Lesser Goldfinch looking coy.
Wrentit!!! What about this bird makes it so desired? The bouncy ball song is cool. The large eye is nice. Skulkers are generally good birds. I can't really explain it fully but Wrentits are badass.
California Towhees are not the best of the Towhees but absence makes the heart grow fond so I was happy to make this bird's acquaintance.
Dang Wrentit would not allow a full exposed picture. There was always a little flaw like this flower obscuring a small bit of Wrentit forehead which is unfortunate because Wrentits have very nice foreheads.
I did not scrutinize too many of the hummers as I was low on time but I assume they were mostly if not all Anna's HBs.
Spotted Towhees have our Eastern Towhees beat any day of the week.
Orange-crowned Warbler
At Mission Bay I was able to get in 45 minutes scanning the San Diego River mudflats.
On the East Coast we don't have to worry about Long-billed Curlews photo-bombing our Belted Kingfishers. This is the main reason I choose to live on the East Coast. Curlews are so inconvenient.
Throwing a couple of the rocks at the Curlew, I was able to get him to move. Kidding of course, please don't sick PETA on me.
The Long-billed Curlew alive and well, although a bit haggard looking.
Brants always look a little out of focus. They just don't have the clean lines of other species. I hope to crush a Brant one day.
This Audubon's Yellow-rump also looked a bit haggard despite the fresh plumage. Perhaps El Nino has been rough on these Souther Cali birds.
Eared Grebes have the cutest tooshies (lame word but can you think of a better one when describing an Eared Grebe's posterior?).
Cassin's Kingbirds need to get the memo from their Western brethren and start straying in North Carolina. I was tempted to put this one in my pocket.
Finally the Whale-watch left harbor and I quickly found I was the only one on the boat that could care less about birds. It seemed I would be the only eyes on the boat looking for birds so I made an effort to scan extra hard.
Common Dolphins - I need to start a mammal life list.
This guy flew by very quickly and I only managed some quick shots. I believe it is a Sooty Shearwater.
Chocolatey Tubenose Goodness. This was the second all dark pelagic bird I had seen but the first was a very quick look and for all I know it was a Brown Booby or even a Flesh-footed Shearwater. I am fairly certain this second bird was a Sooty Shearwater.
There was not much pelagic bird action at all compared to my only other West Coast off shore trip in Monterrey. So when I saw these Storm-petrels I set to work snapping as many pics as I could.
I added them to my list as Black Storm-petrels but I suppose they could be Ashy Storm-petrels.
Here they look like Black SPs - dark and relatively short-tailed.
Here I could see an Ashy trait - the light rump. However I think it could just be a light artifact.
The carpal bars were so defined and long.... searching eBird it seems Black is more likely although the reports are very spotty this time of year. The only other possibility I can think of is dark morph Leach's SP. Actually the carpal bars were long and it had the bouncy night-hawk like flight style but I think this would be even more rare than a Black.
The boat was happy when they finally found a whale. A Fin Whale - the second largest whale in the world.
Presumed Pomarine Jaeger.
Note it has more than 4-5 white shafts on topside of wing.
At the time I figured this Shearwater was a Black-vented, but now I am not so sure. The black on the vent was somewhat limited. Could it be a Manx?
Pacific White-sided Dolphins
The snazziest Double-crested Cormorant I have ever seen.
In the evening a trip to Tijuana Estuary near Imperial Beach yielded some of the best birds of the trip.
Ghost-faced Killah
The Ruddiest of the Ruddy Ducks
Eared Grebe
This Long-billed Curlew dwarfed the Whimbrel to the right.
I was hearing tons of Ridgeway Rail calls so it was just a matter of time and I stood stock still hoping one would present itself. I was not prepared for the looks I ended up getting.
Last time I saw these bad boys they were just run of the mill Clapper Rails. Now they are a new species - Ridgeway's Rail. Nothing like a recent split to render a bird more interesting.
Ummmmm....This bird was already thin as a rail but I was determined to crush it even further.
WTF! these birds were completely forgetting their shy nature and proceeded to copulate right in front of me. I was fumbling with my iPhone at the time trying to get video of the sex act so I completely missed getting photos.
In talking to some local birders later in the trip, my experience with this species was pretty exceptional and one of them even said he has only caught glimpses of Ridgeway's Rails. Either he was an incompetent birder or I was extremely lucky.
Ok this was getting ridiculous... I will refrain from the Why did the Chicken Cross the Road jokes, but I can tell you it was to get to the other side. Whoops, I guess I did the joke unwittingly.
This chicken can consider himself crushed.
I saw this Mallard cross from the Mexican side of the border so I checked his papers. He was just a regular Mallard and not Mexican at all, so I let him proceed.
I marked this as a Clarke's Grebe but now that I have scrutinized it further, maybe it is some intergrade as the eye is not completely isolated by white.
Say's Phoebe
Whimbrel
If this was not already one of the better days of birding I have had in a long time, I heard the distinct calls of Parrots right before dark. So naturally I ran over to the sounds like a kid in a candy shop. I am not above running around like a complete clucker but I will draw the line at crawling around on my belly like I have seem some photographers do.
I initially flagged these as Red-lored Parrots mainly because my phone was out of juice and they had red lores. Later I checked eBird and apparently the ones that hang in Imperial Beach are Lilac-crowned and Yellow-headed.
A nice shot showing both Yellow-headed and Lilac-crowned. I am not sure if either of these are recognized breeders in the ABA region but they are pretty badass.
They were loud and fighting constantly.
Thursday was mostly eaten by work, but I managed to get away for an hour and headed to La Jolla Cove.
Surfbird
Whimbrel
Not sure why there is a controversy at La Jolla's Children's Pool about the seals. What is so controversial about this animal. It is so cute that it should be encouraged to chill out there. Surely there are other beaches for people to go to if they don't like seals.
Brandt's Cormorant
Needless to say, I was a little miffed to hear next day that someone had a Red-footed Booby at La Jolla cove just around the same time I was there.
Friday was my big client meeting but we got out at 4pm and I headed straight back to Tijuana Estuary to try for the Pacific Golden Plover that has been seen there on and off for the past couple months.
I met some birder on the Beach and asked if he had seen the plover and he said "no they are hard to see, being that they are only as big as a sparrow and colored like sand". I explained that a Pacific Golden was bigger than a sparrow and was in fact golden. He consulted his guide book and corrected himself that he was talking about the Snowy Plovers. So I pointed over his shoulder where 4-5 of them were sitting. In fact I ended up seeing about 40-50 of them. Sometimes I am perplexed at the skills of some birders. Maybe he was partially blind.
Pacific Golden Plover aka Snowy Plover
A girl on the beach walked up behind me and whispered in my ear "That's the biggest carbuncle I have ever seen." I turned and stepped back and told her I was married. She said "I was talking about that pelican over there". Needless to say I was embarrassed and apologized profusely.
American White Pelican and Brown Pelican to the right. Look at the carbuncle on that one bird on the left. They use it for fighting off other males during breeding season. White Pelicans are great but look at that Brown Pelican. Very snazzy.
I did finally find a bunch of Black-bellied Plovers but they were too far to be able to differentiate if the Pacific Golden was amongst them. I was cursing not bringing my scope but what good is a scope anyhow if you can't get a decent picture. I don't see Pacific Golden Plovers often, but when I do I like seeing them up close and personal preferably with a Dos Equis in hand.
This Peregrine Falcon was not helping the situation.
I was so damn close to the border that I could see the 7-Eleven sign in TJ. The border fence didn't look all that big. Good thing Trump is going to get the Mexicans to build a bigger fence. He is so smart, getting them to pay for a bigger fence is a brilliant idea. What a dumbass. If he is elected I can't wait to see how long it takes to impeach him. I hope California goes for Bernie in June. With all the California delegates he could take the nomination. I believe it is a winner take all state.
Caspian Tern
Garbled Modwit
Looks like the only Murrelet I was destined to find was dead and not recognizable. I took some DNA samples so I could put it on my list later.
Black-bellied? The damn breeding fences kept me too far from the Plover flock and I was tearing out my hair in agony.
Belding's Savannah Sparrow - I wish they would split these already.
Black Phoebe looking more like a Gold Phoebe in the gloaming.
I need to move back to Cali. Too many good birds.... Until then I hope the Californians take care of it for me.
I am now sitting in NC and planning my next attack. Shorebirds at the Spit or Warblers on Lee Bucks? First I have to clean my porch of all the pollen.
No comments:
Post a Comment