Joseph Morlan's county birding page lists the main public birding areas: Lake Earl Wildlife Area, Crescent City Marsh Wildlife Area and Waukell Creek Wildlife Area (all California Department of Fish and Wildlife lands), the county's state parks, Redwood National and State Parks, the Smith River National Recreation Area and Six Rivers National Forest. Morlan also lists the Aleutian Goose Festival and a published birdfinding guide to the county. This page organises those areas, plus viewing points named by the National Park Service, from north to south. For a visual overview, see the region map.
Lake Earl and Tolowa Dunes
Lake Earl is, according to its Wikipedia entry, the largest coastal lagoon in California, about 11 miles south of the Oregon border. Its smaller, saltier lobe is called Lake Tolowa. The lagoon lies partly within Tolowa Dunes State Park and partly within the Lake Earl Wildlife Area. The same article calls the area "the third-most important seabird area on the West Coast after the Farallons and the Channel Islands," and notes that the lagoon is breached artificially when water levels rise to between 8 and 10 feet above mean sea level, so water levels and exposed shoreline vary.
Lagoons like this are where the NPS bird list for the region places diving and dabbling ducks, herons, egrets, coots, Bald Eagle, Osprey, Peregrine Falcon and Belted Kingfisher.
Point St. George
Rarities turn up on this coast. Morlan lists Del Norte's single "Best Bird" as a White-collared Swift at Pt. St. George on 21 May 1982. The runner-up was a Bristle-thighed Curlew at Crescent City on 14–16 May 1998, so both of the county's top records came in May.
Crescent City and Castle Rock
Castle Rock National Wildlife Refuge sits about half a mile offshore from Crescent City. It is a steep, 14-acre rock rising 335 feet above the sea, bought by the federal government in 1979. The refuge is closed to the public to protect wildlife, but you can scan it with a spotting scope from the interpretive overlook on Pebble Beach Drive.
| At Castle Rock | Figure |
|---|---|
| Aleutian cackling geese roosting | Over 21,000 |
| Seabirds using the rock | As many as 150,000 |
| Common Murres | Estimates as high as 100,000, the Pacific Coast's largest breeding population |
| Nesting species | Eleven seabird species plus Black Oystercatcher |
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the Aleutian geese stage near Crescent City in spring, roosting on Castle Rock and feeding in the Smith River bottoms. The service's 2001 delisting notice gives the story in more detail, and our checklist summarises it.
Also near town, the Crescent City Marsh Wildlife Area is one of the three CDFW wildlife areas listed by Morlan.
Smith River and Jedediah Smith Redwoods
The Smith River gives its name to the Smith River National Recreation Area. The NPS names the river among the streams whose willow, big-leaf maple and red alder forest holds American Dipper, Yellow Warbler, Spotted Sandpiper and Common Merganser. Gravel bars near Jedediah Smith Campground and nearby Stout Grove are among the parks' suggested places to watch for Marbled Murrelets at dawn in summer.
For conifer-forest birds, the NPS points to Howland Hill Road, Walker Road and US Highway 199. These are places to look and listen for flycatchers, warblers, thrushes, jays, woodpeckers and owls.
Enderts Beach to the Klamath River
The NPS lists several vantage points for coastal cliffs and offshore waters. They include Endert's Beach Road, the Damnation Creek Trail, False Klamath Cove, Requa Road and the Coastal Trail. The NPS says tens of thousands of Common Murres, three cormorant species and Pigeon Guillemots nest on the parks' cliffs and offshore rocks. Offshore, thousands of scoters, grebes and loons float in large groups. Lagoon Creek Pond is one of the freshwater ponds the parks mention. The Klamath River mouth is one of the parks' two tidal estuaries.
The Waukell Creek Wildlife Area, the third CDFW area on Morlan's list, is also in the county.
Prairie Creek, Bald Hills and Redwood Creek (Humboldt County)
The southern part of Redwood National and State Parks holds several of the murrelet and forest sites the NPS lists: Newton Drury Parkway, Cal Barrel Road, Elk Prairie, Elk Meadow and the Lost Man Creek trailhead. Bald Hills Road, the Dolason Trail and Lyon's Ranch Trail reach the oak woodland and prairie in the parks' southeast corner, with Acorn Woodpecker, Western Bluebird, White-tailed Kite and Western Meadowlark. The mouth of Redwood Creek, Freshwater Lagoon, Gold Bluffs Beach and Davison Road round out the list.
Farther south, Humboldt Bay and the Arcata Marsh are covered on their own page.