Natural Bridges State Park, Santa Cruz
04 January 2006

One of the remarkable things about birding out of the San Francisco Bay area is that the birding sites never seem to run out. I’ve been coming here twice a year on average for about fifteen years and there are still excellent spots I’ve not been to. Just look at the map left to see what I mean. How can anyone from outside the State ever cover that little lot…!

For instance, go north across the Bay and you quickly reach the redwood forests of Muir Woods or the renowned Point Reyes Observatory. Head inland and there’s the tremendous Panoche Valley and the rugged and beautiful Sierra Mountains beyond. Drive south and the choices become almost overwhelming - there are wetlands, there are forested hills…and there is the coast.

The Californian coast south of San Francisco is a wondrous place. Virtually every US film ever made seems to feature shots of the Californian coast at some point (Hollywood is of course on the coast just outside Los Angeles - and if you ever get to the pier at Santa Monica you’ll feel like you know every rivet and plank ). It’s sandy, it’s rocky, it has lone cypresses, old lighthouses; it’s whipped by the spray and caressed by the breeze; it’s beloved of surfers and swimmers, muscle-men and sun-worshippers. And for birders it is just amazing: there’s Big Sur, Morro Bay, Pescadero, Half Moon Bay, Elkhorn Slough, Carmel, Monterey Bay…and Santa Cruz.

Surprisingly Santa Cruz is one of those places I’d not been to before. I say surprising because it is outstandingly beautiful, easy to get to, and offers some superb photographic opportunities for birders who just can’t leave their cameras at home - mainly courtesy of the old lighthouse (which isn’t so good for birds of course), the rocky outcrops jutting out into the Pacific, and the huge rock arches of the Natural Bridges State Park - at the northern end of West Cliff Drive - with its bustling community of Brown Pelicans, Heermann’s and Western Gulls, and shorebirds like American Black Oystercatcher, Surfbird, and Black Turnstone (ie which IS good for birds).

Brown Pelicans Pelecanus occidentalis

 

Adult Heermann’s Gulls Larus heermanni (For a gallery go to Heermann’s Gulls)

Adult Western Gull Larus occidentalis and adult Heermann’s Gull

Adult Western Gull Larus occidentalis

The specific reason we (good friend and Californian resident Jack Cole and I) came to Santa Cruz was to look for a wintering Rock Sandpiper that had been regularly reported on the local bird alerts - but despite some pretty intense looking (as intense as wandering along a kilometre of such a beautiful chunk of coast in t-shirts actually gets) we didn’t find it. Hardly a problem really given the close views you can get of the birds that are here.

American Black Oystercatchers Haematopus bachmani

Surfbirds Aphriza virgata

Black Turnstone Arenaria melanocephala

There is another reason for coming to Natural Bridges and that is for the spectacle of up to 100,000 wintering Monarch Butterflies Danaus plexippus. Natural Bridges State Beach has a Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary, with a fine boardwalk trail giving close views of crowds of butterflies clinging to the trees. I’m shuddering as I write this, but we didn’t have the time to go and look for them on this occasion (genuinely), but maybe next time…

So in one spot the Californians have good birds, butterflies, great views, sun, surf, and fresh air - hardly seems fair really, does it…

All photos copyright Charlie Moores