David has been an avid eBirder since 2009, and much of his recent birding has focused on his local patches in the Capitola and Seacliff areas, generating 1000s of checklists for eBird. Away from those areas he enjoys birding at College Lake and Rancho Del Oso.
Steve is a dedicated patch birder. He does most of his birding on the west side of the city of Santa Cruz. West Cliff Drive, Natural Bridges, Meder Canyon are just a few of the sites he favors. He’s been a county resident since 1976. Prior to that he and his Dad occasionally made birding trips here from their home in Salinas, so essentially he’s been birding in the county for 40 years.
Steve has two first county records. The Dusky Warbler he found at Antonelli Pond is the most well known. His favorite is the Painted Redstart he found in the Bethany Curve Greenbelt. He contributed to the online Santa Cruz Bird Guide and serves on the Bird Club board. He is a regular contributor to the Monterey Bay Birders listserve.
Roger has resided in the county full time since 1975. His family has maintained a beach house in Seacliff since 1967 where he often spent summers. He began birding in 1989 when a story in the Santa Cruz Sentinel announced that a Eurasian bird had been found in a local park. With a newly received Christmas gift of mini-binoculars in hand he went to have a look. There he met birders who kindly pointed out the Brambling and so began his list.
Roger likes birding the Watsonville wetlands; Struve, Harkins and Watsonville Sloughs and College Lake in winter. He likes their easy access and the fact that they can be birded thoroughly in the course of a brief visit.
In addition to farming olives in Corralitos he works as a naturalist for Monterey Bay Whale Watch and he is the coordinator of Monterey Seabirds. He loves being on the ocean and interacting with the marine mammals, seabirds and ecotourists from all over the world.
His most memorable county bird was of the Great-winged Petrel which was the third North American record for that species. Hudsonian Godwit was his other first county record.
Earl has been birding and leading bird trips on the Central Coast of California since he moved here from the East Coast in 1986. Though he had been birding for many years in and around NYC, his skill and passion for birding increased exponentially when he moved to Santa Cruz. He has birded extensively throughout the United States, Central and South America, Africa and Europe.
He has led trips for the Santa Cruz Bird Club, been a Bird Club Officer and participated in the Santa Cruz Breeding Bird Atlas Project. He enjoys sharing his love of birds and birding with others. Earl's favorite place to bird in Santa Cruz County is Rancho Del Oso and Waddell Creek. He discovered both American Redstart and Gray Flycatcher there. Other exciting finds were Eurasian Widgeon on Corcoran Lagoon. Prairie Falcon and Ferruginous Hawk in the Moore Creek Uplands and a first county X-mas count record of Sandhill Crane in the same location.
Lois is a 43 year resident of Santa Cruz. She became interested in birding when she and her husband Wally became empty nesters. They don’t spend much time at the nest anymore, although they do visit their grandchildren frequently in New York. They are avid world birders with recent trips to Ecuador, Sulawesi, and the Philippines; their current goal is to see one representative of every family - 2 to go!
Lois´s favorite place in the county to bird is Younger Lagoon which she describes as, “ an easy place to drop by when ostensibly going shopping. You never know what may show up.” Surprises have included a Ruff, Yellow-breasted Chat, and a White-winged Dove.
Perhaps Lois’ favorite county bird was the Burrowing Owl that stayed for the winter after showing up on Hallowe'en on the roof of the elementary school where she worked. Another was a Grace’s Warbler that was seen by a small group of west side birders at Natural Bridges.
“Morgan was born in 1947 and resided in Soquel into the 1990s before moving to the coast northwest of Santa Cruz. Self-admitted “scientific-nature-minded-from-birth,” Morgan had a passion for natural history and birds were one of his initial loves. The historical record finds him hovering around the periphery of local birding world during the 1960s, and coming into the forefront in the mid-1970s. His creation of the “Bird File” was the first attempt at collating and consolidating the county ornithological record since Streator (1947), and it was easily the most thorough archive ever gathered up to that time…. In looking back over the county files one sees a burst of records beginning in 1974 led by Morgan’s field efforts. This was the California revolution brought home to SCZ, sparked and highlighted by the discovery of many rarities, but fueled more by an attempt to understand the occurrence of all the county’s birds. Morgan and others began to visit many areas of the county that were little explored, or for which there was little information from recent years. Eventually his interest in botany (he is widely regarded as a county expert) and entomology would lead him away from a prominent role in the SCZ birding world, but his impact in establishing the “Bird File” was pivotal. (D. L. Suddjian 2006, Albatross 50 (2): 24).
Jeff resided in Santa Cruz for seven years. Currently he lives in Fresno, CA . When he is in Santa Cruz County he spends most of his time birding from an airplane. He does aerial seabird surveys for UCSC under contract with the Department of Fish and Game-Office of Spill Prevention and Response. Jeff taught at UCSC where he was the senior museum scientist and curator. From 1992-95 he served as the onsite coordinator for the Big Sur Ornithology Lab. He is a former SCBC president.
While leading a group of students on the ocean he found and photographed a Red-footed Booby but unfortunately the photos were inconclusive and the CBRC accepted it as a Booby sp. He also saw what he and a fellow observer on an aerial survey felt strongly was a White-tailed Tropicbird but their view was brief and they did not submit a report to the CBRC. While doing a survey in a closed area of Wilder State Park he found a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher but did not get photos and could not put the word out. That record was not accepted. He terms these “quasi first county records.”
His most memorable county bird was a Lesser Nighthawk he caught in a mist net at Wilder that he describes as, “spectacular-such intricate plumage patterns, huge eyes and broad, gaping mouth.”
His favorite place to bird was Meder Canyon because of its rural feel in the midst of the suburbs which was a pleasant diversion on his way up to the campus.
Wally is a 44-year resident of Santa Cruz and teaches Sociology and Latin American & Latino Studies at UCSC. He began birding in the Adirondack Mountains (NY) while earning his Wildlife Management merit badge as a Boy Scout in 1954, but became serious about it only in the early 1990s when empty-nested by his adult children. They and their families now live in the New York City area, squaring the circle, and rendering Central Park a favorite birding venue.
He loves looking for birds and mammals in distant lands and shares his wife Lois’s project of seeing at least one member of each world bird family. One recent addition was the bizarre Shoebill, recorded at three different sites on a 2008 adventure in Rwanda and Uganda—one of them requiring an impromptu walking safari when their boat broke down on the Nile. They have a chance for the two remaining families in 2012.
He credits many local mentors for helping him improve his field skills, including many other members of the 300 Club plus many other gifted SCBC adepts: Clay Kempf, Todd Newberry, Debi Shearwater, Jeff Poklen, Eric Feuss, and the late Steve Allison. His favorite local days were (1) a fall morning at Natural Bridges when within about twenty minutes several locals found a Wilson’s, a Hooded, and a Canada warbler for a rare trifecta, and (2) a tennis morning on the UCSC East courts when looking up at a first serve toss enabled a startling view of an adult Bald Eagle directly overhead.
During the long absence from California, he missed a number of rare birds in the state, including some in Santa Cruz County, but has been fortunate to manage to see a number of the rare birds found (mostly by others) in the county the past 20 years. Scott and Linda like to bird anywhere in the county, but are particularly fond of birding offshore and in the coastal “vagrant traps”. They have the same total number of species, but each as seen a species of warbler in the county that the other has not. Santa Cruz is a great county and we feel very fortunate to live and bird here!
Provoked, he searched the net and found the Santa Cruz Bird Club web site. His first Bird Club walk was led by David Suddjian and he was astonished and delighted to see 20 new species that morning, 17th of January 2004.
His first warblers (Black Throated Grey and Wilson's) were shown by Bonnie Bedzin, a lovely lady who has not yet been mentioned on this page, and as a group the warblers are a constant challenge, delight and perennial favorite.
He credits the following outstanding club members for building his skills, David Suddjian, Todd Newberry, Clay Kempf, David Ekdahl, Eric Feuss, and for the Pelagics Debi Shearwater and Roger Wolfe.
A special mention has to go to one of the county’s (for that matter the USA’s) outstanding birders, Steve Gerow. Steve was very patient and helpful when Phil was starting, and has been responsible for finding a very large number of his county rarities. Steve's help has been invaluable in reaching this target, and he can't thank him enough.
Outstanding birds include a Brown Booby at Natural Bridges (his favorite birding spot, and despite the ribbing his wife and her friends gave him), a Yellow-Billed Cuckoo at the same place, and the same tri-fecta mentioned by Wally above.
Michelle caught the birding bug just prior to her 4 ½ year stint working at The Birdfeeder. She has also assisted with Snowy Plover surveys on the North Coast.
She likes to bird close to her home on the west side of Santa Cruz where she enjoys easy access to Lighthouse Field, Meder Canyon, UCSC Arboretum, Natural Bridges, Younger Lagoon, Long’s Marine Lab, Antonelli Pond and Wilder Ranch State Park.
Appropriately her email handle is Surf Scoter, Michelle is an avid surfer. Her most memorable county birds were the Grace’s Warbler and the Dusky Warbler with the Common Ground-Dove at the Homeless Garden a close third. She hit 300 for the county with the Buff-breasted Sandpiper at Struve Slough.
Roy lives in San Carlos, San Mateo County, and has been birding in California since 1970. He has been a member (off and on) of the SCBC since the mid-70s. He began his Santa Cruz County list in 1971, often birding here with Peter Metropulos, and encountering Santa Cruz birders of that era such as Bill Anderson and Randy Morgan.
Roy has birded in much of the Lower 48 states; and in Europe, Central America, Caribbean, Ecuador, Galapagos, eastern and southern Africa, and New Guinea. His current emphasis is on birding all 58 California counties. He has at least 125 species (NIB) in each of them. Being retired from the information technology field since December 31, 1999 (not wanting to ruin a new century) has been a BIG help!
He especially enjoys birding in Santa Cruz County with its varied habitat and the universal helpfulness and friendliness of the Santa Cruz birders.
Jeff started birding in 1965 while working as a range surveyor for the BLM in NE CA. It got easier after he took his guitar to Reno and pawned it for a pair of binoculars. For the next 40 years birding was always a secondary hobby while he pursued sports like running, biking, and kayaking, but he always had binoculars close at hand. In 1974 he and his wife Susan moved to San Francisco and a couple of years later he discovered Joe Morlan’s field ornithology classes which he attended for several years. After retiring from the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory at UCSF in 2001 he spent four years volunteering in the raptor banding program run by the GGRO.
Jeff and Susan moved to Santa Cruz in 2005 to be near their daughter after their grandson was born. Jeff discovered the SCBC field trips and met other birders in the area. Getting too old for endurance sports, birding became his main activity. Then, in 2008, the club put on the big year which more than doubled the number of field trips led by experts like Steve Gerow, David Suddjian, and others. Jeff saw the frequent guided trips of the big year as an opportunity to advance his knowledge of birds and his own Santa Cruz Co. list, and it worked. Following the trip leaders and taking advantage of their eyes and ears led to sightings of many birds he would never have found on his own.
His most memorable birding event was when a group he was with was looking at a Mountain Plover and a Rough-legged Hawk flew over. His favorite birding area is Watsonville Slough. One of his favorite bird sightings was a Black Tern seen there in July, 2011.
Some of Matt's greatest birding experiences in Santa Cruz have been of epic misses: the Common Ground-Dove, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, the Yellow-throated Vireo, the 7 Shearwater Day, the list goes on and on. This has led Matt to adopt an almost Zen-like approach to birding in the county: enjoying the rarities he has seen, and maintaining calm over all the ones he has missed. Birds like Oscar's Dusky Warbler, the Gray Catbird, a spring Baltimore Oriole (his best self-found bird in the county) and two Crested Caracaras, among many other highlights, have helped him at this task. His favorite place to bird in the county is Wilder Ranch State Park, a place that feels rife with possibility. In his opinion, it has the same feel as places like Big Sur or outer Pt Reyes, and he's looking forward to the day when he finds his first "mega" deep in a thick willow patch there.
His favorite find was a second county record of Dusky Warbler at Antonelli Pond, followed by a fly-over Red-throated Pipit at the same location the following day. However, his favorite day of birding occurred on 15 Oct 2006 while on a pelagic trip on Monterey Bay, when seven species of shearwaters were found, including a Great Shearwater, a Streaked Shearwater and three Manx Shearwaters, along with the added bonus of a Brown Booby.
In 1990, Steve moved from Humboldt to Monterey County to start his teaching career and quickly learned that the Monterey Bay region had an incredible diversity of bird life. Most of Steve's birding was in Monterey County, but trips to Santa Cruz to see outstanding birds such as Brambling and Dusky Warbler got him hooked. Slowly but surely, the list grew. Finally in May of 2011, Steve spotted his 300th (NIB) species in Santa Cruz, a singing Chipping Sparrow at Wilder Ranch State Park.
When he isn't birding, Steve enjoys teaching biology, tending his native plant garden, playing soccer, watching the San Jose Sharks and looking for odes (dragonflies and damselflies). His sons, Julian (14) and Marco (8) accompany him on many odeing excursions. Recently Marco visited Watsonville Slough with his dad and saw several lifers which he wrote about the next day in class. Perhaps he will join this group some day.
Alex was born and raised in the Santa Cruz Mountains. A field trip to Elkhorn Slough in second grade set his birding interest in motion. A few years later, David Suddjian introduced him to birding in Santa Cruz County through an outdoor birding class. Too young for a driver’s license at the time, he took up birding by bike (or, green birding using no fossil fuel) and still continues to do so today.
The most accessible place to go birding before he began attending UC Santa Cruz in 2011 was Quail Hollow Ranch County Park, his favorite birding spot in the county. Alex has spent much time there enjoying the park’s diverse habitats and always interesting bird life. Away from Quail Hollow, he enjoys birding at Castle Rock and Wilder Ranch State Parks. His most memorable county birding moment was when the wintering flock of Evening Grosbeaks at Henry Cowell decided to have a drink in a puddle just a few feet away from him.
David caught the birding bug on a trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains with his brother Dan in 2002. In 2003 he met his first Santa Cruz birder, Kumaran Arul, who turned him on the Santa Cruz Bird Club and MBB. Soon he went on club field trips led by Steve Gerow, Eric Feuss, Todd Newberry, David Suddjian, Clay Kempf, and others and met the other fine and friendly local birders. Eventually, he was able to lead beginner's bird walks for the club himself.
Terrace Point seems to be a lucky area for David where he found a Prairie Warbler in 2009 and a Pacific Golden-Plover in 2010 that were "chaseable" for other birders in the days after.