A sprout field full of birds
Cascade Creek (near Ano Nuevo State Reserve), California
11 January 2007

You know, us birders really do get to go to some stunning locations: rainforests, wide expanses of tidal-flats, meadows full of wild flowers - the list is endless, the locations special, the memories precious and ever-lasting. And then sometimes we get to go to places that - well, when you first get offered them as an option cause a slight furrowing of the brow and a concerned look to steal across your features. What am I talking about? How about hearing this question thirty minutes after arriving in sunny California on a clear day when the whole world seems to be yours for the taking: “There’s a field full of rotting sprouts that sounds good. Want to try that?”

That was the question my good friend Jack Cole, San Jose resident and long-suffering friend, asked me shortly after picking me up from SFO International Airport on the 10th - and, despite my initial reservations, on the 11th of January I had the most memorable two hours birding I’ve had for a long time watching wintering warblers and sparrows feeding over thick piles of the aforementioned rotting sprouts in a field at Cascade Creek close to the Ano Nuevo State Reserve (near Pescadero and just off Highway 1).

Now I have to admit to not being, how can I put this, a huge fan of sprouts at the best of times (maybe steamed and rolled in a little garlic butter they’re okay thinking about it) but having baked under a strong sun for a few weeks the smell coming from this small lake of liquifying veg was - well, at the very least ‘interesting’ (and also clinging, nauseating, and penetrating, especially when I mistook what turned out to be a thin dry crust of sprouts for solid ground and sank up to my ankles into a viscous brown gloop that was almost alive it was so potent) but Jack was right, it was ‘good’ (very good in fact) and watching tens of Townsend’s and Yellow-rumped Warblers dipping their bills into a soup of festering vegetables just a few feet away more than compensated for the stink coming up from my shoes (though Jack did apparently take rather a long time to hose the ‘delicate aroma’ out of his car after I’d gone back to the UK - sorry for that!)

As well as the Townsend’s and Yellow-rumpeds there were small numbers of Ruby-crowned Kinglets, plus Hermit Thrushes and a variety of LBJs (including Song and Fox Sparrows, and singles of both Lincoln’s and Swamp Sparrows) most of which spent their time darting out from the thick bushes that lined the field edge. Quite an interesting selection really…

Hermit Thrush Catharus guttatus

 

Sooty Fox Sparrow Passerella illiaca

 

Lincoln’s Sparrow Melospiza lincolnii

The undoubted star of this colourful show, though, was a 1st winter female Hooded Warbler, a scarce bird in California that should have been wintering in Central America. The warbler was first found by Francis Toldi on the Ano Nuevo Xmas Bird Count on December 30th 2006 - and was why the sprout field had hit the local listserves, and the main reason Jack had suggested the trip. As the photos below show the Hooded gave remarkably good views (at least it did once I waded through a particularly watery patch of sprouts to get a little closer) as it stayed in a small sheltered area by some brambles, flicking across the sprout goo picking off small flies like a lemon-yellow flycatcher…stunning…(Ironically California suffered a period of extremely unusual cold weather which began a few days later: the bird succumbed to an unusually hard frost on the night of January 20th and was found dead the next day).

A remarkable and very memorable couple of hours then! And if that wasn’t enough, not only was the sun shining and the breeze warm but the beautiful Californian coast was just across the road: I’ve said it before on this blog, and I’ll no doubt say it again - but you Californians really do have a good thing going on…

All photos copyright Charlie Moores