Birding
Where I've been/What I've seen
The next stop was Silver Strand SB where we hoped to see some interesting, usually pelagic species. Of note were several Brant, huge rafts of Surf Scoters in the bay, and a breeding plumaged Red-throated Loon about a quarter mile out. Also of interest was a large flock of Greater Scaup.
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Yay! First pelagic in 11 months!
Another early start to the morning, and it was definitely worth it. I arrived at the festival around 6:00, and the boat left at about 7. There I discovered that two other young birders had chosen to go on this pelagic. In the harbor we immediately had Red-breasted Merganser, Great Blue Heron, and Snowy and Great Egrets, along with some coots. We then left for the entrance channel, where some Black-bellied Plovers, Western Sandpipers, Brant, and a Ruddy Turnstone were hanging out (no Surfbirds). Further out, we started to have our first Shearwaters of the day, all of which were Black-vented. On the water were some very uncooperative alcids, being Cassin’s Auklet, Scripps’s Murrelet, and Rhinoceros Auklet. Later in the day we would get better looks of these. By lunch, we had many good looks at these Alcids, and this is when the good stuff started to show up. The leader of the trip spotted a COMMON TERN flying northward, a very unusual species for San Diego in the middle of February. I got maybe the worst photo possible of the bird, and it’s nearly impossible to tell it’s a COTE from this photo: About an hour later, I was discussing how nice it would be to had a rare gull show up right about now, when KITTIWAKE was called out. Sure enough, the bird was a Black-legged Kittiwake, and my only lifer of the day. At the last spot we headed to, there was a raft of shearwaters and gulls. We were unable to pick out anything of interest here, until a jaeger was spotted. It was identified as a Pomarine, and was the only jaeger seen that day. It was a surprisingly cooperative bird, and I was quite happy, as I had been hoping to see one throughout the day. We then progressed back to the harbor, where we added a day bird Whimbrel, and dipped on the Surfbirds. Today’s trip was Birding the Border. I got up at about 4:40, and left my house around 5:00. I met a ton of people immediately on the van, all of whom were really friendly. We immediately left after making sure everyone was on the van and departed for our first stop, Dairy Mart Ponds. We walked down the trail a little and stopped at the blind, where we had plenty of common waterfowl, California Gulls, and a Herring Gull. Continuing on the trail, we had an Orange-Crowned Warbler, three American Goldfinches, some more gulls, and even more ducks. We then checked the other pond where I found a Cinnamon Teal, California Gnatcatcher, and Tree Swallows. We then saw a flash of bright red, and had a Northern Cardinal, and exotic in San Diego still, but still cool nonetheless. We were headed back to the van when somebody called out Common Gallinule, a day bird, and everyone in the group got looks at it. eBird checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S34820070 Our next stop was “Goat Canyon”, so close to the border, during storms, Mexican coins wash up here(also probably in other cases too). Border Patrol here seemed to be pretty tight, as the border was pretty much 1000 ft away(you could see Mexican License Plates on the cars on the other side). Some people requested a bathroom break at the trailhead, where we had both gnatcatchers and a Downy Woodpecker. We hiked into the canyon where we had great looks at Rock Wren, and California Gnatcatcher. Our trip leader told us to stop, as it was around the spot that he had Rufous-Crowned Sparrows, an uncommon bird in the county. He tried some playback, and almost immediately, the birds came in, only the second time I had seen them(the first happened to be in my yard for some reason). eBird checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S34820064 We then left Goat, and decided to make some “quick” stops at the Bird and Butterfly Garden, as well as the nearby ball fields. At the first stop, the Ball Fields, we had the know Vermillion Flycatchers, found an awesome TROPICAL KINGBIRD as well as some pipits. eBird checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S34820054 Our next stop was the “fabled about” Bird and Butterfly Garden. We stopped here to look for some reported CGDO, and Sapsuckers. I spotted the first CGDO, and tried without success to re-find it. Of course, while most of the group was looking for it, a smaller group found three of them at one of the drips. We then tried to find a sapsucker. A very keen eyed member of the group found two woodpeckers in a group, one being a Nuttall’s, and the other refusing to show itself. We eventually identified this as the seldom reported Red-breasted Sapsucker here(a lifer). Nobody could get photos as, well, whenever a camera got focused on it, it moved or flew. Another highlight at the gardens were some swifts and swallows flying above. VG swallows were the highlights of these birds. eBird checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S34820060 One of our final stops(we skipped a couple because of time), was the TJ River Slough. Here we looked for the nearby resident Yellow-crowned Night Herons, and other local marsh birds. We heard, and saw a Ridgeway’s Rail, some ducks, and shorebirds. That was about it, but on the way back, we added TUVU, Red-breasted Merganser, and three Northern Harriers. eBird checklists: 1) http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S34820049 2) http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S34820040 We then proceeded to the J Street Mudflats, where we would tidy up some of the more common birds we were missing. We saw Green-winged Teal, a wide variety of gulls, including a Glaucous-winged, a lot of Brant, and some Scoters. We decided to hop back in the van after about thirty minutes of scanning the bay and the gull flock.
On the way back to conference center, we counted our species total. I wasn’t anticipating too many, but somehow we managed to get to 100. I missed the Great-Blue Heron at the mudflats, but I saw every other bird on the list, but I was pretty happy with the 99. eBird checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S34820031 Again I wasn’t getting picked up until later so I decided to walk over with another young birder to look for a Burrowing Owl. I got my best pics of the species ever, and I’m pretty happy with the results: eBird checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/ybn/view/checklist/S34774615 Earliest wake up day today! Got up around 4:10 to be at the festival by five. After checking in and eating breakfast, I hopped on the bus headed to Anza-Borrego State Park. On the way there I had a Prairie Falcon, Mountain Bluebird, and a flock of about 30 Red-winged or Tricolored Blackbirds. I fell asleep, which explains the general lack of birds while traveling through there. We arrived at the campground after the slightly scary way down a Mountain road in a bus, and I immediately saw a White-winged Dove I then heard my ABA nemesis, Verdin, and tried to go find it. I saw it, but while I was enjoying the sight of it, I heard a drumming sound right above me. Turns out it was a Ladder-backed Woodpecker, and according to our leader, it was a very nice sighting. We decided to go around the center, to see if we could pull out anything before venturing out around Anza-Borrego. I pulled out some Western Bluebird and LEGOs, while the rest of the group found a male Costa’s Hummer, more Verdin, and a Cactus Wren. We also had a kind of out of place Sora in a little pond. The bus driver had pulled up, so we decided to get back into the bus and head to our next stop. eBird Checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S34766694 This next stop according to our leader was some place called the “Access Trail”, to stop to see if we could find Rock Wrens, Black-throated Sparrows, and more Costa’s Hummingbirds, along with our best chance at Peninsular Bighorn Sheep. One of the first things I noted on the ground were several of their tracks, which kind of looked like two ovals right next to each other. Then, while walking to the Rock Wren spot, we had my Lifer Black-throated Sparrow, and I took some not amazing pictures of it. We then stopped again and listened for Rock Wrens. I heard at least four, and then the trip leader found one sitting on a rock. It was pretty distant, but I got some nice views in the scope. We reached the end of the trail and turned around, and during the process we found California Quail, Costa’s Hummers, and a kettle of TUVUs. We were about 500ft from the van when somebody called “SHEEP”, and on the hill, were about 8 female and lamb Bighorn Sheep. The group got really excited and we stayed watching the sheep for a good 15 minutes. eBird Checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S34766696 On our next stop we had a chance at Bell’s Sparrow, and LeConte’s Thrasher, but dipped on both. In fact, the only bird seen was a Common Raven. I’m not even going to put in the eBird list. We then had a 20 minute break for lunch. The next stop was the Settling Ponds, where the only highlights were Phainopepla and Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, and other than that it was practically dead. eBird Checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S34766700 We then proceeded to our last stop, which was a campground just west of Borrego Springs. Since it was toward the warmest hours of the day, birds had seemed to stop making any movements, and you just had to get really lucky by flushing them. Highlights here were Lincoln’s Sparrow(a year bird), and a pretty Adult Male Costa’s Hummingbird(along with a couple of females). eBird Checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S34766698 We called it a day and headed back to the festival HQ. I was getting picked up in an hour so I decided to check the river for a Mew Gull. I got really lucky, and it happened to be the first bird I looked at!
eBird Checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S34766698 I got picked up after doing some more birding over there, and that was the end of the day for me. |
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