The 16th annual Morro Bay Bird Festival is held for four days over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend every year, drawing nearly 500 birders (yes, that is a word) from all over the country to Morro Bay, a globally important birding area.
Registration for the entire four days is $75 and includes access to more than 100 different events, including field trips to places in both San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. For those who like to study shore and ocean birds—the official term is “pelagic”—kayaking trips, bay cruises, and full-day ocean trips are available. (Some trips have a nominal transportation fee).
Classes in beginning bird identification, photographing birds, photo editing, and birds in art, are also offered. Birders of all ability levels flock to the festival, excited for the chance to learn, explore, and hopefully add a “life bird” to their list.
This year, more than 210 species were identified by the birders, assisted by nearly 120 leaders, staffers, and other volunteers. I, personally, saw 119 different species of birds, with the help of binoculars, birding books, and the volunteer leaders who seem to be able to identify the winged creatures after a quick glimpse of flying feathers 20 feet away.
On day one, I was signed up for “Basics of Bird ID.” I learned the economic value of birding in the United States is $9.2 billion, including telescopes, bird food, clothing (non-nylon to avoid swishing sounds that scare off the birds), hotels, travel costs, and cameras, and that there are more than five million birders in the United States alone.
I also learned there are two main items you need to start birding. No. 1 is a good field guide, “The National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, 6th Edition,” which includes 4,000-plus full-color illustrations. The second thing you need is a pair of good binoculars. Shop somewhere where you can try out a few pairs before making a decision. Some binoculars will just be better suited to your eyes, head, or glasses.
The power of the optics is expressed as two numbers, such as 7 x 35. The first is the number of times magnification, and the second is the diameter of the objective lens. A larger objective lens captures more light. For beginners, binoculars that have a seven or eight magnification are usually fine. The larger the second number, the more light that is let in. But, remember, bigger also means bulkier and you are wearing these around your neck. The Wild Birds Unlimited store at 3940 Broad St. #6 in San Luis Obispo has a good selection of field guides and binoculars, as well as knowledgeable staff to help guide novice birders.
On day two, I was signed up for a field trip to the Santa Maria Valley. At 7:30 a.m., I climbed into a van with a driver, group leader, and 10 fellow birders and headed south. We were met by the very knowledgeable Jamie Chavez, a local bird expert born and raised in Santa Maria, and a leader for the Morro Bay Bird Festival since its inception. He oversees the Santa Barbara County birding discussion forum on sightings (sbcobirding.com). The website also has helpful information on birding spots in Santa Barbara County.
I was surprised to find that our first birding stop was the Santa Maria Sewage Wastewater Treatment Plant located at 3500 Black Road, where we were allowed access after checking in at the office. Birds were everywhere, and we were greeted with the shrill sound of calling gulls and hawks circling overhead. The clarifying tanks were host to flocks of ducks and gulls of all kinds—American gulls and Bonaparte’s gulls, ruddy ducks, mallards, cinnamon teal ducks, gadwall ducks, snow geese, and the highly colored wood duck, marked with a bizarre face pattern, swept-back crest and rainbow iridescent feathers.
While the heavy equipment at the sewage treatment plant operated in the background, birds soared and floated and awed the crowd. Red-shouldered hawks and red-tailed hawks were the most frequently observed hawk species, but there were also sightings of white-tailed kites and peregrine falcons. A shy barn owl peeped out of a nesting box atop a distant pole. Red-shouldered blackbirds, Brewer blackbirds, coots, sparrows, and phoebes also made an appearance.
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Our second brief stop was for lunch at Jack O’Connell Park in Guadalupe, where the birds were less abundant, but careful searching by fellow birders located a golden eagle perched on a pole across distant fields.
Just north of Guadalupe we made our final stop of the day at Oso Flaco Lake in the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Area, truly one of the most scenic natural areas along the California coast. After paying a $5 per vehicle fee, we followed a path through a white gate and were immediately engulfed by a wooded area overhung with a canopy of arroyo willows and wax myrtle trees. One of the most charming and easily identified inhabitants of Oso Flaco is the small chestnut-backed chickadee, who flits through the trees, sometimes hanging upside down to feed on insects and seeds, calling “chick-a-dee-dee-dee.” Other birds spotted in the trees and understory were yellow-rumped warblers, marsh wren, wood thrush … and even a robin!
At the end of the wooded area, the trail opens up and leads to a bridge over the lake where we enjoyed incredible views of sand dunes and surrounding landscape and the many birds that make their home in and around the lake. We watched shoveler ducks upend themselves in the water, creating clouds of mud while feeding on the lake bottom. A majestic great heron was spotted standing elegantly among the reeds. There were grebes, bufflehead ducks, and scups. As a final treat, we saw a flock of black-bellied plovers fly overhead as we made our way back to the van, back to civilization, leaving behind the wonderful birds of the Santa Maria Valley.
Contact Intern Pamella Wood at intern@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 26 – Feb 2, 2012.