Surf and Turf - Winter Birding on the California Central Coast

Pacific coastline off Nottingham Drive

Surf and turf or surf 'n' turf is a main course in American cuisine which combines seafood and meat. It is particularly common in British/Irish-style pubs in North America and North American steakhouses. The "surf" part can refer to lobster, prawns, or shrimp, which may be grilled or breaded and fried. The "turf" part usually refers to a steak. 

Park Hill from Fiscalini Ranch Preserve

The California coastline north of Los Angeles changes from a heavily developed area to relatively greater open areas when traveling from the north end of the south coast in Ventura County to the central coast in San Luis Obispo County. Not only do the opportunities to view the coast increase northbound, but there can be rapid changes in geography over shorts distance from tidal zone to grasslands to upland woodlands as you move inland. It can be foggy along the water, but clear skies less than half of a mile away to the east. I found this zone where the surf and the turf meet to be rich in winter bird diversity. I hadn't done any birding in Ventura County before, and had the advantage of doing a quick hour jaunt on Naval Base Ventura County at Point Mugu, and had only birded in Cambria in San Luis County during the summer.

At Point Mugu, I was able to view birds in ocean inlets, wetlands, riparian areas of small rivers, suburban settings, and industrial park-like areas surrounding restricted runways. In Cambria, there were shore, cliff and beach areas on the Pacific Ocean, secluded wetland areas chaparral and grasslands in Fiscalini Ranch Preserve, and developed housing areas. The photographs are marked with PM and CM to indicate Point Mugu and Cambria, respectively. 

Each of my searches were very short - no more than an hour or so at Point Mugu for the aquatic birds. Listings of the menu choices are shown below, arranged by whether the birds were seen in close proximity to water, or in upland environs. There are many more that could have been teased out if I had more time to devote to the birds. 

The Surf Choices on today's menu:

Brown Pelican - CM

Double-crested and Brant's Comorants - CM

Herring Gull - CM

Ring-billed Gull - CM

California Gull - CM

Snowy Egret - PM

Great Egret - CM

Great Blue Heron - PM

Bufflehead Duck, female - PM

American Wigeon, male - PM

Mallard Ducks among gulls - CM

Western Grebe - PM

Whimbrel - PM

Marbled Godwit - PM

Long-billed Curlew - CM

Common Sandpiper - CM

Killdeer - CM

The Turf Choices on today's menu:

Turkey Vulture - CM

American Kestrel - CM

Red-tailed Hawk - PM

Starlings - PM

Brewer's Blackbird - CM

Western Scrub Jay - CM

Black Phoebe - CM

Yellow-rumped Warbler - CM

Townsend's Warbler - CM

Western Meadow Lark - CM

American Pipit - PM

White-throated Sparrow - CM

White-crowned Sparrow - CM

Anna's Hummingbird - CM

Black-chinned Hummingbird - CM

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Whatbird.com turned out being a nice tool to help me identify Townsend's and Yellow-rumped Warblers. I found this search engine better than the way I have used the trusty Cornell Lab of Ornithology Website in the past, but noticed the What Bird Is That feature that I don't recall in the past, so will have to check that out. I see that the iPhone mobile application from Cornell is free, while the Whatbird.com app costs $19.99.