California Specialties

The main target bird, the Island Scrub-Jay, was covered in my previous post, but I had a couple more to look for as well, but these birds are non-natives, and have established breeding populations in the United States and are ABA countable.  So I figured that I might as well put some time and effort in trying to locate these other 2 species.  

The first one is the Red-whiskered Bulbul, which is native to tropical Asia and was introduced to the United States.  With a little research, I discovered that the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanical Gardens might be the best place to find this bird.  It did not take long to find one either.  As soon as I got out of my vehicle in the parking lot, the first thing I heard was Indian Peafowl, which everyone is familiar with, and the 2nd one was an unusual song that I had not heard before and it did not take long to pinpoint the source; a Red-whiskered Bulbul near the top of a tree in the parking lot.  Once I got inside, I found out that they were quite numerous and they are very vocal, so it was not hard to locate many more.

Red-whiskered Bulbul

As mentioned in my previous post, I was captivated by all the Allen's Hummingbirds and the chance to get some respectable photos of them.  

Allen's Hummingbird

Indian Peafowl were introduced to this site in the late 1800's and they are thriving, breeding, and well established at this location.  Have always loved the colors of these large birds.

Indian Peafowl - Male

Female

From this spot, I then traveled to the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife area and Balboa Lake, which are fairly close together and just separated by a golf course.  And I got a nice assortment of birds there as well.  

A leucistic American Coot - rather attractive for a coot!

Bushtit - Sure looks different from those in Arizona

California Gull

California Towhee

Egyptian Goose

A hybrid goose of some sort

Song Sparrow (ssp heermanni) - Much different than what we have in Arizona

Found a couple of lizards as well and not being real familiar with the species found in California, I had to rely on some of the experts on iNaturalist.org to supply an ID for them.  

Great Basin Fence Lizard

Western Fence Lizard

The Santa Cruz Island trip was wedged in between my arrival date and my departure date.  (See previous post.)  On my last day I had enough time to chase another countable non-native bird that is established in California; the Spotted Dove.  I had spent a lot of time researching in the weeks before my visit, to find out where it was being reported this year.  Incredibly, it was not being reported at any eBird Hotspots, so I had to make my way to the intersection of a couple of cross streets to begin my trek.  Who says you can't do any good birding at Home Depot or Target?  I had to walk up and down a street behind those two businesses that was lined with residences on one side.  Birding in and around a residence has to be done a bit judiciously.  Most people are not fond of people with binoculars and a camera probing their yards.  I walked this street from one end to the other and finally decided I was going to have to give up.  About a block from the car on my return, I saw a Mourning Dove fly up to an electrical line and shortly after, another dove-like bird fly to a line nearby.  Got my binoculars up and sure enough, there was a Spotted Dove.  Quickly took a couple of distant photos and then tried to get to an area with a closer view and by that time it was gone.  Talk about a last minute find!

Spotted Dove

I had time for one more stop before heading back to the airport in Burbank, so I headed to the San Gabriel River Parkway Nature Trail.  Nothing new, but got to view and photograph a couple of cool birds.

 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

 Cassin's Kingbird

California Scrub-Jay

Yes, the time flew by very quickly, but being able to notch a few more life birds made the trip all worthwhile.  New adventures await me in the next few months of 2017.  Hope they are successful.  

  

Rocky Point--The Beginning!

Puerto Penasco, Mexico, known by many as Rocky Point, Mexico.  Really hard to start this post as I really am not sure where to begin.  Spent 3 days and 2 nights in this splendid ocean community.  Guess it could be called Arizona's closest beach with sand.  Just a wonderful little get away where life is much more relaxed and a place to turn off one's electronic devices such as cell phones (roaming charges will add up quick!).  I did visit this spot about 3 years ago, but it was a short visit and most of our group was more into shopping and not birding.  Finally got the chance to go back this year and this time got to spend more time birding.  Being from a land locked state of Nebraska, many water birds were easily new life birds for me and with advanced guidance of a few experienced birders in Arizona, I had a great time and came away with 12 new life birds. 

Arrived fairly early on a Wednesday and it was cloudy (which is very unusual) and windy, and I spent my time birding around the fishing boat docks and near to downtown.  Sea gulls of many different species thrive here and they could be found all over.  Many of them were juveniles and for novice birders, these birds can be very difficult to identify.  Many species take up to 4 years to finally molt into their adult plumage, and they can look very different from year to year before they reach adulthood.  Then to make it even more confusing, some of these species seem to be a bit promiscuous and will hybridize quite readily which just adds more confusion to the identification process.  I decided to spend my time only trying to identify adult birds and leave the juveniles to the more experienced birders.

First birds I saw were large numbers of Eared Grebes on the water feeding on the fish in the clear water.  While I have seen Eared Grebes before, most usually in their winter plumage, most of these were all decked out in their breeding plumage and they are quite striking.  They were very active in diving for fish and the water was so clear that I was able to somewhat capture a photo of the fish in the water which they were feasting on.

Also located a Heerman's Gull along the rock near downtown.  The red beak is unmistakable.

Both the Heerman's Gull above and the California Gull below are 4 year gulls indicating they need 4 years to completely molt into their adult plumage and both of these are clearly 4 years old.

After spending some time downtown we returned to the condo where we were staying and and I spent some time in the later afternoon under the dark and gray skies on Sandy Beach.  It was approaching high tide and it was at this time that I discovered 2 of the birds on my 'want' list right on the beach following the waves that were rolling in and out.  The first birds were a pair of Sanderlings and they were very active probing in the sand and while I was trying to capture photos of them a pair of Surfbirds flew in nearby and actually were spending time in and around the Sanderlings.  I was able to get both species in one photo.  The Sanderlings are the smaller, whiter looking birds.

Later on as it started to turn to dusk and the waves were a full high tide, the gulls flew in and became very active and it took a while, but I finally found out the reason.  There were some fish coming in on the waves and beaching themselves in the sand and the gulls were feasting on those they could catch.  Not sure of the species of fish, but did manage to capture a photo of some of them and also a photo of one of the gulls that had caught one and it proceeded to swallow it whole.  The gull appears to be a a 2nd year Ring-billed Gull which are smaller than those earlier in my post.  The Ring-billed Gull is a 3 year gull instead of a 4 year gull and they are all over down in Rocky Point.

So far this was just the first day at Rocky Point and the 2nd day which will be posted later was even more memorable.