Panoche Valley
By Charlie • January 12, 2006 • No comments yet
The “Burger King” Round Trip, Panoche Valley, central California. 03 January 2006
The “Burger King” Round Trip (so-called because the trip proper begins when my good friend Jack Cole meets up with fellow-birder and other good friend Ed Frost in the car-park of the Gilroy BK) follows a circuit roughly from the town of Hollister along Panoche Road through the beautiful and peaceful Panoche Valley and out to the I5. It’s a route that takes in a wide variety of habitats (and therefore a wide variety of birds), including water (Paicines Reservoir), oak woodland, the rocky hillsides of the upper parts of the valley, and the flatter prairie-like fields of the Panoche Valley itself. Jack and Ed have been making the trip annually for nearly twenty years - and this is the third time I’ve been along with them.
Birding with these two very companionable old friends is a real delight, and whilst the itinerary was somewhat leisurely - with many stops to allow me to get photos of birds that I rarely see but that Jack and Ed would normally drive straight past (I was eventually desevedly ‘banned’ from taking any more photos of Savannah Sparrows for instance) - the birding is serious and concerted: records have been kept for the last two decades and any “new species” for the trip (a quite showy Townsend’s Warbler flicking around a stand of tamarisk on this occasion) is savoured along with “regular specials” like wintering Mountain Bluebird, Ferruginous Hawk, and Prairie Falcon (all of which, of course, would be ‘new for the 2006 yearlist’ - not that I’m counting of course…).
All three of us had some concerns that the grey, drizzly weather of the day before (I’d arrived in a seriously un-Californian weather system that we’d struggled through on the journey from the airport back to Jack’s house the afternoon before) might still be dragging its heels before leaving, but after a cold start the sun won through and we spent most of the day in clear winter sunshine.
As I said this is an excellent circuit for picking up all manner of species and we began the “serious stuff” under the grey skies of the morning at a very windy Paicines Reservoir - picking up birds we were unlikely to see anywhere else on the circuit like Hooded and Common Mergansers, Slavonian (Eared) and Clark’s Grebes, an immature Osprey standing thigh-deep in the murky water and looking very bemused (it reminded me of the old joke about the polar bear cub asking his mother if she’s sure that he’s a Polar Bear which ends with the punch-line “Then why am I so b****y cold then?”), a couple of Western Bluebirds on a telegraph wire, and a gang of Bushtits hurtling through the undergrowth alonside the road we’d stopped on.
From here we turned into some of my favourite countryside anywhere on this beautiful planet of ours: rolling hills with stands of Californian Oak.
I somehow always forget that countryside like this is here, and consequently “re-discover” it every visit. So very different from the grid-locked freeways of the Bay Area yet only an hour’s drive away, I probably over-romanticise it, but these hills and grasslands must still look a little like they did when the first settlers found them (and what a mixed blessing that was) - open and yet still wild, dotted with Western Scrub-jays, noisy groups of Yellow-billed Magpies (photo left) racing around like the avian equivalent of teenagers, ludicrously striking Acorn Woodpeckers bounding from tree to tree, family parties of Californian Quails running through the scrub on short legs, their top-knots bouncing around like an unruly quiff, and Red-tailed Hawks riding every thermal…well, maybe not quite, but it is a staggeringly beautiful place…
As the road climbs the landscape changes once again, and becomes rockier and less vegetated, winding high above the stream that over millenia would have helped sculpt the valley sides.
This is the perfect habitat for Rock Wrens (except for today when they’d obviously all decided to try another habitat for a change, maybe the seaside, who knows) and for Rufous-crowned Sparrows - another bare hillside specialist, and one of which at least hadn’t joined the mass exodus of holidaying wrens. I’m a great fan of Rufous-crowned Sparrows incidentally - it’s not that they’re particularly good-looking birds, compared with a Lark Sparrow they’re definitely dull, but they’ve never turned up in Europe: I’m sorry to say it, but that makes them decidely “foreign”, enigmatic almost, to a Brit-based birder like me. I tried explaining this to Jack once and if I remember right he looked very doubtful and muttered something about Brazil and all the tanagers I must have seen, but that’s what makes birding so rewarding - one person’s “Good, one more for the Trip List” is another person’s high point, a reminder not to take things for granted, a trigger for good memories…I digress (as usual)…
Coming out of the hills, the road eventually enters the Panoche Valley itself, and it’s here that the “star” birds are found. There is an abrupt change from rocks and oaks to flat, prairie-like open spaces, and these are the natural wintering grounds of the aforementioned Mountain Bluebird, Ferruginous Hawk, and Prairie Falcon (all of which we saw) , and on this occasion also thousands - literally - of Savannah Sparrows, plus relatively high numbers of both White-crowned and Lark Sparrows.
“Light adult” Ferruginous Hawk Buteo regalis
“Light adult” Ferruginous Hawk Buteo regalis (different individual)
Male Mountain Bluebird Sialia currocoides
There’s only one way to bird country like this, and that’s to check, check, and check again: every lump and bump on a telegraph pole is potentially a rare raptor, every cloud of sparrows peeling up and along the fences could contain something unusual (not just Savannahs but Vespers or better), and behind every clod of earth could be the species that causes the rare-bird alerts to leap into life and force birders from across the state to make the long journey into Panoche - only of course in reality there are just twelve hours of daylight in every January day, winter would be over and the birds long gone if you tried to ID everything, and even I have to admit that there are only so many Savannahs you can look at before your eyes start blurring…
“Greyish adult” Savannah Sparrow Passerulus sandwichensis (For a photo gallery click here)
Adult White-crowned Sparrow Zonotrichia leucophrys prob gambelli (For a photo gallery click here)
Lark Sparrow Chondestes grammacus
Nevertheless, this was exceptionally good birding. Even Jack and Ed seemed surprised that were so many birds around - perhaps it was just good luck, but they do normally drive the circuit a little later in the season so perhaps it was down to that - and we spent a hugely enjoyable couple of hours touring back roads, chancing upon a flock of very pale Horned Larks (presumably one of the pale subspecies of the drier, arid regions of western and central USA) and flocks of Western Meadowlarks, talking up our chances of finding a Cassin’s Kingbird (we didn’t), and making high counts of both American Kestrels and Loggerhead Shrikes.
Horned Larks Eremophila alpestris
Say’s Phoebe Sayornis saya and Western Meadowlark Sturnella neglecta
Towards the end of this marvellous circuit there is one final site that can’t be missed: it’s a narrow belt of tamarisks that has become well-known to Californian birders as an essential stopping-place to check for roosting Long-eared and Barn Owls.
The Mercey Hot Springs (where these tamarisks grow) has changed considerably in character over the last few years, going from a run-down collection of old farm buildings to a thriving campground - but thankfully the tamarisks are still pulling in the owls. There’s a small charge to pay for stopping here now, but the owner is “birder-friendly” and usually knows where the owls are. If it sounds like I’m building this up too much, let me tell you that were no fewer than TEN Long-eareds and two Barn Owls all crammed into a stand of trees that - literally - can be walked around in under a minute. It’s a remarkable site, and on this occasion the same trees also held a Ruby-crowned Kinglet and the “first for the trip” male Townsend’s Warbler I referred to at the top of this post - either the owls weren’t hungry or Townsend’s Warblers taste odd, because it seemed to me the last thing you’d want to do if you were a small bird is share a tree with a bunch of owls, but what do I know…
Adult male Long-eared Owl Asio otus wilsonianus (note yellow eyes of this subspecies)
Near-breeding plumaged Male Townsend’s Warbler Dendroica townsendi
From Mercey Springs out to the major I5 Highway the scenery is just beautiful. It’s still worth keeping an eye out for raptors here - sometimes Golden Eagles are seen - but by the time we left the owls the light was beginning to fade and I have to admit that my eyes began to close ever so slightly…
So a great day as ever - we didn’t quite manage to top the best-ever “day-list” for the trip, but the Valley was packed full of birds and I would recommend it to any bider visiting San Francisco: whether you could get the extremely amiable Jack or Ed to go along with you is another matter of course, but you could always ask…
Day List: English and scientific names mainly from “The North American Bird Guide”, Sibley D, Pica Press, 2000:
Slavonian (Eared) Grebe Podiceps auritus 1; Pied-billed Grebe Podilymbus podiceps 3-4; Clark’s Grebe Aechmophorus clarkii 1; American White Pelican Pelecanus erythrorhynchos 7-8; Double-crested Cormorant Phalacrocorax auritus 10+; Great Blue Heron Ardea herodis 1; Great Egret Ardea alba 2; Canada Goose Branta canadensis c) 10+; Mallard Anas platyrhynchos 10+; American Wigeon Anas americana 10+; Canvasback Aythya valisineria c)30; Green-winged Teal Anas crecca 2; Ring-necked Duck Aythya collaris 1; Bufflehead Bucephala albeola 1; Hooded Merganser Lophodytes cucullatus 2; Common Merganser Mergus merganser 4; Ruddy Duck Oxyura jamaicensis 20+; Hen/Northern Harrier Circus cyaneus 2; White-tailed Kite Elanus leucurus 3-4; Cooper’s Hawk Accipiter cooperii 3; Red-shouldered Hawk Buteo lineatus 2; Red-tailed Hawk Buteo jamaicensis c)20; Ferruginous Hawk Buteo regalis 2; Osprey Pandion haliaetus 1; American Kestrel Falco sparverius c)20; Prairie Falcon Falco mexicanus 1; Peregrine Falco peregrinus 1; California Quail Callipepla californica c)20; American Coot Fulica americana 40+; Killdeer Charadrius vociferus 1; Greater Yellowlegs Tringa melanoleuca 1; Least Sandpiper Calidris minutilla 10+; Ring-billed Gull Larus delewarensis 30+; California Gull Larus californicus 10+; Glaucous-winged Gull Larus glaucescens 20+; Western Gull Larus occidentalis 10+; Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura 100+; Feral Pigeon Columba livia 10+; Gretaer Roadrunner Geococcyx californianus 2; Barn Owl Tyto alba2; Long-eared Owl Asio otus c)10; Belted Kingfisher Ceryle alcyon 1; Acorn Woodpecker Melanerpes formicivorus 5; Black Phoebe Sayornis nigricans 4-5; Say’s Phoebe Sayornis saya c)10; Loggerhead Shrike Lanius ludovicianus 10+; Western Scrub-jay Aphelocoma californica 10+; Yellow-billed Magpie Pica nuttalli c)20; Common Raven Corvus corax 20+; American Crow Corvus brachyrhynchos 3-4; Horned Lark Eremophila alpestris c)20;
Farmed American Bison, Panoche Valley
All photographs © Charlie Moores
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