July 6, 2005
SW California birding
Having birded the NE and NW corners of the state over the previous two weekends, I decided to head down to SW California with Marcel in search of the local specialities and a selection of rarities. Our first stop in the early afternoon was the Salton Sea, where the temperature reached a sweltering 113F - not pleasant! Along with San Francisco birder Calvin Lou (always nice to put a face to a name), we listened to a Black Rail giving its 'Kikidoo' call at Fig Lagoon. Back at the Salton Sea, we failed to find any of the reported Wood Storks, but enjoyed catching up with some of the speciality birds including a soaring Zone-tailed Hawk (a hard bird to find in CA), several Black Skimmers...
Brown Pelicans...
... and Yellow-footed Gulls.
Look at the size of its bill!
At the Obsidian Butte we flushed a Lesser Nighthawk, which flapped a short distance with its tail drooping before landing with its wings outstretched. I assume this bird was doing a Killdeer-style distraction display to lure us away from its nest.
I seem to do pretty well for getting outstanding views of this species!
In the late afternoon we drove east to try some owling on Mount Palomar. It was generally very quiet (we heard one unidentified call which may have been a Spotted Owl), but we were treated to a great view of a meteor burning up in the atmosphere.
After very little sleep (finding a hotel room in San Diego on Independence Day weekend is not easy!), we headed up to the Laguna Mountains and quickly connected with the singing Greater Pewee. This bird was much more vocal than the pewees we saw in AZ last month, presumably because he hadn't found a mate.
Even though it's not quite in focus, I was pleased to get this shot of a feeding Allen's Hummingbird.
The nearby creek was very birdy, the best birds being a single Lawrence's Goldfinch and some unusually obliging Band-tailed Pigeons.
After a quick stop on Kitchen Creek Road (where I finally got 'tickable views' of Black-chinned Sparrow), we proceeded to the Tijuana River Estuary, about as far south and west as it's possible to get in the US. Here we ran into one of the two Yellow-crowned Night Herons. The bird wasn't shy - in fact, most of the time it was too close to digiscope!
I guess this is the subadult bird given the streaking (rather than solid black) below the white cheek patch.
This rather worn-looking Black Phoebe was also quite the poser.
A quick check of the south end of the bay produced two breeding-plumaged Little Blue Herons (San Diego is the only place in CA where this species occurs with any regularity).
South of the Tijuana River we ran into a family of the endemic California Gnatcatchers. Note the diagnostic undertail pattern on this baby.
We drove back to Mount Palomar and were extremely fortunate to see and hear the oversummering Ovenbird. Here's another contender for the worst bird photo I've ever taken - if you look really hard, you can just make out some orange on the crown and the white eye-ring!
This Tiger Lily was somewhat easier to photograph!
We decided to make a crazy dash to the San Bernadino Mountains to try and get Hepatic Tanager before dark. We failed in this, but had nice views of Common Nighthawk and several Poorwills on the way back. Whip-poor-will was much less cooperative - Marcel heard a single call, and I missed it completely!
Yesterday morning at the Greater Pewee site we bumped into Scott and Linda Terrill, who had seen 10 Wood Storks at the Salton Sea the day that we missed them. Having caught up with most of our other targets, we decided to return for another shot. Sure enough, Marcel spotted one flying north towards the mountains. Always good to see!
Burrowing Owls were everywhere - I counted at least 25 along the length of McDonald Road.
Good numbers of shorebirds included hundreds of Avocets...
... and a few Snowy Plovers.
There was interesting selection of gulls too, including a single Heerman's.
It looked to be coping with the heat about as well as I was!
Our day total of Laughing Gull sightings was 38 - at least 29 of these were sitting on the same lagoon. We'd kill for just one in Yolo County!
We returned to the San Bernadinos for another attempt at Hepatic Tanager. This was again frustrating - in 2 hours of searching Marcel had a 3-second glimpse of a probable immature bird and that was it! Consolation prizes included brief looks at a Calliope Hummingbird and several nice singing male Lazuli Buntings. Somewhat miraculously, we managed to drive across LA without running into any traffic, and I was home in time to catch the Independence Day firework display in Davis - a fitting end to a great weekend!
