CALIFORNIA SEPTEMBER 2006 TOUR NEWS Leader: James P. Smith

This year's Birdfinders California tour was the most successful since 2001. We saw 280 species, just four shy of the Birdfinders all time best for this particular tour loop.

Our small group consisted of Patrick and Jennifer Grosvenor, Grace Hansford, David and Janet Kingman, David Rich and Brian and Chris Shaw, all of whom greatly contributed to the good humour and successful birdfinding on the trip.

Meeting in Los Angeles in late afternoon on September 5th, we began an excellent avian odyssey through the Golden State, enjoying the beautiful autumn weather throughout for which California is known. The avian highlights were many, too many to list all of them here, but we saw almost all of the California specialties and many other good western species over the tour period from September 5th–20th.

Highlights included: Pacific Loon, Clark's Grebe, Black-footed Albatross, Pink-footed Shearwater, Flesh-footed Shearwater, Buller's Shearwater, Black-vented Shearwater, Ashy Storm-Petrel, Black Storm-Petrel, California Quail, Gambel's Quail, Sooty Grouse, Pacific Golden Plover, Wandering Tattler, Black Turnstone, Surfbird, Ruff, Heerman's Gull, California Gull, Yellow-footed Gull, Elegant Tern, Pigeon Guillemot, Marbled Murrelet, Rhinoceros Auklet, South Polar Skua, Allen's Hummingbird, Nuttall's Woodpecker, White-headed Woodpecker, Gila Woodpecker, Burrowing Owl, Vaux's Swift, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Pacific-slope Flycatcher, Dusky Flycatcher, California Thrasher, Le Conte's Thrasher, Sage Thrasher, Cactus Wren, American Dipper, California Gnatcatcher, Island Scrub-Jay, Juniper Titmouse, Oak Titmouse, Yellow-billed Magpie, Pinyon Jay, Clark's Nutcracker, Townsend's Warbler, Hermit Warbler, Black-throated Gray Warbler, McGillivray's Warbler, Fox Sparrow, 'Large-billed' Savannah Sparrow, 'Belding's' Savannah Sparrow, Sage Sparrow, Rufous-crowned Sparrow, California Towhee, Abert's Towhee, Spotted Towhee and Tricoloured Blackbird.

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