California Condors and Coastal Migration *FULL*

Join us to search for North America’s largest bird, the endangered California Condor, in the wild! The central California coast and inland areas offer excellent opportunities to see these majestic birds and a wide variety of other species. 

The trip begins with a visit to the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve, one of the largest tracts of undisturbed marshes remaining in the San Francisco Bay, where we will search for shorebirds, sea ducks, and other salt marsh birds like Ridgway’s Rail and Common Gallinule. Our journey south of the Bay Area will bring us to Pinnacles National Park where a unique volcanic landscape affords a chance to see cliff-nesting Condors, Peregrine and Prairie Falcons as well as the California endemic Yellow-billed Magpies and colonial nesting Acorn Woodpeckers. The Condor Gulch trail will take us up a lush canyon of Live Oak and Chaparral where we may see Rufous-crowned Sparrows on our way to the High Peaks area where Condors are frequently seen.  

Our travels will continue along the stunning Big Sur coast south of Monterey where coastal mountains of forest and grassland dramatically plunge into the sea. The scenery is breathtaking and the chances of seeing Condors soaring above the rugged coastline are very good. Birding along the California coast in fall brings chances of seeing eastern warblers like Blackpoll, Blue-winged, and Prothonotary Warblers, as well as Orchard Orioles and Tropical Kingbirds. Offshore, we may spot up to five species of shearwaters, Scripp’s Murrelet or Rhinoceros Auklets. On our final day, we will explore coastal marshes and search for Northern Elephant Seals!