USA trip, day 19 - 12th February

After breakfast, went to The Nature Conservancy’s check-in to see if Malcolm Hodges was attending the conference. One of the women knew Mal, but confirmed he wouldn’t be coming. Oh well, worth a try. While blogging, I was sat near to one of their directors (D Robertson - I read it on his name badge) who was having loud phone conversations with members of the board, coaching their contribution to the next board meeting.

We took a slow drive down the coast, through Carmel (stopping at a couple of birding sites) eventually to Big Sur. We went for a walk in the Andrew Molera State Park, getting as far as the beach, but unable to reach it to walk on. The main interest here was hummingbirds. We saw a glorious male Allen’s Hummingbird which must have just arrived, and a Anna’s Hummingbird which was doing it’s huge J-shaped display flight. Repeatedly, it flew vertically into the air, like a Harrier jet, then plummeted downward before curving round and upwards, giving a short “peep” call at the bottom of the “J”. I don’t know how they find enough energy to live at this time of year, let alone do this display flight sequence.

The woods were full of wintering warblers, mainly Yellow-rumped with a few Townsend’s and lots of Ruby-crowned Kinglets. Other additions to the trip list here were California Towhee, American Robin and some Wrentits.

This stretch of coast is famed for its scenery. Almost as beautiful as the west coast of Scotland I’d say. There are a lot of big, exclusive houses with “fuck off” signs posted all around. We drove through Carmel, expecting to see Clint Eastwood wandering about town. It was full of large houses with ocean views and lots of artistic shops. The paintings on offer in art shops are a bit in your face for my liking. There didn’t seem to be anything subtle in the way of artistic expression.

On the beach at Carmel, an excessively blonde woman was having her photos taken by a dirty old man. She was getting into it, pulling pose after pose for the camera. I don’t know who was getting what out of this photo shoot, but I guess it is to be expected in a part of the world where appearance is everything.

We got back to our sanctuary at Asilomar in the late afternoon. I’m sitting here writing this on the balcony of the room in fading light, listening to the ocean waves washing over the beach. The only thing missing right now is a large gin and tonic.

Had an excellent meal at a restaurant called The Fishwife. Excellent food, and a waitress who certainly knew how to describe the food in a gravely east coast accent.