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

 

 

 

 

 

Criss-Crossing the Great Divide

OK, that heading is quite an exaggeration from reality.  With a heading like that, one would think I was birding the Great Divide in the Rocky Mountains.  Truth be told, the divide I am referring to is far less important and generally not even considered a 'divide'.  This divide, is the division line of Maricopa and Gila Counties on Mt Ord and the Slate Creek Divide in the far northeastern reaches of Maricopa County.  Probably not considered very important unless one is a birder and especially an eBirder where entering reports with accuracy really do count.  I volunteered to cover the Gila County portion of these 2 locations for the NAMBC (North American Migratory Bird Count) and I was fortunate to have Jason Morgan offer to assist me this year.  Since I love the Mt Ord area so much, all we had to do was concentrate on the Gila County portion only this time.  The county line between these 2 counties comes close to following the forest roads that lead to the tops of both locations with Gila County predominately to the north and east of the county roads.  However there are some spots where the county line crosses over the road and then back again and knowing where those spots were located was key to our success. 

 

We arrived at Mt Ord at 5:40 am and our starting temperature was a nice and balmy 36° F!  And to top it off, we had a bit of snow on the ground in sheltered areas as it had snowed the day and night before our arrival.  So we got off to a very chilly start, but that did not seem to bother most of the birds. 

 

 

By far, our most numerous bird was the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher which were found predominately in the higher elevations and were heard and seen at every stop we made. 

 

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

 

 

Another very common bird in this location and the most numerous of all the warblers we found was the Black-throated Gray Warbler.  I have not yet found any warbler species that was easy to photograph, so one has to have a bit of patience and once in a while they at least will show themselves on a perch in an a bit more visible place.  That does not mean the lighting will be great for photos when they do this, but one has to take what is presented at times.

 

 Black-throated Gray Warbler

 

Black-throated Gray Warbler and its departure

 

Finally was able to get a good visual on a Hutton's Vireo on this trip.  A few weeks ago when I visited this area with a couple of out-of-state birders, all I got of these birds were them singing.  They did not want to show themselves at all.

 

Hutton's Vireo

 

Next photo is one of 2 empidonax flycatchers that I could not safely identify.  This is a very tough family of birds to ID with 100% certainty.  Vocal calls notes are very helpful, but most of them that I encounter are silent so I have to rely on behavior and other small details.  Unfortunately, this is the only photo that I captured of this one, but based on the long primary projection, my best guess on this one is a Hammond's Flycatcher. 

 

Empidonax flycatcher species

 

Of course we had many Black-chinned Sparrows as well, with most of them being in the lower elevations.  Kind of surprised to have some a little higher up than I have seen them before and actually using a pine tree for its singing. 

 

Black-chinned Sparrow

 

 

Other warblers that we had on Mt Ord included Hermit Warbler and Grace's Warbler and both are always a delight to see.  Hermit is a passing migrant while Grace's breeding range includes many of the high elevation locations in Arizona including Mt Ord.

 

 Grace's Warbler

 

Hermit Warbler

 

Rounding out some of the many birds we found on Mt Ord, were Chipping Sparrows, a pair of Lazuli Buntings, and a first year male Scott's Oriole.

 

 Chipping Sparrow

 

 Lazuli Bunting-female on left and male on the right

 

Scott's Oriole

 

After spending most of the morning on Mt Ord, we then travelled to the west side of Hwy 87 and worked our way up to the Slate Creek Divide area.  Just before we decided to stop for a lunch break on one of the ridges on the road up, we happened to find an Olive-sided Flycatcher.  As we got out to observe it in more detail another vehicle full of barking dogs came up from behind us and needless to say, once they had passed, the bird had disappeared. 

 

Olive -sided Flycatcher

 

Acorn Woodpeckers were plentiful, but most were not approachable for photos.  This is also the only place in Maricopa County where one can find Mexican Jays.  Today they were located on the Gila County side of the road, so we were able to add them to our list for the NAMBC.

 

 Acorn Woodpecker

 

Mexican Jay

 

We also had several Broad-tailed Hummingbirds fly by and males can be identified in flight with the loud whistling produced by their wings in flight.  We did have a female take time to pose for us and I found after the fact she was photo bombed by a colorful blue and black tent caterpillar on the right in the background.

 

Broad-tailed Hummingbird - female

 

Slate Creek Divide was much slower in the bird department, but part of that might have been the fact that we were birding there in the usually slowest part of the day for birding.  A very nice and cooperative Hammond's Flycatcher displayed and performed for me before we called it a day.

 

 Hammond's Flycatcher

 

 

We concluded the day about mid afternoon, but we got to see some incredible scenery along with some really cool birds and hopefully contributed a small bit to the NAMBC for 2015.