Relapse Island

It all started at a gas station in Hutchinson, Minnesota, on our way to the airport. In a moment of weakness I bought three packs of gum, justifying it by saying I would give them to friends...my friends never got any.

Most of the first pack was gone by the time we landed in Orange county, California. All of that first pack and most of the second were gone by the time, an hour and a half later, my dad showed up to take us to the hotel.

Day 1:

I had become slightly hardened to the life of a birder and didn't complain over being woken up at 5:30 a.m. We left the hotel room armed with backpacks full of rain gear and snack food. We headed downstairs and true to form Jim was sitting there drinking a cup of coffee. Jim is one of my dad's birding companions and was hanging out with us all weekend. My parents left us in the lobby while they went to get the car. While we were waiting, Jim realized he had misplaced his backpack. He ran off to find it and I covered for him. When he came back without having found his backpack in his room, we drove him to the nearby McDonalds where he had eaten breakfast. While waiting for our food to be ready and for Jim to find his backpack, I witnessed a homeless lady hiding her stuff in the bushes. It was with sympathy that we informed Jim of the large number of homeless people walking around.  We all came to the conclusion that his backpack was gone for good. `

We sped off to catch our boat. We got lost trying to find the right pier, but with some help from Siri we made it on time. We said goodbye to my mom at the parking lot and headed off to the boat.

I was shocked to see giant bags of popcorn next to the boat. I remembered my dad mentioning that popcorn would be used to lure in the birds.  He started talking to the other birders and abandoned me. I found Jim and stayed with him since my dad was swapping bird stories with old acquiatances. Jim pointed out a Surf Scoter while we were waiting. The ship sailed off just as the sun crested the tree line and I soon saw all three of the commonly seen gulls.

Heerman's Gull

This is most likely a immature Herring Gull

Western Gull

I don't particulary like terns due to an accident involving a flock of them when I was young, but I took this picture anyway.

Even though I already saw one I couldn't resist taking pictures of my favorite bird, the Brown Pelican.

I saw many new birds as the day progressed:

Rhinoceros Auklet

Common Murre

Mammals too:

Grey whale with dolphins

  

Being on constant look out for birds is exhausting and after a few hours of this I feel asleep. I awoke to people shouting "I see a brown booby!" Not at all how I planned to wake up and on anything other than a birding boat it might have had a different connotation. However, since we were on a birding boat a Brown Booby happened to be the main attraction.

The Brown Boobies were situated right under the burning natural gas from the oil rig.

  The day was long after that, we had all been in the boat over four hours and had seen nearly every species possible on this pelagic cruise.  No one minded having the boat head back to port.

We  all agreed to meet up for dinner that evening, and while waiting for my dad, we starting discussing dementia.  Jim showed up and added his own story of dementia.  As it turned out, his backpack was not in the possession of a homeless person but safely locked in his room.

Day 2:

Much to both my mom's and my joy, the ferry for Catalina did not leave until 9:30 am.  After sleeping in and packing snacks, we headed to the ferry.  This time, Jim brought his backpack. 
The ride over was uneventful except for when I pointed out a Sooty Shearwater which was one of the few birds we had missed the day before.

Once at Catalina, we headed to the bike shop where my brother's old roommate was working.  He got us set up with mountain bikes and directions to the best places to find Spotted Doves. The ride started ok, but I soon realized how out of shape I was. It was during one of my frequent breaks that I first saw the dove. It was a fleeting view. We made it up to the botanical garden that was situated at the top of the road. My mom being the rule breaker she is, sneaked through the turnstiles and walked right in. My dad and I, who are not quite to that level of rule breaking decided to wait for the attendant to return from lunch. I broke out my gram crackers and we ate some lunch ourselves. Eventually my mom returned, looking slightly miffed at us for waiting.

Once we got in to the gardens, it was a steep climb up to the top. We didn't see many birds, but we did get to pay our respects to a man who has made my life better but is also responsible for my gum addiction.

William Wrigley Jr.

The ride down the road was far easier and much more fun than the ride up. My mom sped down it like a speed demon and was going fast enough to pass golf carts. I sped down it too but at a much less deadly speed. We met up at a place with a sign calling it the bird park, but when it actually was either a day care or a preschool.

We visited some of the other good birding places around the island and got a better view of the dove.

Also a great look at some hummingbirds.

Allen's Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird

It was almost time to head back to our ferry when we stopped at Big Olaf's Ice-cream for a snack.

The ride back was relaxing and I finished my book (Ash by Jaymin Eve and Leia Stone) and sat in the back of the boat watching the sunset.

Day 3:

We checked out of our hotel early the next morning and headed off to see a Oak Titmouse. My plane didn't leave until that afternoon so we had plenty of time. It wasn't a long drive to Irvine park, but during that time my dad's self appointed themesong came on, exes and ohs.

We saw our other target bird the Lewis's woodpecker right away.

And soon found the Nuttall woodpecker too.

After seeing the Nuttall, we wandered around and ended up next to a playground. My mom couldn't resist trying out the mini zipline-like contraption attached to the blog, however as she stepped off she landed wrong and tumbled to the ground. Originally we thought she had broken her ankle but thankfully it was just a bad sprain. When my dad turned around and saw my mom on the ground he had to comment "this is why fifty year olds don't play on playgrounds!'' After making my mom start laughing he helped her to the car and sent me and Jim off to find either some titmice or owls. We found neither. I did see a Western Scrub-jay though which was a year bird for me.

My dad met up with us then and we trekked around in the woods for a bit and eventually sighted a lone Oak Titmouse sitting atop a tree.

We were contented after that and rejoined my mom. The next destination was the park pond and I got two new species of duck there, the Mallard and Wood ducks.

Mallard

Wood Duck

That was the last bit of birding before heading off to the airport and once there I said goodbye to my dad. My mom used her suitcase as a makeshift crutch in order to get into the airport, but I knew she wouldn't be able to hobble all the way to our terminal. So I found her a wheelchair and with Jim wheeling our suitcases I pushed her to security. The vast power of the wheelchair allowed us to skip the entire line at security, I have a deep respect for wheelchairs, and allowed us special treatment. Jim left us to eat his peanut butter, which in the airports eyes is a liquid, and so I struggles to push both my mom and our two suitcases, not to mention our backpacks.

However, we made it to the terminal with plenty of time to spare. My mom wanted to attempt to hobble down the passage to the airplane but I talked her out of it. Our plane was full and we all knew that after first class the fight attendants were going to start mandatorily checking peoples bags. I remembered that only one group of people got to go in front of first class, people who required more time to get down the airway. Both my mom and I got to be the first people on the airplane and I was lucky enough that the Steward wheeled her down and offered to call ahead and have someone waiting to take her to our car.

So, all in all our trip went well. I got to see new places and see many new birds, 40 to be exact. I also saw two different species of dolphins, one seal, many sea lions, and a grey whale. I relapsed back into my gum addiction but I am taking William Wrigley's memorial as a sign. I am happy to say I don't get sea sick and I am looking forward to all of my future boat trips. I hope everyone reading this had an amazing weekend!

With love,

L