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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Lake Pleasant, Peoria, Maricopa County, AZ

Monday, October 29, 2018

Despite its name, some of my birding trips over to Lake Pleasant have been anything but.

More than once, after a report of a rarity, I joined others in trying to find a single bird out on that lake that measures 7500 surface acres. Add wind to that water, then look at a couple birders standing on shore looking through a spotting scope for a single rare bird and … well, you get the picture. Swells and a few white caps and … where the dickens is the bird? Even moving from place to place around the lake didn’t change the result! Eyes watered from cold winds and trying to look through the scope. I rarely got excited about heading over there.

Today was an entirely different experience. The Regional Park is located in our Sonoran Desert giving sustenance to many species of critters and birds who survive well here. When Mary McSparen, a birder who lives in that area,  invited me to join her for some birding, I readily did so.

Sonoran Desert bordering Lake Pleasant

By 8:15 a.m., at one of her favored spots in the desert, both of us began snapping photos of a number of BLACK-THROATED SPARROWs, BLACK-TAILED GNATCATCHERs and VERDIN.

BLACK-THROATED SPARROW

BLACK-TAILED GNATCATCHER

Photo by Mary McSparen

VERDIN - [Photo by Mary McSparen]

Later, as we birded from the edge of a portion of the lake, a duck flew toward us. Mary was quick with her camera to catch the bird in flight. It didn’t land but continued past us toward the larger lake. The “preview” shot of the bird was awesome. I pulled out my phone and checked the iBird app for COMMON LOON - YES!  Unmistakeably!  WOW!

Both COMMON LOON photos above by Mary McSparen

After birding that area for about 90 minutes, Mary led us to Scorpion Bay which we covered by pontoon boat for several more hours. The water was as calm as I’ve ever seen it! 

Each cove sheltered many many WESTERN GREBEs — graceful in all their movements and vocalizing among themselves.

WESTERN GREBE

Of course, we were searching through the flocks for sight of a CLARK’S GREBE that I figured would be found most easily from our photos of them. From my photos, I identified one CLARK’S, but, as usual for distant photos, it lacked the sharpness that is really required to show the details that separate the two similar species: WESTERN & CLARK’S GREBE. Thus, Mary spent much time going through her grebe photos as well.  And, bingo. Perfect differentiation.

CLARK'S GREBE  [Photo by Mary McSparen]

Other ducks were more easily identified. It was definitely helpful to be out on the water among them.

REDHEAD DUCK (above and below)

EARED GREBE  [Photo by Mary McSparen]

 And, below, one of my photos of two of the distant EARED GREBE.

CALIFORNIA GULL (above and below)

After 6.5 hours of birding Lake Pleasant, I must admit, it is a phenomenal oasis in the desert. Then, again, we caught a calm beautiful day on the water.

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View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S49552613