A Birders Guide to Point Lobos

The trail to Bird Island is once again open!

The Bird Island loop trail affords views of nesting Black-crowned Night Herons, Brandt's Cormorants, Western Gulls and Pigeon Guillemots in May through July.

Fall 2011 a pair of Peregrine Falcons took up residence on Bird Island. You may be able to spot one on the rocks near the top of the Island. You may also spot them hunting above China Cove or in the trees between China Cove and Gibson Beach.

Also swallows and White-throated Swifts are numerous in the area in the Spring. Yellow-rumped Warbers are common in the winter months.

Weston Beach provides the best tide pooling in the Reserve. The birds know this as well. Cormorants and Gulls are common here, so are Black Oystercatchers, Black Turnstones, Black Phoebes, and American Crows.

Snowy Egrets are commonly seen fishing in the tide pools. It is fun to watch them shake their foot along the bottom to scare up fish.

Beyond that, you are never sure what you will see here. In the last year I have seen Great Egrets, Black-crowned Night Herons, Spotted Sandpipers (fall-winter), Killdeer (nesting), Semipalmated Plovers, Yellow-rumped Warblers (fall-winter), Say's Pheobe (fall-winter) Malards, and Brandts (spring).

Much of the Reserve is covered by Monterey Pine forest. All of the interior trails, as well as the Carmelo Meadows and South Plateau trails meander through this forest. Dark-eyed Juncos, Chestnut-backed Chickadees, and Bushtits abound.

You may see Northern Flicker, Hairy Woodpeckers, Acorn Woodpeckers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Bewick's Wrens, Pacific (Winter) Wrens, Brown Creepers, and Pygmy Nuthatches.

I always hear more birds than I see when walking the forest trails. Spotted Towhees, California Quail, and a number of warblers and thrushes can be heard if not seen.

In the spring, the swallows return to Point Lobos, and you can see Violet-Green Swallows nesting in woodpecker holes in the Pines along the Carmelo Meadows trail and Whaler's Knoll trail.

A couple of years ago, the Reserve was abuzz when a birder found a Northern Saw-whet Owl nest in a dead pine tree just off the Carmelo Meadows trail.

One highlight of the pine forest is the annual termite hatch, which happens on the day after the first rain in the fall. It is a great time to see warblers and wrens, who are usually hidden, out in the open being gluttons. The best spot in the reserve to witness this is on the Pine Ridge Trail about 500 ft SW of the Piney Woods trail-head (go up the trail and turn right on the Pine Ridge trail, walk to the bench and then go about 100 ft further). It is a once a year thing.

Ok I call them scrub meadows, these are open areas filled with poison oak, hemlock, and other low scrub brush. There might be a better/more accurate name for them.

They are concentrated along the south shore from Sea Lion Point to Weston Beach. You will also find scrub meadows at the northeast end of the Reserve along the Granite Point trail.

The scrub meadows are the home to Song Sparrows, White-crowned Sparrows, California Thrashers, Wrentits, Western Scrub Jays, and Spotted Towhees.

Recently, several California Thrashers have set up shop in the meadows around the Sea Lion Point parking lot. If you hear a bird with an incredibly ornate song, look around for the one of the Thrashers.

You may also see Lesser and American Goldfinches plus Anna's Hummingbirds here. I have seen Wild Turkeys in the meadows east of Granite Point.

When you look up, you will see swallows and swifts, Turkey Vultures, and an occasional Northern Harrier, Red-tailed Hawk, White-tailed Kite, Kestral, or other raptor.

The Monterey Cypress forests are distinct from the pine forests in that they lack the dense undergrowth. While many of the birds in the trees are the same, chickdees, nuthatches, etc, you can get better views of them.

With the grassy undergrowth, you may also see California Quail.

There is also a resident Red-Shouldered Hawk who you may spot in the low cypress branches.

Whaler's Cove is the denizen of diving ducks. If you are looking for Pacific Loons, Red-breasted Mergansers, or grebes (Western, Eared, and Pied-billed), start here.

Having said that, my impression is that you are more likely to see them in the winter and early spring.

You will of course still see cormorants, Western Gulls and probably and egret or heron fishing on top of the kelp.

A group of Heerman's Gulls routinely winter in the cove, hanging out on the rocks by the parking lot. But they appear to have left early this year.

There is also an Osprey who frequents the eastern side of the cove year round, though it took me over a year to spot it.

In April through June, Great Blue Herons nest in the pine trees at Coal Chute Point.