Friday's plan was to attempt to find an obvious Californian specialty; Californian Condor. So from our overnight hotel in Bakersfield we aimed for Bitter Creek Wildlife Refuge, a high and hilly region to search for the elusive condor. It was an absurdly windy day and the short story is - the Condors remained elusive.
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| part of a Condor free sky |
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| not a condor - Golden Eagle |
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| not a condor but a pretty nice bird Lawrences Goldfinch |
We saw a few good birds though before making our way to the Californian coast; specifically the town of Ventura.
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| Heerman's Gull |
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| a few good gulls... |
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| Red breasted Merganser |
Few good photos were taken and I blame the wind!!
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| Western Grebe - pre boat trip [not that the grebe was taking the boat trip...] |
Saturday we had a cunning plan to take a boat to Santa Cruz Island to tick the endemic there - Island Scrubjay. However the trip to the island and the return trip stole the show!
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| a few of the estimated 5000 Common Dolphins seen |
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| Black vented Shearwater |
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| Humpback Whale among feeding frenzy; California Sealion, Common Dolphins plus seabirds |
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| Humpback lunge feeding! |
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| Humpback lunge feeding! Again and again - sometimes within 10 metres of the boat! |
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| diving humpy |
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| Brown Pelican pre dive |
Meanwhile on the island...
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| the endemic Island Scrub-jay stayed well away from my camera however a nice Pacific slope Flycatcher stayed |
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| The endemic Island Fox - mammal lifer! |
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| Island Fox |
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| yet again..... |
The island fox is significantly smaller than the gray fox and is probably the smallest fox in North America, averaging slightly smaller than the swift and kit foxes. Typically, the head-and-body length is 48–50 cm (19–19.5 in), shoulder height 12–15 cm (4.5–6 in), and the tail is 11–29 cm (4.5–11.5 in) long, which is notably shorter than the 27–44 cm (10.5–17.5 in) tail of the gray fox. This is due to the fact that the island fox generally has two fewer tail vertebrae than the gray fox.[9] The island fox weighs between 1 and 2.8 kg (2.2 and 6.2 lb). The male is always larger than the female.[10] The largest of the subspecies occurs on Santa Catalina Island and the smallest on Santa Cruz Island.[10]
The island fox has gray fur on its head, a ruddy red coloring on its sides, white fur on its belly, throat and the lower half of its face, and a black stripe on the dorsal surface of its tail.[10] In general the coat is darker and duller hued than that of the gray fox.
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| Black Phoebe |
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