Spring Break Trip: D4 – Big Sur Forest, D5 – Seaside SLO, D6 – Vanguard of the Sea

By Miles

This spring break, my family and I went on a fantastic birding and sightseeing trip to California’s Central Valley and the south-central coastal area.

* The articles about this trip will be divided into three separate blog posts:

D1 – the Forest of Giants, D2 – Condor of the Pinnacles
D3 – Exploring Monterey
D4 – Big Sur Forest, D5 – Seaside SLO, D6 – Vanguard of the Sea

D4 – Big Sur Forest

On the fourth day of the trip, we drove south along the coast to the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, to look for the Chestnut-backed Chickadee that replaced the Mountain Chickadee in these areas, and the cute little American Dipper, often seen in the state park.

As soon as we got out of our car and walked to the stream, we heard some clear bird songs, calling: “chick-a-dee-dee-dee ~ chick-a-dee-dee-dee ~ …”. It was clearly a Chickadee! And the only Chickadee here is the Chestnut-backed Chickadee! We soon found the flock of Chickadees, as they jumped around, feeding on the tree. One of them even came down to a bush very close to us and it’s so cute!

Then, we walked down the stream towards the Dipper’s rocky area. We spotted the little brown bird as soon as we reached the rocky area. It danced and jumped around, diving, bathing, and catching prey. Very soon, it caught something and shot past us, leading us to the Highway 1 bridge. Its nest was probably under the bridge, as it no longer had the item when it got out of the bridge. Another Dipper (probably its mate) was also near the bridge. It was resting on a rock and cleaning its feathers occasionally, allowing me to get some really great pictures, even though the light was dark.

Next, we got on our road back to the heart of the Central Valley to look for the Yellow-billed Magpie and avoid the damaged section of Highway 1. As the Common Murre Colonies were along the way, we checked them again, got some better photos, and saw some more colonies.

(Common Murre colony, April 2nd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

When we got to Bitterwater Road (Sage Rock Pass), it was still noon, and we didn’t see anything as we drove back and forth except for some California Scrub-jays. So, we decided to go eat lunch and then come back to search for it again.

As we ate our lunch, we asked ChatGPT to find some information to help us find the Yellow-billed Magpie. The sources said that they’re usually found between mile markers 4.5 and 7, which is probably correct, as these areas have the best habitat for Yellow-billed Magpies.

After lunch, we went to search again. Very quickly after passing the 4.5-mile marker, my mom spotted a Magpie. It then flew across the road and joined three other Magpies. They flew and played all the way across the road and eventually disappeared into the hills.

The Chestnut-backed Chickadee is a medium-small-sized passerine, a little smaller than a Yellow-rumped Warbler, with a typical Chickadee/Tit shape. It has a brownish-black beak, cap, and throat, while its back and flanks are chestnut-colored. Its wings and tail are black with a white border and its feet are black. Except for these, its whole body is all white. They usually live in small flocks, in small forests of oak or coniferous in the westernmost part of North America from Alaska to southern central California feeding on small insects and sometimes fruit or seeds.

(cute little Chestnut-backed Chickadee, April 2nd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

The American Dipper is a medium-small-sized passerine, about the size of a Yellow-rumped Warbler, with a typical Dipper shape (short tail, long leg, small head, and short bell). Its beak is yellow and except for it, its whole body is dark brown. They usually live individually or in pairs, in extremely clean streams in mountain forests of western North America, diving by flapping wings, for small aquatic invertebrates.

(American Dipper foraging in the stream, April 2nd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

(American Dipper having eyes closed, resting, April 2nd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

(American Dipper resting, April 2nd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

(American Dipper stretching its wings, April 2nd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

(American Dipper resting, April 2nd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

Other pictures taken at Big Sur:

(Common Merganser in the stream, April 2nd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

(Steller’s Jay, April 2nd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

(mushrooms, April 2nd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

The Yellow-billed Magpie is a medium-large-sized passerine, about the size of three Yellow-rumped Warblers, with a typical magpie shape (long-tailed jay). Its beak and bare skin under its eyes are yellow and except for them, its head, back, mid-belly, rump, vent, and leg are all black. It has a white wing bar, and except for them its wings and tail are both black that reflect blue, brass, or green in certain light. Except for these, it’s all white. They usually live in families or in pairs, in open oak lands or savannas in the Central Valley of California, feeding on all kinds of foods.

(two Yellow-billed Magpies, April 2nd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

(Yellow-billed Magpie flying, April 2nd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

(Yellow-billed Magpie, April 2nd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

(Golden Eagle seen just before the Yellow-billed Magpie showed up, April 2nd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

D5 – Seaside SLO

On the fifth day of the trip, we went sightseeing in San Luis Obispo. It was beautiful and full of Sea Otters swimming on their backs like they were doing backstroke or freestyle, but we just saw some Gulls, Brandt’s Cormorants, and some other common birds.

(Sea Otter, April 3rd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

(Sea Otter eating breakfast, April 3rd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

(Sea Otter swimming backstroke, April 3rd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

(Sea Otter swimming freestyle, April 3rd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

(Sea Otter with its dinner, April 3rd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

(Sea Otter with its prey, April 3rd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

(Sea Otters, April 3rd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

(Sea Otter, April 3rd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

(Sea Otters, April 3rd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

(Sea Otter with baby on the side, April 3rd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

(Sea Otters, April 3rd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

(Sea Otter lifting its baby, April 3rd, 2025, Photo by Miles)

D6 – Vanguard of the Sea

On the last day of the trip, we didn’t have anything planned and decided to go on an Island Packer’s Gray Whale-watching boat called the Vanguard.

Soon after we took off from the harbor, we saw our first whale. Looking at a real whale was so cool! It was so giant and elegant and watching its gray body that looked brilliant blue underwater floating up and down was so amazing! Shortly after that, we saw our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th whale of the day all at once in a Whale pod. They swim slowly up and down one by one, so beautiful! And they were a lot closer this time, which made them even bigger and stunning! As we were going back to the harbor, a huge flock of probably several hundred dolphins started to chase our boat and play with us. There were so many of them and were just around us. It was sooooooooo amazing!