Top 10 Map

Brown pelican © Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Birds you might see Ross? goose Brown pelican Long-billed curlew Ruddy turnstone Red knot California gull Caspian tern Black-throated gray warbler California towhee Purple finch

Top 10 Birding Spots

Monterey Bay, California

Past the breakwater, the western gulls fall away and sooty shearwaters take their place. They swirl around the boat in a gentle frenzy, buoyant as scud, silent as a feather in a freefall. First there are a handful, then hundreds, then they fill the horizon. Among their shadow-colored ranks are floppy pink-footed shearwaters, the occasional bi-colored Buller's and, now and again, a black-footed albatross!

The more than one million seabirds feeding above the waves are just the visible tip of an incredible pyramid of life whose base lies in the depths of the Monterey Sea Canyon. Plankton-rich up-wellings along the canyon rim support the fish that support one of the world's greatest concentrations of ocean birds and marine mammals. It lies no more than an hour from the dock.

In August and September, shearwaters hold center stage. In October and November, petrels dominate black, ashy and the occasional fork-tailed. There are several operators of pelagic birding trips in the area who will take birders offshore for around $75 ? a very reasonable fee for one of the greatest birding adventures on the planet.

Visit our Elkhorn Slough Reserve

Top 10 map

Top 10 Birding Spots was compiled by Pete Dunne who is the director of the New Jersey Audubon Society's Cape May Bird Observatory and author of "Tales of a Low Rent Birder," "Feather Quest" and "Before the Echo."