California Rainin' (Dreaming?)

Several months ago, birding buddy, Tommy DeBardeleben and I talked about doing a pelagic birding trip out of San Diego.  Tommy had never been on one before, but it was not due to the lack of trying.  He and another birding friend of his, Dominic Sherony planned a pelagic trip out of San Diego in 2014 and unfortunately, bad weather canceled that pelagic for them.  I have actually taken a pelagic trip once before and that was in the fall of 2013 out of Half Moon Bay, California.  While I participated in that trip, I did succumb to seasickness and although I did get some life birds out of it, I was not able to enjoy it as I would have liked.  So we made plans to take a pelagic out of San Diego, which would a first for Tommy and for me hopefully a reprieve with a much better ending. 

We had our spots reserved well in advance and decided to add a couple of days of land birding while were there.  At the beginning of the week the weather looked like it might have an effect on our trip, but since Saturday was the main event, the forecast was indicating that the storm will be moving out on Friday night.  We had plans to bird all day on Friday so we departed on Thursday so we could be get in as much as we could.  With the approaching storm on Thursday night, we made one stop along Kitchen Creek Road on the way into the mountains approaching San Diego.  We quickly found out how the temps had dropped and the rain had started along with the wind.  About the only thing of interest was seeing a 'coastal' Western Scrub-Jay. They look very different than the Western Scrub-Jays we have in Arizona.

Western Scrub-Jay

 

We spent the night in El Cajon and early the next morning with a steady rain coming down, we opted to purchase some umbrellas for the day.  We were not so worried about getting wet ourselves, after all it is just water, but we wanted to protect our binoculars, cameras and scopes as much as possible.

 

Our first stop on Friday was Mission Trails Regional Park a spot where Tommy had found California Gnatcatcher a year ago.  This would be a new life bird for me and complete my list of all 4 gnatcatchers in the United States.  It did not take long and we found a family of 5 of them and the male would pop up from time to time and Tommy was kind enough to hold the umbrella for me while I got some photos.  We then switched rolls and I held the umbrellas while Tommy took photos.  Teamwork and ingenuity at work for us die-hard birders! 

 

 California Gnatcatcher

 

After taking our time adding this, my first life bird of this trip, we then headed to Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge.  We quickly discovered how unique this place was and took off exploring this place with our gear and umbrellas in hand.  Good thing we had them as you might notice that severl of the photos in this area have rain drops in them.  One of our target birds at this location was the Yellow-crowned Night Heron, which would be a lifer for Tommy. I had seen this species a year ago in Texas, but always desire more looks at a bird that I have not seen enough of.  It did not take long in locating one and it was quite content and not at all concerned with our presence.  It allowed us some really great looks and now we were tied with 1 life bird apiece for this trip.

 

 Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Tommy and his new lifer!

 

We ventured further south along the trail and eventually arrived at the end of the trail with a bench and our view out over the slow moving Tijuana River making its way west where it flowed into the Pacific Ocean about 200 yards west.  This place was swarming with birds with at least 6 species of terns and one of those species was the Gull-billed Tern which would be a lifer for both of us and it did not take long for Tommy to spy one, then two, then three and more!  All of these terns were taking the rain in stride.  But by now, Tommy and I had figured out how to hold our umbrellas and take photos at the same time.  But our legs were not protected and our jeans were soaked. 

 

 Gull-billed Tern

 

And a couple of the other terns:

 

 Caspian Tern

 Forster's Tern

Least Tern

 

Another bird of interest to me was the Little Blue Heron.  I had briefly seen on in Texas a year ago, but it was brief and no photos.  This time we saw 3 of them, 2 adults and a molting immature bird, and I was able to get photos this time. 

 

Little Blue Heron

 Little Blue Heron, Immature

 

After exploring the salt water marshes, we then moved over to the beach area of the Tijuana Sough where the waves of the ocean were washing ashore.  This area has many signs and a roped off area where Least Terns and Snowy Plovers are nesting.  One can still walk the beach area, but it is very wise to not spend too much time near the fenced off area so as not to disturb any of the nesting birds.  Least Terns were by far the most numerous with various birds hovering, landing, and some even nesting on eggs.  Some males were delivering their small fish catches to females. I got lucky and spied one of the birds leaving the sandy area and discovered a nest of 2 eggs.  Thankful for a zoom lens to be able to get a photo of the eggs.  This is our smallest tern in the United States.

 

 Least Tern

Least Tern nest with 2 eggs

 

Good numbers of Snowy Plovers were also there, but not nearly as numerous as the Least Terns.  Since they were basically a ground bird, the best way to find them was when they would scamper a few feet and detect their movement.  This has to be one of the cutest little birds around.  I also discovered one of their nests as well with 3 eggs.  Once again took a photo from the distance and left it alone.  Once a person sees how well these eggs blend in with the sand, it is easy to see why the nesting areas are fenced off.  It would be easy to step on a nest of eggs.  Sometimes, some of the birds nest outside the roped off area so it is worthwhile to watch your step at all times.

 

 Snowy Plover

Snowy lover nest with 3 eggs

 

By this time the sun had come out and dried out our clothing that got soaked.  We enjoyed what turned out to be an awesome day with 2 new life birds for each of us.  With that, I will leave you with one more photo; this one is a flock of Sanderling on the beach.  We needed to get checked into our motel and get a good nights rest for the pelagic trip the next day.

 

Sanderling - I think I counted about 78 of them in this photo

 

 

 

 

 

Texas: Bolivar Flats Bird Sanctuary

After spending most of the morning at Anahuac NWR, on April 29, my next destination was the Bolivar Flats Bird Sanctuary near the tip of the Bolivar Peninsula. Another great place for birding, but a notice to anyone planning a visit to this beach area; wear long sleeve shirts and pants, no shorts.  Or maybe make sure you have insect repellent applied as there are some large flies there that can really bite and leave a welt.  I learned the hard way, but the birds were worth it.  

This is a great place to see lots of shorebirds, along with gulls and terns.  One of my target birds was the Piping Plover, a bird that is listed by IUCN, (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) as 'near-threatened'.  Its breeding habitat is also popular with humans making its breeding efforts vulnerable.  Not only did I find this marvelous bird, but I found 6 of them!

  

Piping Plover

Piping Plover - there are 4 of them in this photo

Dunlin, Semipalmated Sandpipers and Wilson's Plovers were fairly common and could be seen running up and down the beaches.

Dunlin

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Wilson's Plover

Least Terns and Black Terns were also very common and the Least Terns were putting on a show with a male courting the female by offering her a small fish.

Black Tern and Least Tern

Least Tern

This spot is also a great spot for Reddish Egrets which is a species that I have seen in Arizona (rare) and also in Puerto Penasco, Mexico.  And I could see one far off in the distance, but upon closer inspection I found one a bit closer, but did not look quite like the normal bird that I have seen.  This one happened to be a much more uncommon color phase, the White-morph.  The distinctive bi-colored bill is the key field mark of all Reddish Egrets and helps to identify this bird and assure it is not a Snowy Egret or a juvenile Little Blue Heron.

White-morph Reddish Egret

One other bird of note was a fly-over by a Peregrine Falcon which looked a little out of place along a sandy shoreline.

Peregrine Falcon

After leaving this area I headed back and made a couple of stops along the way, including Roller Over Bridge.  This time and without extra people I was able to capture a couple extra photos of birds that I was not able to obtain with the group that I had the day before.

 Black-bellied Plover

 Black Skimmer

 Sanderling

Laughing Gull, Black Skimmer, Caspian, Royal and Forster's Terns

At another stop, a Willet was more than obliging for some photos.  This bird was very common just about any location where there was water.  The Willets in Texas have more of a brownish color than those in the west that tend to be gray.  They may appear to be a boring bird in the coloration department, but once they take flight, they are quite striking in appearance.  Just goes to show what is sometimes hidden in those wings.

 Willet

Willet

And the final bird?  Yes, another Common Nighthawk that landed in front of my car on a gravel road.  

Common Nighthawk

Day 3 comes to a close with an abundance of great birds and with one day left, I had to plan my time well to see what else I could add to my list of wonderful birds in Texas.

Its the Tern's Turn!

Finally, it is the Terns turn for a post.  The trip to Rocky Point (or if you prefer, Puerto Penasco) resulted in many, many terns.  Not being an expert on Terns, the many terns flying over the water and then diving were beginning to be quite a challenge to me on identification.  When they are in flight it is difficult to closely observe the many finer points to assist in identification.  So I finally decided to start attempting photos of them in flight and of course that is not always the easiest task to accomplish.  After shooting many in-flight photos, I was finally able to observe some of the terns sitting on sand bars or on the ground which allowed for a bit easier and quicker identification.  Many of the in-flight photos were easier to ID once the photos were downloaded.  The easiest tern to ID was the small Least Tern and their courtship can be very entertaining to watch. One of them would be resting on the ground near the water while the other would fly out and catch a fish and bring it back to the other on the ground as an offering. In the photo below the bird that caught the fish has already given it to its mate and is just taking off again to try and catch another.  Least Terns are one of the smallest and characteristically have a yellow bill which makes them easiest to identify.  They tends to hover over the water more than other terns.

   Least Tern

From the smallest to the largest, the Caspian Tern is as large as some gulls.  They tend to fly high over the water and when they see a fish, they plunge head first into the water.  Note the black on the undersides of the primary feathers. 

Caspian Tern

Also seen in fairly large numbers were the Elegant Terns and this one was flying away with its catch.  Notice the different bill than the Caspian above.

Elegant Tern

And in the photo below, note the long bill, with no black tip and the different color pattern of the primaries compared to the Caspian Tern.

Elegant Tern

They also sport a fairly long crest that is not so visible in flight, but when perched on the ground it is more readily seen.

Elegant Tern

And finally the most common tern that I found in Rocky Point was Forster's Tern.  Below is a photo of an adult; notice the black tip to the bill and also the light gray upper body.

Forster's Tern

And there were many Forster's still in winter plumage, with a black bill and no complete black cap on the head.

Forster's Tern

Having not been around many terns before this visit to Rocky Point, I did have some difficulties in identifying these birds as they were flying.  Many did not get ID'd until I was able to process them after downloading.  I have a great respect for those that know terns well and maybe next time it will be a bit easier for me.  The terns themselves are awesome to watch.  Many dives into the surf for a fish and many times they come up with nothing.  There is no doubt that I most certainly want to pay another visit or two to Rocky Point.