WATSONVILLE — Local and migratory birds are the focus of the 13th annual Monterey Bay Birding Festival which runs one day this year on Saturday.
The event includes field trips, lectures, workshops and social gatherings of avian theme and is open to beginners to advanced birders.
From soaring golden eagles, California condors, bushtits, Townsend’s warblers, scampering snowy plovers, to thousands of sooty shearwaters streaming along the ocean’s surface, the Monterey Bay region is home to a diversity of species.
September marks the peak of fall migration, with wintering shorebirds arriving en masse. Warblers and other passerines are doing the same, and the first appearances of wintering ducks and other waterfowl can be spotted. Meanwhile, just a few miles offshore, jaegers, shearwaters, and alcid are present in good numbers.
Birders from around the country, and as far away as Canada and London have dropped into Watsonville’s sloughs and lakes and further to the Pinnacles National Park, Big Sur, Rancho Del Oso, Elkhorn Slough and San Felipe Lake in hopes of viewing the rich mix of birds.
“What you are really looking for is an encounter and not simply adding to a bird list,” said Todd Newberry, who led field trips around Watsonville numerous times. “This isn’t about a bird list and numbers. Viewing birds is more about the environment, the encounter — what is the bird doing, what are the surroundings, the weather and what you remember about that experience.”
The six sloughs in Watsonville, Pajaro River and various other waterways play a key role in the migratory trail for thousands of transient birds that have made Watsonville a common stopover in their travels and yearlong homes.
For information, visit www.montereybaybirding.org or call 726-8052.
