Tweeters:

Just wanted to belatedly thank all those who responded to my RFQ on Los
Angeles back in October. Partly as a result of the response, I was
successful in locating at least six of the exotics which have become
established there, all in the Pasadena-Arcadia area, on Nov. 1.

Then on Nov. 2 I went on the remarkable Santa Cruz I. boat trip with Island
Packers. The birding was so good that the much-sought Island Scrub-Jay was
practically an afterthought, in view of single Black-throated Blue Warbler,
Dusky and Pacific-slope ("Western") Flycatchers, resident endemic forms of
otherwise common mainland species like Allen's Hummingbird, and Calif.
(Thick-billed) Fox Sparrows. The boat trip itself was very productive as
well, with at least two and possibly four Xantus' Murrelets hanging in there
about 10 miles out, many Cassin's Auklets and jaegers, many shearwaters
other seabirds, plus abundant dolphins and sea-lions, although we missed
Blue Whale which apparently occurs some trips. The greatest find was a
brown Pterodroma petrel, which we're still deliberating on (I had the great
good fortune of running into Michael Carmody, who picked out the Black-th.
Blue Warbler first, and who I had not run into in 15 years, and there were
two other birders present also. One of them had done a Pterodroma tour with
Harrison, and he, Michael and myself all saw "the bird"). Amazingly, the
skipper of the boat also said that, for two consecutive days a week prior to
our trip, he'd seen a Mottled Petrel along a prominent rip that we followed
on the way out.

We were so busy locating birds on the island that I barely had a chance to
appreciate the other interesting aspects of Santa Cruz I. ecology, which
shares with the other Channel Islands a remarkable number of non-avian
endemics such as a dozen or so endemic plants, and what must be one of the
world's smallest foxes. The Channel Islands National Park headquarters near
the Island Packers office has an interesting interpretive display on all of
this, including a narrative on efforts to save the fox, which is threatened
by Golden Eagle predation.

I found that if one is awaiting the boat trip, the Ventura area itself can
be good for birding. My highlights included Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, an
Am. x Eur. Wigeon, and a horde of Aythya and other ducks on the Ventura
Water Treatment ponds and half-mile away or so, along with a pair of Eur.
Collared Doves and a Black-throated Gray Warbler in close proximity.

Scott Atkinson
Lake Stevens
mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com





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