AzCa01

A really superb three-week trip to the western USA, getting about by and (mostly) sleeping in VW campervans.

We spent the first two weeks in the intense heat of south-east Arizona, exploring the deserts and mountainous 'sky islands', and seeing a whole range of brilliant birds: various hummingbirds, quails and other gamebirds, Greater Roadrunner, warblers (including Olive, which it turns out isn't a warbler as such, and is in its own family!), Cactus and Rock Wrens, Coppery-tailed (formerly Elegant) Trogon and a variety of essentially Mexican species which only just creep into the USA, like Mexican Chickadee, Five-striped Sparrow and Red-faced Warbler.

We then transferred to San Francisco, and had a further week along the Big Sur coast and areas just inland; we also did not one but two pelagic boat trips. While the birds were excellent (Surfbird, Wandering Tattler, Yellow-billed Magpie, Laysan and Black-footed Albatrosses, Scripps's Murrelet, Horned Puffin and a California Long-tailed Skua day-count record), the mammals were even better: Blue, Gray and Humpback Whales, Northern Right Whale Dolphin, California Sealion, Northern Elephant Seal, and arguably the stars in the form of Sea Otters!