San Diego: The Quest For a Tattler

In preparing for this trip to San Diego, I had gone through a lot of lists and reports to see what new birds I could possibly find in San Diego.  Surprisingly, the list was relatively small.  Only 2 life birds stood out for me, without taking a pelagic trip for sea birds out on the ocean, the Wandering Tattler and the Scaly-breasted Munia.  Most of the other species in southern California were either birds that could also be found in Arizona, or birds that I had already found on a few previous trips to the area.  Prime target was Wandering Tattler.  After perusing the many eBird reports on this bird for the month of January, it appeared that it was most frequently encountered around the La Jolla Cove area on the coastline.  I decided that this would be my first stop to see if one might be hanging out in this area. Thanks to all the new smart technology and the use of my iPhone, I was able to locate this place in a reasonable amount of time.  What a view this was from the parking along the street high above the ocean waves crashing on the rocks below.  It was early morning and the cliffs were covered with cormorants; Brandt's, Pelagic, and a couple of Double-crested in the mix.  A few Brown Pelicans dotted the rocks as well.  But what quickly caught my attention was a Brown Booby on the cliffs with all the cormorants. Not a bird that I see that often and fairly close.

 Brown Booby

 Brandt's Cormorant

Brown Pelican

I decided to walk the entire coast road and along the way, I had the pleasure of seeing some California Sea Lions and at the far end, some Harbor Seals.  Both species had pups and they were pretty darned cute if you ask me.  And for those that are interested, sea lions have small visible ear flaps, whereas seals do not have visible ear flaps

 California Sea Lion & Pup

 Harbor Seal & Pup

Harbor Seal

Just as I reached the end of the walk, I noticed a different bird on a large boulder along the shore and once I got my binoculars on it, then I knew that I had struck gold; Wandering Tattler!  Sandpipers can sometimes be notoriously difficult to identify, but knowing behavior of many birds can most assuredly help in the ID process.  The Wandering Tattler has a behavior of bobbing and teetering as it walks or stand still.  This behavior is also seen in Spotted Sandpipers, but these 2 birds are vastly different in appearance, so it would be difficult to get them confused.

 Wandering Tattler

Also along this area I was able to find and photograph a Black Turnstone, a Royal Tern, and a Western Gull.

 Black Turnstone

Royal Tern

Western Gull

Mission accomplished for my number 1 target bird and I still had a lot of time left in the day.  My next plan was to visit Tijuana Slough, which is a place I had visited in May of last year and I liked it so well, I wanted to go again.  But along the way, I decided to make a slight detour off the freeway and visit Tecolote Canyon Natural Park.  Reports of the Scaly-breasted Munia had been sketchy on eBird up to this point, but this spot seemed to be the most likely possibility.  I pulled into the lot, parked my car and got out to hear an American Crow calling and then heard something unfamiliar to me on the north side of the parking lot, and lo and behold, there was the Scaly-breasted Munia!   That just seemed too easy, but then I remember so many of the times I have dipped on birds, so I guess I was due for a bit of good luck!

 Scaly-breasted Munia

Scaly-breasted Muni

But since I was there, I decided to hike a ways up the canyon to see what else I could find.  Got some decent looks at Bushtits, California Towhee, and California Thrasher.

 Bushtit

 California Towhee

California Thrasher

I then made my way to Tijuana Slough, and while there, my zoom lens on my camera quite working.  I was left without a workable zoom lens for the rest of Saturday and all day on Sunday, so photos became a bit tougher.  Nevertheless, on Sunday I headed out to the area of the San Diego Harbor area.  I was looking for another bird that I had only seen once before in Rocky Point, Mexico, and at quite a distance.  This time I was hoping to see a Brant a little closer and also add it to my USA list.  I not only saw it, but I saw over 100 of them!  Without a zoom lens, I still had an issue with photos, but did the best I could with my regular lens.

Brant

Also, quite plentiful, were Surf Scoters, which is a bird we see occasionally in Arizona in the winter, most generally females.  But this time, I got to see the males and they are outstanding!

 Surf Scoters

One last stop on Sunday, gave me a view of a new reptile for me; a San Diego Alligator Lizard.  What a cool looking reptile, very long at probably about 14" from snout to tail and such tiny legs.

The trip was most definitely worthwhile and I got my 2 new life birds that I had targeted plus so much more.  

  

California: Day 2 and the Bay Area

Sunday was a new day with new destinations.  Our group on this day was being led by a couple of members of the Sequoia Audubon Society and our target locations were spots along the San Francisco Bay area instead of the coast this time.  We had talented guides, Al and Leslie, that made the most of our birding a success.  We started out at Coyote Point and one of the first birds we saw was the California Towhee.  This was not a new bird for me as I had seen them in Southern California once before, but have never gotten photos.  Typical for towhees, they spend a lot of time scratching and foraging in the underbrush in deep shade and do not pose well for photos and the first ones we saw did just exactly that and my photos from the first spot were nothing to be proud of.  It wasn't until later while we were observing other birds, that one flew up in front of me and posed in the sunshine less than 15' away.  Sometimes I get lucky.

California Towhee

While we were near the picnic table area, one of our guides Al, was quick to spot some Golden-crowned Sparrows.  This species is fairly rare in AZ, but I had seen one before, but definitely not in the plumage of showing off its golden crown.

Golden-crowned Sparrow

We also had birds that were fairly common to me such as the Dark-eyed Junco.  This one is the 'Oregon' type of this species and in my opinion, the most striking of all the sub-species.  

'Oregon' Dark-eyed Junco

The next stop was Foster City Shell Bar where we were treated to hundreds of shore birds.  Some were fairly tolerant of our group and allowed us to get fairly close views of them.  A Semipalmated Plover was one that was hidden among all the Willets and Dowitchers and Godwits.  This bird is pretty small and was not easy to detect among the larger birds.  But when they took off, it stayed behind and allowed us to get even closer.  Marbled Godwits were quite numerous as well.  Both of these birds are uncommon in Arizona, but are spotted from time to time, especially in migration.

 Semipalmated Plover

Marbled Godwit

The American Avocet is a bird that is common in the right ponds in Arizona in the winter as many spend their winters there.  But they were equally plentiful in the Bay Area as well.

American Avocet

Many terns were also resting on the mud flats until the tide came in and then they all took flight.  My photo shows the differences in plumage and also in size of the 2 species that were at this location; the Elegant Tern and the Forster's Tern.

Elegant Tern on the Left - Forster's Tern on the right

So far we covered only 2 of several stops on this day and the other stops will be covered on the next blog post and it includes some more new life birds.