Southern California Birding Adventure; November 9-12, 2018

November 9-12, 2018
Day #1:
With a seven-hour driving time to reach the California coast, we (Hinde Silver and Rosemarie Lueke-driver) joined me on Friday at 4:30 a.m. for a unique visit to some hot spots in the Huntington Beach area and beyond.

Almost 11 a.m. when we started birding at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, I was greatly disappointed that the boardwalk was not open across the narrow channel that runs beside the Pacific Coast Highway. The boardwalk leads to the backwaters full of gulls, skimmers and shorebirds. No mention of this detail had been mentioned on its web site.

Following a path along the narrow pond beside the highway, we found ample waterfowl to, at a minimum, satisfy us after sitting for so long in the car.  

From our local ponds in the Phoenix area, we were able to quite easily identify AMERICAN WIGEON, NORTHERN PINTAIL, BUFFLEHEAD, RUDDY DUCK, HORNED, EARED AND WESTERN GREBE.  In the shallows we enjoyed seeing about a dozen MARBLED GODWIT and one LONG-BILLED CURLEW.  The WESTERN WILLET may have been a Life Bird for my birder friends (I didn't keep track of their Lifers).

Photos from that riparian stretch:

LONG-BILLED CURLEW

WESTERN GREBE

HORNED GREBE

BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER 

BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON

BROWN PELICAN

OSPREY

OSPREY - Looking Hard before a dive

AMERICAN KESTREL (male)

Day #2
San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary was our destination on Saturday morning and it did not disappoint! Covering the majority of the area, including seven ponds, we managed to identify 59 species in about four hours.

MALLARD

NORTHERN SHOVELER

CINNAMON TEAL

GADWALL

LEAST SANDPIPER

LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER

RED-TAILED HAWK

CASSIN'S KINGBIRD

WESTERN KINGBIRD

SONG SPARROW

Eating lunch on-the-go as usual (from what we had carried from home), we drove to our next stop where I had noted on an old eBird list that some rare birds might be possible.
Not a military cemetery, the WESTMINSTER MEMORIAL PARK was still quite busy possibly because of the recent Day of the Dead festival for celebrating and welcoming back to our human realm those that were buried.

We wandered from bird song to bird song. With lots of green grass, tall trees and hedgerows, the place provided habitat for many more birds that we actually saw. Everything was still very green; trees were in full leaf. With only 23 species to show for our three-hours of wandering the grounds away from burials and those visiting grave sites, we were able to find our three target birds plus others. YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERs were probably far in excess of the 45 we listed on eBird; they were everywhere. Curiously, BLACK PHOEBE also liked the habitat; we easily had five if not more.

Two RED-TAILED HAWK

ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER - gray headed; (above and below)

WESTERN BLUEBIRD

PIN-TALED WHYDAH (female)

Feeling great after such a good birding day, we visited a restaurant that I liked on a birding trip with Kathe Anderson to this area several years ago: Silk Thai. Not only delicious, it hit just the right touch of "hot" and the restaurant gave a 20% Happy Hour discount on the food since we had all ordered water!!

Day #3
We arrived at Huntington Central Park-East at 7:00 a.m. and got right into the Urban Forest on good trails. Two EGYPTIAN GOOSE were among the first birds we spotted.

EGYPTIAN GOOSE

About a dozen WESTERN BLUEBIRDs were hanging out in one area while HERMIT THRUSH were scattered throughout the park.

WESTERN BLUEBIRD

HERMIT THRUSH

Much like our LADDER-BACKED WOODPECKER, this NUTTALL'S WOODPECKER below was seen throughout the park. This is the only good photo I got from the various sites we visited and also saw it.

NUTTALL'S WOODPECKER - How does it differ from Ladder-backed?

I particularly liked the pose of this WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW (Gambel's)

Here again, we spotted the SCALY-BREASTED MUNIA. Photos were hard to come by but I'm posting the best of the bad. Female is on the lower branch.

Not every day do we find a SNOWY EGRET so close to a young BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON.

Leaving Central Park, we took another birder's advice and headed to a much less manicured site at Peck Road Water Conservation Park in Los Angeles County.  We had another site to visit in that county, too, and worked them both into our full day of birding.

At Peck Road, we spotted another JAPANESE WHITE EYE but it evaded my camera. Not so for the WHITE PELICAN that glided gracefully over the water-retention area.

I found this HERRING GULL on a back-water area

Although we tallied 27 species at this location, I didn't take many photos.  

Our final birding spot of the day was at Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden.
INDIAN PEAFOWL were wandering all over the grounds.

But the bird we came looking for was a bit harder to find. We had wandered over a good portion of the arboretum when I stepped off the trail onto an open area just to see if there was water behind a fence.  No water - but what we did see had us grinning from ear to ear!
Unfortunately the RED-WHISKERED BULBUL were all backlit - most were in a thicket of vines along a fence across the concrete canal.  A few in the open - still backlit - were barely within camera range, but I was shooting up a storm...of frustration.  No good looks. I stopped taking pictures and tried to get good views of those where sun would light up a piece of the bird. Finally, about a half dozen flew to our side with one choosing to sit right above me on a utility wire.

RED-WHISKERED BULBUL

We counted 17 altogether. The above is the only decent photo.

L-R: Rosemarie, Hinde at LA Arboretum

Hinde & Babs  [photo by Rosemarie]

Starting the afternoon with a JAPANESE WHITE EYE and finishing with this RED-WHISKERED BULBUL filled us...made us feel like our day was complete...our trip had turned out well...and we would head back home early Monday morning.

And, so we did.  

L-R: Rosemarie & Hinde heading to the exit of LA Arboretum

100 species for the trip; 4 Life Birds for me [Wrentit, Scaly-breasted Munia, Pin-Tailed Whydah and Red-whiskered Bulbul]; Hinde and Rosemarie gained many more Life Birds.

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