San Francisco

 

During the March break we were able to check out San Francisco for 5 days with my son and his family. It was almost 30 years ago, in 1997, when we had toured the American southwest for 7 weeks with our kids, a Suburban pulling a tent trailer, and camping at all the National Parks. We had started in Rocky Mountain National Park and Mesa Verde in Colorado, then Zion, Bryce and Arches in Utah, Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, across Death Valley to the Sierra Nevada, Yosemite and San Francisco, then all along the coast through the Redwoods to Olympic, and back through Glacier and Yellowstone. (18,000kms)

Interesting my log book totals are $965 for gas, $441 for camping, $969 for food, $88 for 2 oil changes, $102 for tolls/ferries, $38 for laundry, $15 for showers, $15 for a trailer tire, and $1337 for misc. (treats, rides, Go Karts, dune buggies, Alcatraz, cable car). So around $5,000 usd.

This trip for 5 days staying at a RIU Fisherman’s Wharf and airfare including all our tours and activities was probably pretty close in price but alas was filled with lots of great times and memories.

We made a day trip with a guide to Yosemite to show the grandkids El Cap and Half Dome and to see the giant sequoias.

Bird wise it was neat to see a family of Acorn Woodpeckers hard at work, some Brewer’s Blackbirds, Mountain Chickadees, lots of Stellar’s Jays, my first ever White-throated Swift, and Black Phoebe and Bushtit, also new lifers.

Another day was spent out to Alcatraz and a boat tour of the bay. Since I had previously toured the old prison, I spent my time birding the island and came away with some great birds.

Brandt’s Cormorants, California Gull, Western Gull, Heerman’s Gull, Black Phoebe and Clark’s Grebe, all lifers. Also observed Anna’s Hummingbird, Western Grebe, Black Oystercatcher, Pigeon Guillemot, Common Murre, and Brown Pelicans.

It was also a great time riding the cable cars. I can’t believe they still let people hang out the side. It was way cooler hanging out the traffic side of the car, especially at night. A little scary but certainly fun.

Probably my favourite day was renting ebikes and pedaling over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito and back. What a great time hanging out in the middle of the bridge as freighters passed underneath. This is an absolutely must do if you are ever in San Francisco.

On the way back I stopped to bird at Chrissy Field Lagoon. And although not a new lifer, as we had previously seen them in the Great Salt Lake Utah, finding a Long-billed Curlew was pretty cool. When I met up with a couple of local birders and exclaimed that there was a LBC in the lagoon, they were just like oh ya they hang out here.

And since The Big Lebowski is one of my absolute favourite movies, a stop at In-N-Out Burger was mandatory on my pedal back into San Francisco.

A whale watching tour produced 12 Gray Whales. These were a lifer for us and our 10th species of whale. We also seen Harbour Porpoise, California Sea Lions and Harbour Seals. As well as an abundance of sea birds. Our tour company was San Francisco Whale Tours and our naturalist was Mandy and I would highly recommend them.

Gray whales and humpbacks may both be baleen whales, but they come from different families and genera. Humpback whales weigh more than gray whales and are generally longer. Gray whales are bottom feeders, while humpbacks are not. Furthermore, humpbacks have a wider range than gray whales.

Just like their name indicates, gray whales are gray. They are large and measure up to 49 feet in length and 90,000 pounds in weight. Although gray whales don’t have dorsal fins, they have wide and short pad-like pectoral flippers. In place of their dorsal fins are humps and right below them are tiny bumps that travel all the way down to their fluke. They are easily differentiated from humpbacks because they have flatter throat grooves than humpbacks. They have 130 to 180 baleen plates that help them filter food while feeding.

Humpbacks are easily distinguished from gray whales by their white underbellies. And Humpbacks measure up to 48 feet to 62 feet in length and weigh between 80,000 and 200,000 pounds.

Although not a birding trip per say, I managed to observe over 60 species and picked up 10 new lifers.

I still can’t get over the driverless Waymo Jaguars driving passengers all over the place. Seems pretty futuristic to me.

Fisherman’s Wharf, and Pier 39 with all the California Sea lions were also a major attraction. In fact, we had a rare special treat as a Steller Sea Lion from Alaska showed up the day before we arrived and hung around for a couple of days. It was big news.

I went down to the marina early our first morning to observe it and all the employees from the aquarium kept arriving to check it out. Apparently one Steller Sea Lion visits the bay every 2-3 years. We had observed Steller Sea Lions previously in Alaska but it was really cool to see him mingling with all the California Sea Lions.

And a trip to San Francisco wouldn’t be complete without dinners in Little Italy and Chinatown.

All in all, a great trip, lots of great food and good times with family.

Birding in Antigua

Antigua was another island that we birded on our cruise. We had been to Bird Island 20 years ago but decided to visit again to see the Red-billed Tropicbirds.

It was cool seeing the birds nesting in tiny caves on the cliffs and climbing to the top of the island gave us views of a couple in flight.

Our tour guide for this trip was The Birds Nest Tour, however I certainly can’t recommend them. They did a great job at getting us good looks at Sea Turtles.

However upon viewing a Green-throated Carib hummingbird were told it was a Bullfinch.

The last straw came when a Kestrel became a Caribbean Marten.

Not many other birds inhabit the island. We did manage to find some Bananaquit, Bullfinches, a Mangrove Cuckoo and some Turnstones on our own. Still, a day on Bird Island was better than a day at Diamonds International.

Birding in Sint Maarten

 

Near the end of February Marilyn and I took a break from hockey and went on a 10 day Eastern Caribbean cruise to the Leeward Islands. Most of you know that whenever and where ever we travel I always set up birding guides ahead of time to take us birding.

It’s a great way to learn about the area on a way more personal level and to see a lot of the island’s habitats that the vast majority of tourists never get to.

Sint Maarten, part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is a country on the southern part of a Caribbean island shared with Saint Martin, a French overseas collectivity. The population is around 60,000 and the 13 square miles features lagoons, beaches and salt pans.

The capital, Philipsburg, has cobblestone streets and colorful, colonial-style buildings. There is no border between Sint Maarten in the south and Saint Martin in the north and our trip spanned both countries.

Just to add some context, we have previously birded on many of the Caribbean Islands, 13 of the Lesser Antilles, and 6 of the Greater Antilles, plus numerous trips to Costa Rica, Panama, and Cuba, so when researching about Sint Maarten I knew that discovering a lifer was probably not going to happen. It was certainly interesting observing all the birds however the best bird was perhaps the Green-Throated Carib.

On our last visit to Sint Maarten, we went sailing for the day on America Stars and Stripes, where I actually got to helm the ship, so this time I arranged a birding tour through Seagrape Birding Tours and our guide was Nascha.

During our trip we visited salt water ponds, fresh water ponds plus some coastal habitats.

All in we only observed 33 species on our trip but it was a great relaxed way to see and learn about the island.

Nascha is a very good tour guide and I would recommend her as a birding guide, especially if you are newer to birding or are looking for a tour of the island on a more personal relaxed trip.            https://seagrapetours.com        Email: Seagrapetours@gmail.com

Killbear Provincial Park

After my recent post about Killbear Provincial Park it was great to talk to a number of birders and friends about their Killbear experience. This was our 44th year camping at Kilbear, sometimes for only a week, and other times when the kids were little we would stay for 6 weeks. There have been many, many changes to Killbear through the years, some for the better, however most for the worse.

I wish I could say that the scenery hasn’t changed but that isn’t true. Once completely isolated campsites are now totally wide open. Cut through paths are now everywhere. And although the same basic geological features are still there, time waits for no man or tree. The most famous tree on Georgian Bay is now barren and held in place by braces. Most images you see of this famous tree are either sunset or bright sunny days. This was my take because it shows what actually helped shape the trees life.

Bringing electricity to Killbear was in my opinion the worst mistake over the years. In fact, I wrote many letters trying to stop electricity however to no avail. Electricity brought a different breed of camper with larger and larger trailers and now motor homes.

When we first started at Killbear most campers were in tents with a basic tent trailer considered a luxury. Toilets were outdoor pits, basically a toilet seat mounted on a sheet of plywood, and yes, we washed our hair in the lake.

In the early years we would get into Beaver Dams campground the last week of August and the park would close Beaver Dams the Labour Day weekend and we would camp in Beaver Dams all by ourselves for the first two weeks of September. Really cool indeed.

Beaver were plentiful then, having a lodge in Killcoursie Bay near Twin Points, and we would take the kids down on the beach at night and watch them come ashore and chop down trees.

Lots of wildlife in those days. Black Bear were very common, Moose, Deer, Porcupine were everywhere, Mink, Red Fox, and Fisher could all be seen in and around the campground. I’ve even witnessed Otter in one of the beaver ponds.

Massasauga Rattlesnakes and Eastern Foxsnakes were very prevalent in those days, often found right in your campsite. Nowadays we have to go snake hunting off the beaten path to hopefully find them. Northern Watersnakes are still very common tough.

We’ve also been through many different booking systems. In the early years it was only first come first served and since we got to know a number of fellow campers, we were always able to move onto a water site. As long as the present camper signed the back of their permit to you then you were able to move onto the site when they left.

Next came the line up at the sub office system but that was easily avoided with a small bribe to the young junior rangers. After that, the eleven month system came into effect which worked wonders for us. People would come by and see us in the same water site every year and swear they were going to get it next year, all the while the kids knew that we already had it booked eleven months in advance before we left that year. It wasn’t a fair system but worked really well for those that planned ahead.

Next came six months advance however you could roll the reservation over on the last day of your time thus slowly moving the reservation ahead until the summer time that you actually wanted.

Soon the park became way, way to busy for us in July and August and we haven’t been in the summer months in years now, preferring June and September.

Although Black Bear often roamed through the campground, I remember that campers regularly visited the dump just outside the park in the evenings to watch the many bears.

In the years following the reintroduction of Red Fox to control the chipmunk population Red Fox were plentiful. I would hike to a familiar spot, totally covered head to toe, and bug juiced up, to sit and watch young pups playfully bounce all around me like I was never there.

Fisher was introduced to control the Porcupine population and were much harder to photograph. It took many early morning sessions to finally capture an image.

Many bird species nest in Killbear and call it home and it even has its own Great Blue Heron rookery, although not advertised and not easily found. 

There are also many, many Barred Owls in the park, often heard hooting as you sit at the campfire. I’ve often taken grand kids on owl prowls with 14 owls being the high count.

If you are lucky enough to camp near the shoreline on a quiet evening, first the tree frogs start croaking, then the loons crying on the bay, collimating with Barred Owls calling back and forth. A perfect campfire.

We have also immensely enjoyed canoeing and kayaking around the many islands in the Killbear area. We have paddled out to the Pancakes and around Franklin Island, sometimes gone for the whole day, not returning till dark. Cooking supper somewhere out on crown land out in the bay.

Killbear is also where I took up sailing. Almost forty years ago I took a photograph of a man and his son sailing a catamaran, colourful sails, up on one pontoon, his kid hanging out. I made an enlarged print of the image and gave it to him the next summer. He asked if I wanted to go for a spin and that was all I needed. I spent the summer racing around the bay against other sailors on Hobie Cats, Darts, Wayfares, etc..

The next summer I had my own Laser and never looked back. In 2000 I bought a new Laser that I still sail today.

It was also seeing the sailboats anchored out overnight in Killcousie Bay that inspired us to buy a sailboat that we could sail to the North Channel and visit places where we had previously canoe tripped, like Killarney. We still enjoy sailing Ripple every chance we get.

So, my kids all grew up at Killbear and some still have friends that they made during their summer vacations. As a family we still manage to get to Killbear for a week or two in June each year and most of the family still manages to attend. Good times indeed.