The Santa Cruz Bird Club found a Common Cuckoo in Watsonville, Ca (Santa Cruz county) on Fri., 9/28. Here are link to some initial postings.
http://digest.sialia.com/?rm=message;id=518639
http://digest.sialia.com/?rm=message;id=518693
http://digest.sialia.com/?rm=message;id=519011
The bird was still being seen today around noon. As you can imagine, there are a LOT of birders present. All are welcome!!
Joe Devine
We drove over to the Calif. coast to get this great bird on Sun. afternoon. There were many, many birders & lots of big lenses. The only shot I could get was in the shadows & severely back lit. High ISO & some photoshopping and I ended up w/ this.
[IMG]i5.photobucket.com/.../CommonCuckoo.jpg[/IMG]
The Cuckoo has not been seen at the Watsonville Slough since Tues., 10/2. One birder thought they had seen it at another slough a couple of miles away, but intense searching hasn't turned up the bird yet. We had an unprecedented heat wave the first of the week where temps hit over 100 in the Salinas valley & in Watsonville (which isn't that far from the coast). The bird was seen panting the last day seen, so it's assumed by some that the heat chased it away.
Anyway, what a GREAT bird it was! This was only the 2nd record in the lower 48 US States; the first one being in 1981 at Martha's Vineyard on the other side of the continent. Here's a link to a video of the bird taken by Keith Hansen, well known bird artist/illustrator from Bolinas, Ca.
http://youtu.be/OKE4pzgv1qU
Joe
thanks for your reports about this bird, Joe. What a great find!