Though I did a little bit of writing I didn’t manage to get
out a blog post. Enjoyed the three-day Presidents Day holiday weekend filled
with birds and friends.
Feb 12
 |
| Black-and-White Warbler |
Today I finally had a successful lunchtime trip to the Rancho
Santa Fe Polo Field with good looks at the reported Pectoral Sandpiper. I think was made possible because my wife had
joined me which is a rare treat. Headed to
Balboa Park after work and Lady Luck was still on my side: found the wintering Black-and-White
Warbler.
Torrey Pines State Beach
Pectoral Sandpiper, Black-and-White Warbler
Species to Date – 228
Feb 16
 |
| Baltimore Oriole |
Back in Balboa Park, but in a different area from where I
saw the Black-and-White Warbler earlier in the week, I found myself staring at a
tree reported to be a favorite of a Baltimore Oriole. Sure enough, it arrived at sunrise. Off to Pantoja Park (again) and this time I
was finally able to photograph the Chestnut-sided Warbler that had eluded me
many times since its arrival. What a
great start, but the day quickly slowed down after that. I did add a Green-tailed Towhee before
leading a 5-mile walk along the outer dikes of Salt Works. We had fantastic weather and saw great birds
but nothing new for me on the walk or at the few other stops I made afterward
before calling it a day.
Balboa Park, Pantoja Park, Tijuana Estuary Visitor Center,
Salt Works, Nancy Jane Park, El Cajon Cemetery, J Street Marina
Baltimore Oriole, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Green-tailed
Towhee
Species to Date – 231
Feb 17
 |
| Manx Shearwater |
I joined Jay K and Doug A on Dave P’s boat this
morning. Dave probably has spent more
time birding on the water than anyone else I know so it is always a pleasure to
be able to join him on his boat. Along
the jetty as we were heading out of San Diego Bay was a Surfbird among all the
rocky shorebirds, cormorants and pelicans.
Now the real work was about to start.
We headed south and found a raft of Black-vented Shearwaters and began
searching for a very special bird that Dave and a few others had seen earlier
in the week. After looking at what felt
like a million birds (we estimated the Black-vented flock at around 200
minimum) Jay called out “look at this one.”
And there it was, sitting on the water right in front of the boat, my
lifer Manx Shearwater! This is mainly an
east coast species but every few years a few are seen on the southwest coast of
California. It’s not often that a
pelagic chase works out, and in a way this one didn’t. Even though we went out searching for a
previously-reported Manx Shearwater, many people think the one we found is a
different individual than the one photographed a few days earlier.
Happy and tired, I went home and took a nap, which I am
finding out is a luxury during a Big Year.
When I woke up, my wife surprised me by asking if I wanted to head out
to the desert and grab a room. On the way to the hotel in Borrego Springs we made
a few stops and I added Purple Finch as a consolation for a missing a different
desired species.
Offshore, San Diego Bay, Cuyamaca Mountains
Surfbird, Manx Shearwater, Purple Finch
Species to Date – 234
Feb 18
 |
| Western Meadowlark |
Close to sunrise my wife and I met Barbara C and Paulette A
for some thrasher chasing. Though
resident, these birds are typically very difficult to find unless they are
singing and today they were mute. Maybe we
were out a bit early or maybe the nearly-freezing temperature worked against us,
but for whatever reason, we didn’t have much luck first thing. But a bit later Barbara C caught a glimpse of
a bird and called everyone over. All of
us heard (and some of us saw) a Le Conte’s Thrasher, the only one of the three thrasher
species I had hoped for today. Despite
the disappointment at the lone thrasher, I was cheered somewhat by adding a
good number of birds on my first desert trip of the Big Year.
Borrego Springs, Anza-Borrego Desert SP
Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Verdin, Le Conte’s Thrasher, Sage
Sparrow, Gambel’s Quail, Common Ground-Dove, Greater Roadrunner, Great Horned
Owl, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Brewer’s Sparrow, Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Species to Date – 245
Feb 23
 |
| Yellow-headed Blackbird |
Over the years Jay K has developed a relationship with the Otay
Landfill manager, who gives him access to the landfill during the Christmas
Bird Count. He asked if a few of us could
go in today to check for any wintering gulls and, although the crews were
working, the manager made a special exception for us and we were warmly
welcomed. The clear, sunny and windless
day would normally be fantastic weather but such conditions are not what you
want when searching inland for special gulls.
We saw one: an immature Thayer’s Gull passed over our heads and
continued heading inland, most likely to Lower Otay Lake. Jay has discovered that the landfill probably
holds the largest wintering flock of Tricolored Blackbirds in the area with at
least 300 birds and I think we saw each and every one of them.
After visiting the landfill, Jay and I met up
with a friend and headed to the open spaces between Jacumba and the Mexican
border but we didn’t find anything of note.
Moving on through Pine Valley and the Cuyamaca Mountains, we found some
additional birds including loads of Turkeys foraging out in the fields along
the roadside and a handful of Fox Sparrows, a bird that I miss some years due to its
habitat choice.
Otay Landfill, Pine Valley, Cuyamaca Mountains, Jacumba
Thayer’s Gull, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Chipping Sparrow,
Wild Turkey, Fox Sparrow
Species to Date –250
Feb 24
 |
| Yellow-throated Vireo |
Today I wanted to find a Mew Gull. I’ve been told that they leave early and return
late so I shouldn’t expect to find one next winter. Coronado Beach holds a small population in
the winter so I met with Dean T this morning to begin the hunt. Plenty of Ring-billed Gulls were around as
were many Red-throated Loons but no Mew Gull.
Before leaving Coronado we decided to check on a seldom-seen wintering
rarity in the further south, we decided to head north a bit to
see if there was a Mew Gull along the San Diego River. No Mew Gull, but we did find an early-arriving
Elegant Tern. They normally don’t start
arriving until after March 1, but last year one was found on February 23 and
now we’ve recorded one on February 24. So
far I’ve had a noteworthy day but haven’t found a Mew Gull. Sometimes that’s just the way birding goes so
I have learned to roll with it.
After spending some time in Nestor without finding anything
that I wanted, we decided to head up along the Sweetwater River to look at a
Eurasian Wigeon and see what else may be around. The tide was out so we walked further west
along the path than I have previously gone and followed the birds that had
moved with the lowering water. I noticed
a few smaller gulls sitting in the water and started to scope them when I
noticed a small yellow bill. The Mew
Gull! I got my buddy on the bird then we
moved closer. It permitted us to get
directly across from it and seemed unfazed by our presence on the path. So my lesson is that if you want to find a
Mew Gull, you need to stop looking for it and search for something else.
 |
| Mew Gull |
On the way home I stopped by Lake Miramar where Jay K had
found an immature Glaucous-winged Gull and it was sleeping right where he had
last seen it. We usually have a good
handful of these birds each winter but this year not too many have been seen this far south.
Coronado, Robb Field, Nestor Park, Sweetwater River, Rohr
Park, Lake Miramar, Scripps Ranch Library Pond
Yellow-throated Vireo, Elegant Tern, Western Tanager, Mew
Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull
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