I have just been reading his updates from the weekend and his trip to Welney and the Ouse Washes. Unfortunately, what spoilt a lovely day for Graeme was going down with a severe cold and when he got home having to retire to bed. Given the nature of the resulting blog the next day, I reasoned that what ever medication he was taking for his cold then I could do with some of that the next time I have man flu!
One of our joint followers (welcome to my random world Katie Nature ID) commented on the near similarity between Graeme's wonderful picture of a distant Ely Cathedral taken from the Ouse Washes with somewhere nearer to where she lives - the power plant at Elkhorn Slough, near Moss Landing, California.
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| Ely Cathedral (c Imperfect and Tense)
I have been to Elkhorn Slough, in particular Moonglow Dairy Farm! When we went to the reserve it was just about to close and we never got a chance to go back, but we did go to the dairy twice! Maybe its true - we can bird 'till the cows come home? So that readers can make their own comparison here is a picture of the distant power plant from a bovine perspective!
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| dairy farm and power plant near Elkhorn Slough (c Rotton Yarns) |
The Lighthouse Grill and Whole Enchilada were great and along with Plumes Coffee shop in Monterey and Country Rose in Hollister, all made joint number one eateries on our California trip last September. I suppose though it would be fair to say the hiring policy of the coffee shop also helped boost its ratings and their cinnamon whirls were out of this whirld - they were the size of a frizby!
As for our bird list at said site over two visits:
Black phoebe
Brewers blackbird
Brown headed cowbird
Red winged blackbird
Peregrine
American kestrel
Red tailed hawk
Turkey vulture
Barn owl
Western sandpiper
Spotted sandpiper
Red necked phalarope - bucket loads!!
Willet
Marbled godwit
Long billed curlew
Semi palmated plover
Great white egret
Snowy egret
Great blue heron
White faced ibis
Brown pelican
White pelican
Song sparrow
House finch
American goldfinch
Downy woodpecker
Mallard
Shovelor
Western gull
Double crested cormorant
California towhee
Killdeer
Chestnut backed chickadee
Belted kingfisher
In addition on our second visit we saw all the above plus:
Hen harrier
Great horned owl
Wilson's warbler
Least sandpiper
Ring billed gull
we also dipped on Baird's sandpiper!
Given we didn't go more than 3/4 mile, spending most of our time within 100 yards of the car and was there probably no more than 2 hours each visit, you'd be hard pressed to see anything near the equivalent at Welney or the Ouse Washes in a week even if you walked miles!
This illustrates why I don't bother birding at home any more :o( Its such a shame birding here is not as good as it used to be. I guess most of the birds are still here, but are harder to find because of depressed numbers, in fewer places that are further apart and away!! I can see the same birds up my street or in my garden as if I drove 10 miles to somewhere, so I may as well save up my big carbon footprint for the odd annual trip such as California! Or as in this year Romania - which reminds me! I'm supposed to be doing some research for that - byeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!
Hey, I got a whole three of the birds on your Elkhorn list at the Ouse Washes. What was your point again?
ReplyDelete... and give me back Ely Cathedral, you thieving scrote!
ReplyDeleteBlimey three! that's probably all you saw all day :o) Let me guess: Peregrine, Mallard and Shovelor maybe little egret would make four (I'm being very generous here you know as Snowy egret it the equivalent). And that probably took hours! We saw the peregrine at the same time on both visits. The second visit though it booted the flock of Phals, western and least peeps among which was the Bairds! We contemplated phoning the RSPB to complain!
ReplyDeleteAs for Ely - its mine now, all mine :o) I'll do a deal you can have it back for £500 plus my picture of Moonglow Dairy and the power plant :o) can't say fairer than that!
I'm not falling for all that "last few hours of transfer deadline day" hype. You'd better have a good lawyer and a secret account in Monaco... allegedly.
ReplyDeleteSorry no football today :o) That's tomorrow when I go to the Cottage for our game against the Baggies.
ReplyDeleteBTW Graeme - Slough in this instance does not refer to the very dodgy place on the A4 at the western outskirts of London, under the Heathrow flyway. If my phonetic pronunciation is correct its either 'slew' or 'sluff' I'm sure if Katie reads this she'll put us rite :o)
ReplyDeleteTense Towers Translation Service says...
ReplyDeleteCottage = Craven Cottage = Fulham Football Club's stadium
Baggies = West Bromwich Albion Football Club
Thieving scrote = Nefarious person of ill repute with large religious establishment for sale
Tense Towers Translation Services:
ReplyDeleteCottage = Craven Cottage = Home of Fulham Football Club
Baggies = West Bromwich Albion Football Club
Thieving scrote = Nefarious individual in possession of a stolen religious building
For the record, I was thinking Graeme's Ely Cathedral pic reminded me of the first pic in this Elkhorn Slough - NERR habitat series. It's too bad you couldn't get in the reserve, and it's too bad you didn't know about the always open Elkhorn Slough - Kirby Park entrance just down the road, where I've seen more birds up close than at the reserve. How'd you hear about Moonglow Dairy? It's a favorite among local birders.
ReplyDeleteYour list is impressive. I recognize most of those and admittedly take them for granted. If my photography skills ever improve, I may actually get a chance to post IDs to my blog. Did you really see a white faced ibis? That's a relatively rare bird, but it is increasingly becoming a regular fall wanderer to the coast. The timing of your September visit was perfect.
I'm glad you patronized truly local places, rather than chain restaurants. I like Plumes for their hot apple cider, yet I've never noticed the staff. We've been to Whole Enchilada several times, and now we have a new favorite Mexican restaurant in nearby Pajaro. I may have to try Lighthouse Grill if we're ever out that way hiking and need sustenance.
Oh, I pronounce it 'slew,' but I've heard others say 'slow.' Go figure. Great post!
Graeme - You've now causeth an acute bout of giggling!!! Stop it or I fear I will have an accident :o)
ReplyDeleteKatie - Didn't know about Kirby Park, but my partner in crime Derek (other wise known as Del) was logged into the local birders forum so read details about Moonglow. Yep all the list in genuine - without wishing to brag, collectively we're pretty good at our natural history.
Patronising local, non-franchise was as much fun and challenging as finding the wildlife. We positively hate chain establishments (read Rabbit in Headlights) and believe in supporting the small individual. Franchise chain names are more offensive than swearing at us! Everywhere we went, we would ask at our accommodation where the nearest non-franchise restaurant was. There was only 5 franchise food instances in the whole trip! 2 Ihops (the same one opposite Pier 39 in San Fran - simply because there was not time to go to the Italian quarter where we'd find a decent cafe for our breakfast before having to report in for our whale watching trip. The others were two Denny's simply because there was nowhere else immediately available! The other was some pizza dive in Holister. But Holister did provide us with one of our best cafe's for breakfast (Country Rose) on the whole trip! So good we went back twice - the second time making a special effort to do so!