Feb 8
The winds were really strong today so at lunch I went to
Torrey Pines State Beach in hopes of finding an offshore bird that had been
blown towards the shore. Unfortunately
there were very few birds but I did find a lone Caspian Tern. Not what I had hoped for but a year bird nonetheless,
so I didn’t return to the office empty-handed.
Torrey Pines State Beach
Caspian Tern
Species to Date - 214
Feb 9
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| Scripps's Murrelet |
Yes, a day out on the sea.
I organized a whale & bird watching trip through work. Many local birders joined my co-workers and
friends on a 5-hour trip to the Nine Mile Bank and back. The seas started out a bit choppy from
yesterday’s storm but overall the weather was nice. Most of the people on the trip were out to
look for whales and not only did we find three California Gray Whales,
including a newborn calf, but had nice looks at a Humpback Whale. Those of us on the lucky side of the boat got
a nice but brief look at a Fin Whale too.
The bird side of the trip didn’t have any rare birds but I still saw some
pelagic birds and added one to my year list.
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| Little Blue Heron |
After getting off the boat I was joined by my wife. We relocated a Pacific Wren that had moved
from its original location in Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. The day was winding down so I decided it was
time to find a Whimbrel, long overdue for the year list. Far from being a hard-to-locate bird, I
simply had not run across one until we headed down to Robb Field along the San
Diego River. A behavior that I have only
seen at this spot was on center stage for my wife. Some of the Snowy Egrets act like loyal dogs
by following right on the heels of people who are tubing for Ghost Shrimp in
the mudflats. They’ve learned that they
can get easy treats of tasty shrimp that are missed by the tube pumps and
sometimes the people are so amused by a bird’s antics that they throw shrimp
right to its bill.
Offshore, Fort Rosecrans, Robb Field
Scripps’s Murrelet, Pacific Wren, Whimbrel
Species to Date - 217
Feb 10
 |
| Evening Grosbeak |
Today I headed out with Jay K who set the San Diego County
Big Year record (again) last year.
Besides being a great guy he’s one hell of a birder blessed with the
best ears of anyone with whom I’ve birded.
“You hear that?” he asked me shortly after we arrived in Jacumba. All I heard were House Finches at the feeder
we were watching plus a blackbird or two.
We started walking around the block and he asked me the same question
again. This time I could hear what he
was hearing. Up in the top of a tree was
a bird I had spent at least 5 hours searching for in this neighborhood, an
Evening Grosbeak!
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| Yellow-crowned Night-Heron |
Off to Pine Valley and we immediately found a flock of at
least 60 Band-tailed Pigeons, easily the largest flock I’ve seen in San Diego.
In the Clairemont area of San Diego we found a Harris’s
Sparrow that had recently been reported.
This is one species that isn’t found every year in the county so I was
pleased with being able to photograph this one.
Earlier in the day we had received a call about a first
county record of a bird found near Imperial Beach in the morning. Unfortunately it had flown immediately after
being photographed. Many birders had
spent hours searching for the bird and we decided to head down and join the
masses in the Search for the White Wagtail.
We searched in all sorts of locations but no one was able to re-find
this rare bird from Asia. But as a
second-place prize I did add three more new species.
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| Harris's Sparrow |
Jacumba, Pine Valley, Clairemont, Imperial Beach
Evening Grosbeak, Red-naped Sapsucker, Black-throated
Sparrow, Band-tailed Pigeon, Harris’s Sparrow, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Yellow
Warbler, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Lawrence’s Goldfinch
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