An early AM call to Island Packers told us our trip was a GO! A wind forecast had put that in doubt. Meclizine taken to assist with our propensity to seasickness, Dean and I bundled ourselves for warmth and dryness. We planned to be outside on the bow for the hour long trip to Santa Cruz Island of the Channel Island National Park just offshore from Ventura. The sea was not as choppy as we expected and the hour went by very quickly. I realized early on I couldn’t focus on any birds with my binoculars due to the fine and large movements of the boat. Besides hiking on this spectacular 100 square mile island, the largest by far in the chain, our birding quest was the Island Scrub-Jay. This largest of North American Scrub-Jays is found only on this island! What a marvel that it is so close to home.
We set out on Smuggler’s Road from Scorpion Anchorage heading first up on to the bluffs of the island to panoramic views of the Pacific.
We joined the Scorpion Canyon Loop Trail. It is in this canyon that the National Park “plan your visit” instructions told us to go to see the Island Scrub Jay.
We were perhaps 0.5 miles along the Scorpion Canyon Loop Trail when we spotted the jay sitting on a limb of a shrub silhouetted against the blue ocean in the background as we had not yet begun our descent in to the canyon.
Beautiful, big and not bothered by us in the least.
Even if we saw no other new birds for our Family Big Year the day was a success, but more was to come.
While photographing our first sighting we encountered a young man with a long lens hiking the opposite direction on the trail. He stopped to take pictures of “our” jay and chat. He had seen several jays in the trees of the Scorpion Canyon camp ground. More wonder awaited us.
Lynn
The Big Year 2021 