsh complex, we heard another Virginia Rail sounding off. And, right above us, a loud NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL tooted away, right on Highway 101! Crazy. We went back to the bittern spot one more time. Nothing. Sometimes you just gotta give up. We rolled on.
An hour later we were passing through covelo and I decided we should pull off just to listen. A Barn Owl was sounding off and a GREAT HORNED OWL called away. So we didn't have to start in Hopland after all..,oh well. That's what scouting is for.
We rolled up to M1 just below Mexico Ridge at around 4:45. Should be plenty of time. The primary target was Barred Owl. I had been scouting for Saw-whets when I discovered one of this road, so we rolled up to the exact spot. We hooted and barked. No response. we walked up and down the road. Barred Owls can have large territories and sometimes take a long while to come in, so we brought our patience. Still nothing. A screech sounded off. After about 30 minutes I decided to try a different angle: when I'd had it in scouting it had responded to Saw-whet toots (presumably to try to eat the Saw-whet). So I tried tooting for Saw-whets. Well, a Saw-whet came in but no Barred. We tried up the canyon a ways but no dice. Oh well. However a chorus of NORTHERN PYGMY-OWLS had begun. Dawn was approaching and it was time to get into position.
The first birds to sound off in the predawn hours were some WESTERN FLYCATCHERS and SPOTTED TOWHEES. We descended to the oak forest towards the base of the road. I had one bird particularly in mind. Right as we got out the car, a WILD TURKEY gobbled away. Turkeys can be a serious pain after they stop gobbling in the early morning, and I wanted to get them out of the way early. We started ascending, picking up a baseline of common birds: CALIFORNIA QUAIL, MOUNTAIN QUAIL, STELLAR'S JAYS, DARK-EYED JUNCOS and BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAKS were all sounding off in force. We decided to pull off at a little ridgeline overlook and were amazed to have a pre-sunrise GOLDEN EAGLE bomb by! Eagles sometimes do this right at dawn, I presume relocating from a nesting site to a foraging area. Anyways, hopes were high.
It was proper dawn chorus, and the forests were alive. Our first NASHVILLE WARBLER, CASSIN'S VIREO and a lone BROWN CREEPER sang from the woods. Then, from an oak tree behind us came a familiar call: a HAMMOND'S FLYCATCHER! A hoped-for target up here but nothing we could rely on. Things were lining up. And the sun was still not up. We spent a little while cleaning up some birds in the mixed forest here: RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER, HAIRY WOODPECKER, PILEATED WOODPECKER, RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH. It was time to roll up.
The weird oaky grasslands that separates the mixed black oak-jeffery pine forest from the true fir-dominated montane forest up top is a rather unproductive landscape. Nonetheless, we decided to make a few stops in between. The local residents were easy to pick up such as BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER, OAK TITMOUSE, WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH, LARK SPARROW, and WESTERN MEADOWLARK. We stopped briefly at my staked out California Thrasher but it was not singing.
We reached the Grizzly Flat region before 7. We were cookin. We bombed directly to the areas I had staked out the day before. As hoped, a THICK-BILLED FOX SPARROW sang away, a TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE tooted from a burn. DUSKY FLYCATCHERS were in in force, with several singing from the firs. In just a few minutes, we had found most of the birds we were hoping for up there. But a few still eluded. We went to the edge of the conifer patch. A PURPLE FINCH sang away. We were hoping for Cassin's, but all the birds up here today were Purples! Oh well. We still had one more montane stakeout and we fanned out a little to try to find one. After a couple minutes, Eric shouted in our direction. We all ran over and there, on a snag, was a WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER. Good stuff.
Heading back down the mountain we had specific targets yet to clean up. After a couple stops we added HERMIT WARBLER, WARBLING VIREO, and BAND-TAILED PIGEON. We were still adding birds at just about every stop. We pulled over to try for a California Thrasher that had been oh-so-easy the previous morning. Silence. We walked around. Nothing. We split up a bit. Still nothing. Hmm. We did add ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER. But no thrasher. Lame. We continued downslope. Townsend's Warbler was one we were quite worried about and one that I had only had on this road. As we were driving down we heard some suspicious songs. We pulled over and sure enough, a couple TOWNSEND'S WARBLERS were foraging in some black oaks. Lets jam!
Heading down to the lower oak section we started entering new birds again. ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHERS, WESTERN KINGBIRDS, and BULLOCKS ORIOLES all sang their hearts out. Nearing the bridge over the Eel River, we had a staked out flock of GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWS, some of our only ones all day. We walked up to the bridge and immediately started picking up a plethora of new birds: CLIFF and NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWS, YELLOW WARBLERS, and our desired WHITE-THROATED SWIFT. Down on the shore of the river, a HOUSE WREN jumbled away. This saved us a trip to Riverview Park in Ukiah! Crossing the bridge, some HOUSE SPARROWS called away and a NUTTALL'S WOODPECKER sounded off from the oaks. We still needed to find Canyon Wren though. I had two spontaneously singing here the day before and two days before that, but there was silence. We looked in the maintenance shed that it liked to hang in, nothing. We checked some of the rocks. Nada. We decided to walk upstream a little bit and after some patience a beautiful CANYON WREN started singing from the top of the rocks. Lets roll!
Our next area was the stretch of river west of the campground. I had staked out a few birds along this stretch. Our first stop was a patch of flowering bottlebrush which had been loaded with hummers in scouting. Sure enough, rolling up there were over 10 *selasphorus* of which 3-4 were beautiful male RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRDS. Fantastic. As we continued down the river, Jonah spotted an adult BALD EAGLE perched on a large rock. Nearby, a staked out AMERICAN KESTREL sat on a wire above us and eric picked out a calling DOWNY WOODPECKER on the river. As we headed west towards covelo our first MOURNING DOVES kicked off the road. It was Covelo time.
The Round Valley (Covelo) is a rather interesting and isolated little riparian valley full of lush mature cottonwood forest and fields surrounded by dry hot chaparral and gray pine woodlands. As such, it is a natural migrant trap for birds passing through. Our first stop in the Covelo area we checked a region I had had Lincoln's Sparrow in times past. None of those today, but we did find a single WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW and a distant RED-SHOULDERED HAWK. Continuing on to one juicy looking riparian patch Jonah picked up on our first AMERICAN GOLDFINCHES, and a COMMON YELLOWTHROAT called from a ditch. While walking down this road I was astounded to hear a RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, and sure enough the little guy was popping around in a cottonwood above us. We decided to check one more patch of riparian, and it payed off: a HOODED ORIOLE started calling away. While common in Ukiah, this was the first Hoody I had found up here.
We then only had three stakeouts left. We went to my Grasshopper Sparrow field. We listened. We waited. We played a few songs. Nada. Hmm. After a bit under 10 minutes, we decided to cut our losses. Next up we pulled up to a spot south of Covelo. I had Lawrence's Goldfinch at this spot the previous day and we were hoping they had stuck. Sure enough, within 5 minutes of getting out of the car the tinkly sounds of the larries caught our attention, and we quickly found the pair of LAWRENCE'S GOLDFINCHES perched together. Awesome.
Leaving the Round Valley we stopped at the first chaparral ridge as you climb up. I had scouted this place out for thrasher. As we rolled up, some WRENTITS called away, and a distant sound which sounded intriguing came from downslope. After about 10 minutes, a CALIFORNIA THRASHER appeared at the top of the slope. Time to jam. Eric was flying down the highway and mentioned that we should keep our eyes out for Vaux's Swifts. This fell on deaf ears, as Jonah and Marty were passed out cold in the back and I was fading in and out of consciousness, trying to catch up from the 4 hours of sleep/night I'd had while scouting. Fortunately, Eric kept his eyes trained at the road and the sky and 15 minutes later shouted VAUX'S SWIFT! We pulled over and sure enough, several swifts were circling over the ridge.
It was on to Reynolds Highway. This spot, an excellent wetlands mitigation site created in the last 10 years I believe, is one of the more hit-or-miss spots for a big day. It is a huge complex of wetlands and only a sliver is visible from the road. But, with patience birds will come out. We started at the north end of the highway and overlooked the marsh. A huge flock of swallows including a Vaux's Swift circled overhead. In the water, a single GREATER YELLOWLEGS showed itself. The spot had not produced as it sometimes does, and my staked out Hooded Mergansers were nowhere to be found. We continued to another patch that Eric and Jonah had scouted along highway 101. After some sketchy pullouts, we looked out at the marsh and found some GREEN-WINGED TEAL. But no Cinnamons as scouted. Bother. This place was not adding up. But we decided to check another scouted spot on the east side of the valley as a last-ditch effort. On our way there we added our first CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEE. We pulled out at the pond and started scanning the pond. Almost immediately Eric mentioned "whats that weird duck way out there?". A pair of CINNAMON TEAL! Alright! We kept scanning. Not 20 feet over, a male WOOD DUCK appeared!! Things were changing around. We kept scanning. A BELTED KINGFISHER flew in! Things were *really* changing around. Eric picked out a few distant WILSON'S SNIPE probing around. It was time to roll. But as we were leaving the valley we checked one more pond. Eric had the first view and shouted "PIED-BILLED GREBE!" No way. Those had been totally absent in scouting (somehow). I had completely written it off, with Reynolds being the only place I had hung on to any hope. But it dove. Where?? We waited. And waited. And waited. It did not come back up. "Maybe it died" Jonah remarked. But we could only wait so long, so we counted it as dirty and moved on.
Passing under the bridge in Willits we picked up PURPLE MARTIN. And in a patch of willows a staked out SWAINSON'S THRUSH sounded off. Things were going well. We bombed south. Next up was the south ramp at Lake Mendocino. Both Eric/Jonah and myself had scouted this place, and we knew it to be one of our only shots at Rock Pigeon! Sure enough as we rolled up: there it is! A flock of ROCK PIGEONS elegantly strolling around the parking lot. Nearby a GREAT-TAILED GRACKLE sounded off, one of the many new additions to the Mendocino avifauna in recent years. We already had Kingfisher and both Eagles, so we did not need to linger long. But we needed grebes. We scanned. One single *Aechmorphorus *grebe: a WESTERN GREBE. Come on. Really? The one that lives on the coast? Well not matter, we continued to scan, picking up DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT while we were at it. Then two geese flew by, one big one small. I shouted "CACKLING GOOSE!" and the unexpected score landed on the water offshore. No Clark's Grebes though....we'd have to try the north end. Also the Forster's Terns that had been present for the previous two days had bailed. Ugh.
Entering Ukiah we swung by a spot that Chuck Vaughn had turned me on to: an OSPREY on a nest. We then headed to the Ukiah WTP. We entered the ponds and started jogging around. Since I had visited twice in the past 4 days, I more or less knew where everything was. The flock of NORTHERN SHOVELERS picked up from their pond, leaving behind the RING-NECKED DUCKS, BUFFLEHEAD and RUDDY DUCKS. Those were our only ruddies all day. Looking into the middle pond, the SOLITARY SANDPIPER was exactly where it was the day before, next to a SPOTTED SANDPIPER. Good stuff. The Greater Scaup I'd had the day before was nowhere to be found, but the shorebird pond produced BLACK-NECKED STILT, AMERICAN AVOCET, LEAST SANDPIPER, WESTERN SANDPIPER, and SEMIPALMATED PLOVER. But no dunlin. Hmm. We continued walking out. Some Wilson's Snipe kicked up, offering Marty and Jonah their first views of the day. We had seen most of what we came here for. We jogged down to the east end of the pond and, sure enough, the BAIRD'S SANDPIPER I'd found the day before was chilling out next to a Least. Baird's are quite exceptional in Spring, and this bird was a total scouting surprise! We went back along the north levee. We still had not had Dunlin or Dowitcher, both of which had been present in scouting. As we ran by we found a flock of LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS but no Dunlin. It was time to roll.
We checked a couple small winery ponds for Green Heron and Great Egret but had no luck. A single Belted Kingfisher was working the pond edge. We decided to skip our staked out Lewis's Woodpecker (10 minute 1 way drive) to save more time for the coast. Heading north, we quickly picked up several CLARK'S GREBES on Lake Mendocino. We bombed west. We left Willits with more birds than I could have possibly hoped for, 139 species. The route up to this point had run flawlessly. But it was time for the big gamble on the coast. As many things in the interior can be worked out with good scouting or persistance, on the coast sometimes birds are literally not there.
We were beeliing for the coast. Passing through the dense redwoods, we pulled over and added PACIFIC WREN. But we were hoping for Hermit Thrush. Over the next 25 minutes we tried at half a dozen spots for Hermit Thrush, but at 3pm, they just weren't vocal. During this though we added our first GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS.
First up on the coast was Noyo Headlands. This view of the cove and the ocean seemed like a great place to wrack up a baseline of coastal diversity. Driving up, we added SAVANNAH SPARROW from the car, and some Marsh Wrens sang from an unlikely grassy habitat. We headed on to a seawatch. The overcast skies made looking offshore easy and the low swell helped to see birds on the water, but the lack of wind was very unfortunate: most seabirds barely move in calm weather. Nonetheless, we easily added PIGEON GUILLEMOT, COMMON MURRE, BRANDT'S and PELAGIC CORMORANTS, BROWN PELICAN, WESTERN and CALIFORNIA GULL, BLACK OYSTERCATCHER and PACIFIC LOON. Looking out to the horizon, a few SOOTY SHEARWATERS passed by, and a worn GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL flew by. Continuing to scan, we picked up on RHINOCEROS AUKLET, ELEGANT TERN, and a couple CASPIAN TERNS. Eric briefly saw what he thought was a Heermann's Gull. "Don't worry about that one" I assured him. I'd seen dozens in scouting. I regretted saying that later...
We were doing well but tiredness had taken it toll on our team and we were all a bit sluggish. Still, we headed on to Lake Cleone. Scouting can sometimes reveal birds to be more challenging than you'd thought. In this case, Pygmy Nuthatch had been an enormous pain everywhere except Cleone. On our way over, we stopped briefly at Pudding Creek. A fluke RED-BREASTED MERGANSER was on the island. Good stuff. On to cleone. Once there, we pulled up to silence. We whistled some PyNut calls. Nada. We tried Pygmy-Owl. Nothing. This was not helping our momentum. But this WAS the spot. We decided to stick it out. Then about 10 minutes later Jonah called us over. We waited. There, from a pine snag, called a long PYGMY NUTHATCH. Excellent.
Feeling a bit better we rolled up to 10 mile beach at Ward ave. There were no birds. It seems that northwest winds on the coast in spring is when birds put down on the beaches here and there was no wind to speak of. Never have I been more sad to not have strong northwest winds. Regardless, we kept scanning. A few WHIMBREL were on the rocks. Way out in the distance, a shimmering flock of shorebirds lay just beyond what we could see. And the Mew Gull I had scouted out was nowhere to be found. Dejected, we pressed on. We decided to detour up to the Ten Mile River mouth. This turned out to be a mistake. A silent dowitcher picked up right as we arrived, and while Short-bills dominate on the coast, this spot is one place it is truly ambiguous. My staked out Green Heron was nowhere to be found, and it was time for us to roll.
We started bombing south. We only needed one easy landbird on the coast. So we pulled in on the Stanford Inn. As soon as we got out of the car, an ALLEN'S HUMMINGBIRD displayed over us. In the distance, a Pygmy Nuthatch called from the firs. We continued south. As we passed Navarro River I realized we could look offshore from the highway. So we pulled out. Scanning the offshore waters, we quickly added our hoped for RED-THROATED LOON and RED-NECKED GREBE! The coast was really turning around for us. Just not shorebirds. As we were packing up, a PINE SISKIN bombed by overhead. Apparently we tied the record with the grebe and broke it with siskin. In 10 minutes, we had added almost as many unique birds as the previous 3 hours. We headed on.
It was now onto the Point Arena area. As we crossed the pastures we pulled over. It took a few minutes, but we eventually found a NORTHERN HARRIER. Alright! It was on to the mouth. We got to the lighthouse area and looked offshore. Tons of birds moving, but we didn't really have many likely additions. So we headed up to the mouth itself. There, we looked out on the beach and were dismayed to find only a couple dozen shorebirds. In scouting three days prior there had been 100s of shorebirds (including 6 species missed on this day!) thanks to the northwest winds, but they had all cleared out. Still, Marty picked out a nasty-looking HERRING GULL on the beach, and Eric spotted an AMERICAN WIGEON flying by. We spent until almost dusk at the overlook, and things just kept turning up. A pair of GADWALL, absent in scouting, showed themselves. Then, while looking out over the flats I noticed a SHORT-EARED OWL cruising by!! A totally unexpected bonus, and not even active at true dusk. We all scoured for Snowy Plover, Dunlin, and Heermann's Gull in the fading light but eventually came up dry. We tallied out lists. 172. Not bad, considering the coast had been so devoid of shorebirds. We walked back to the car. There, as we waited around and chatted in the dark, Eric picked out a calling WANDERING TATTLER from the rocks below us.
We decided to go for one more bird and set a slightly better record. We bombed up to the redwoods. In scouting a Barred Owl had tried to eat my speaker when I was playing Saw-whet calls. I figured they would be there. So we rolled up and hooted and caterwauled. Sure enough, two BARRED OWLS, our last new birds of the day, sounded off. Lets. Roll.
We were exhausted. None of us had gotten more than three hours of sleep the night before and for me that came after three successive similar nights. We decided to not try for the bittern again and instead go sleep in the redwoods near Fort Bragg. Of course, right where we'd tried there were several Hermit Thrushes singing at dawn the next morning. Oh well.
Like any big day, this one came with it's misses, though the majority of these were shorebirds that did not show themselves on the coast: Blue-winged Teal (one at Arena in scouting), Northern Pintail (absent in scouting), Greater or Lesser Scaup, Hooded Merganser, Eared and Horned Grebe (none in scouting), Snowy Egret, Great Egret, Green Heron (only a couple in scouting), Black-crowned Night-Heron (none in scouting), White-tailed Kite, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Black-bellied Plover (all the shorebirds left in the calm conditions....), Long-billed Curlew, Marbled Godwit, Sanderline, either Turnstone, Short-billed Dowitcher, Red-necked Phalarope, Bonaparte's Gull (they all left in the calm weather), Heermann's Gull (our worst miss), Mew Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Forster's Tern, Spotted Owl, Common Poorwill, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Western Wood-Pewee, Bank Swallow (apparently not in yet??), Rock Wren, Hermit Thrush (by far our worst landbird miss), Grasshopper Sparrow (stakeout didn't show), Bell's Sparrow, Rufous-crowned Sparrow (not in route), White-throated Sparrow, Green-tailed Towhee (not in yet).
Overall it was a fantastic day spent with good people in an amazing chunk of California's coastal slope. As I assumed going into this day, multiple efforts seriously help in this county. The original record took nearly 15 attempts, and they got better each time. I had spent the previous three days scouting out the route in all of its corners and we came in relatively, but not entirely, prepared into the day. The day worked out well in terms of timing. Had we done a week later, some later arrivals like Olive-sided Flycatcher, Green-tailed Towhee and Flammulated Owl may have been in but some of the ducks and lingering shorebirds may well have cleared out. It seems to me that 180 is very possible (heck, if waterbirds on the coast had been as they had been 3 days prior we would have added over 8 species!), and 190 is a perfect distant goal.
Ok so a brief note on the original 2005 record. I learned more about this after the fact but not only did that route not incorporate the mountains, but Point Arena was not public land trust property at that time, and access to the Garcia River Mouth was not tenable. So that entire record was set between Ukiah and Fort Bragg. Feels like a whole different beast to me, and kudos to the old-time Mendo birders for setting such an impressive record on that route.
A lot has changed in this county since 2005. For the most part, it is good for big days: the colonization of Great-tailed Grackles and Black-necked Stilts, the insane increase in Heermann's Gulls, Elegant Terns, and Bald Eagles (all assumed on a current big day, and all missed in 2005). And all this with few losses (decline in Tricolored Blackbirds does come to mind).
