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A common cuckoo, well off its usual migratory path between Eurasia and Africa, perches on a willow tree in Watsonville Slough. (Dinuk Magamman/Contributed)


WATSONVILLE -- For the Pajaro Valley, 2012 was what you might call a "big year."

That's the term birders use when they set out to see how many different avian species they can spot in a calendar year.

Here, in what would be known in English as Bird Valley, with its lakes and wetlands, shoreline and forest, there's always plenty of species to count. But when a pair of bald eagles and a common cuckoo showed up, hordes of humans flocked to the area to witness the rare events.

"For people into birds, it's a pretty exciting occurrence when you have a bald eagle at Pinto Lake or a cuckoo in Watsonville," said veteran Pajaro Valley birder Bob Ramer.

But it wasn't just birders. Nature lovers of all stripes, photographers and the just plain curious were drawn to Pinto Lake County Park when news broke in March that a pair of bald eagles was building a nest in a grove of eucalyptus trees.

Dobie Jenkins, a Watsonville resident and bird enthusiast, called their nest-building the "biggest excitement in years." Indeed, people toting binoculars and cameras with long lenses lined the shoreline, parents brought children.


The county is within the historic range of bald eagles, but there are no records of any nesting here. They've long been considered endangered in the state, their decline in the last century pinned on the toxic effects of DDT. By the time the pesticide was banned in 1972, fewer than 30 nesting pairs remained in California.

In the past few decades, they've been a rare sight here. To have a pair building a nest, as well as in other counties this year, was a sign of a species in recovery.

Though the pair of young birds ultimately abandoned the nest at Pinto Lake, a bald eagle reported in the area since November has raised hopes that the birds will return to begin repopulating the coast.

The chances of seeing a common cuckoo here, returning or otherwise, is remote. The 13-inch bird migrates between Europe and Asia and Africa. A vagrant or off-course cuckoo turns up in Alaska from time to time, but before the Watsonville sightings the last one to make it to the lower 48 -- at least as far as records go -- was in 1981 across the country in Martha's Vineyard.

So when a cuckoo came to rest in Watsonville Slough for a few days in September and October, she caused a stir. Attendees at an ornithologist conference in Petaluma jumped in cars and drove down. Others grabbed flights from as far away as Canada for what for some was a once-in-a-lifetime birding opportunity. The crowds grew so large, the traffic so steady, the city added hours to its nearby nature center to accommodate visitors.

The cuckoo's stay was briefer than most would have liked, less than a week. But Watsonville has spent the past few years trying to position itself as a birding destination, and she may have put the city on the map.

"It's a big positive for Watsonville," said Nancy Lockwood, the city's environmental project manager, in October. "I'm grateful to that bird."

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