Hi all,
On May fourth…..I spent the morning in search of a Great Black-backed Gull that had been seen on the north end of the Salton Sea a few days earlier and had not yet been seen again. If it is not on that end of the Salton Sea then it might be on my end! If the record is accepted it will be the first for California! Sure thought I had found it at Lack and Lindsey when I found a large dark bird sleeping on the beach there. That bird had a fine nap because it was over an hour before it stood up. Turned out to be a Yellow-footed Gull. Hate it when that happens! Had some great sightings on the day though. Watched a Bobcat chase a rabbit, my first of season Black Tern, two Franklin’s Gull in breeding plumage and two adult male Snowy Plover in battle.
More pictures from the day can be viewed of Flickr here.
Some video of Snowy Plover males battling over territory can be viewed on YouTube here.
Bobcat (Lynx rufus)
Desert Cottontail, Eurasian Collared-Dove and a Common Ground-Dove.
A baby Desert Cottontail and an adult male Gambel’s Quail.
Late for the season male Common Goldeneye.
Great Black-backed SUSPECT that slept for an hour…..Yellow-footed Gull.
Convergent lady beetle (Hippodamia convergens)
Seven-spotted Ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata)
Immature Yellow-footed Gull.
See ya at the sea……………………………..
eBird report for the day.
Imperial Valley–general area, Imperial, US-CA
May 4, 2013 6:37 AM - 12:22 PM
Protocol: Traveling
53.0 mile(s)
Comments: Black-backed run. From Brawley on Hwy 111 to Sinclair. Garst Road and Red Hill then birded the shore of the Salton Sea to Poe Road with stops at the SBSSNWR visitor center, Obsidian Butte, seawall to Young Road then to Poe Road.
70 species
Gadwall 4 (2) in pond off McKindrey road on east side of Obsidian Butte, (2) at Lack and Lindsey.
Mallard 6
Cinnamon Teal 8
Northern Shoveler 7
Common Goldeneye 1 Photographed. Male in very worn plumage. Possible immature. in pond south of seawall coming off of Obsidian Butte
Ruddy Duck 100
Gambel’s Quail 18
Eared Grebe 200
Neotropic Cormorant 1 Lack and Lindsey
Double-crested Cormorant 300
American White Pelican 16 North end of Poe Road
Brown Pelican 4 Lack and Lindsey with NECO
Great Blue Heron 45
Great Egret 15
Snowy Egret 10
Green Heron 1
White-faced Ibis 75
Turkey Vulture 2
American Coot 300
Black-bellied Plover 2
Snowy Plover 6 North end of Poe Road. Including (1) very young fledgling.
Semipalmated Plover 15
Killdeer 30
Black-necked Stilt 200
Spotted Sandpiper 4
Greater Yellowlegs 2
Willet 5
Whimbrel 3
Marbled Godwit 30
Western Sandpiper 200
Long-billed Dowitcher 50
Wilson’s Phalarope 50
Red-necked Phalarope 1
Bonaparte’s Gull 8
Franklin’s Gull 2 In alternate plumage along seawall south of Obsidian Butte
Ring-billed Gull 30
Yellow-footed Gull 2 (1) near adult still showing black on bill.
California Gull 20
Gull-billed Tern 8
Caspian Tern 15
Black Tern 1 In alternate plumage north end of Lack Road on Seawal
Forster’s Tern 6
Black Skimmer 14
Rock Pigeon 40
Eurasian Collared-Dove 40
White-winged Dove 15
Mourning Dove 30
Common Ground-Dove 15
Great Horned Owl 2 (1) Red Hill, (1) SBSSNWR visitor center
Burrowing Owl 35
American Kestrel 10 Including one deceased fledgling lying in the roadway on young Road just east of seawall.
Black Phoebe 25
Western Kingbird 25
Warbling Vireo 2
Common Raven 2 Lack and Lindsey Roads.
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 30
Verdin 4
Marsh Wren 1
Northern Mockingbird 6
European Starling 40
Orange-crowned Warbler 2
Townsend’s Warbler 3
Wilson’s Warbler 3
Song Sparrow 1
Red-winged Blackbird 300
Western Meadowlark 50
Great-tailed Grackle 30
Brown-headed Cowbird 7
House Finch 3
House Sparrow 4
View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S13989153
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org/california/)
Hi all,
The full set of pictures from this day can be viewed by clicking HERE
Bill and Nancy Denton, Jim Seal, and I spent the weekend of February 9 -10 birding the Imperial Valley and the Salton Sea.
Horned Lark.
One of the best birds we had over the weekend was the one did NOT even see! We had stopped near Brandt Cattle Company on Brandt Road to view a large flock of Cattle Egrets that were taking a morning break. While viewing our photographs on Monday we noticed this “blue” bird in the mix!! Our best images are not definitive enough to say it is positively a Little Blue Heron but unless it is a Cattle Egret that some comedian dyed blue…… As odd as that sounds, someone had dyed a Cattle Egret bright pink near Ramona, CA a few years ago?!
Cattle Egret and probable Little Blue Heron.
Tens of thousands of Northern Pintail, over 700 Sandhill Crane, numerous Mallard and American Wigeon and a few Canada Goose were gathering in the area near Keystone and Dogwood Roads for most of the winter.
Northern Pintail, Sandhill Crane, Canada Goose.
Near Dogwood and Schartz Roads, many Mountain Plover were in this Bermuda grass field that was already coming on strong after being burned off.
Viewing Mountain Plover.
Mountain Plover, the Prairie Ghost.
Burrowing Owl pair.
We watched this Greater Roadrunner eat a lizard and then sing for us before we moved on!
Greater Roadrunner
Cattle Call Park in Brawley.
Northern Rough-winged Swallow.
There were two males and a female Vermilion Flycatcher on Pound Road east of Davis Road.
Male Vermilion Flycatcher.
Among the critters at the Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR were this Desert Cottontail and a singing male Gambel’s Quail.
Desert Cottontail rabbit.
Male Gambel’s Quail.
See ya at the sea……………………………………
Göran, Lena, and I had a fine week-long birding adventure starting just south of San Francisco. We visited the redwoods, Big Sur, the San Jacinto Mts., the Salton Sea, Anza Borrego, the Laguna Mts., and San Diego, ending up with 214 species. Some of our highlights are here; a day-by-day account with more photos will be up on our website soon!
At Monterey we listened to crying Pigeon Guillemots.
Big Sur was foggy, but we perservered and got a Spotted Owl the first night and two California Condors the next afternoon. At Piedras Blancas we saw a huge Elephant Seal nursery.
The San Jacintos provided a wealth of montane birds, including White-headed Woodpecker. At the Salton Sea we got Snowy Plover, many Ospreys, and five charasmatic Burrowing Owls.
Anza Borrego afforded us views of a spectacular desert bighorn. In the Laguna Mts. we watched a flock of Tricolored Blackbirds at Jacumba, Pine Siskins at the Julian Birdwatcher, and then both heard and spied the elusive Mountain Quail along Kitchen Creek Road.
Our final day was spent birding San Diego in the wind and rain; a dozen Surfbirds on the Imperial Beach jetty were loving it.
The days flew by, and ended with a Red-crowned Parrot screeching his goodbyes as I left Göran and Lena at Fisherman’s Landing–where they caught a pelagic trip to Baja!
Good birding!
Henry
Hi all,
It has been a very busy and fun winter so I will have many more adventures to share when I can!
Steve Ritt was interested in hiking up Alma Canyon in Anza-Borrego Desert SP in search of Gray Vireo and asked if I would like to go along. Well YEAH!! I had never been up that canyon so we met at sunrise on February 3, in the Elephant Tree Discovery Trail parking area several miles south of Ocotillo Wells on Split Mountain Road. The morning started out overcast, which is my favorite in the desert, and the sun was out by mid morning. We never did find Gray vireo but had a grand day of exploration. I ran out of gas about a mile short of Starfish Cove so Steve pressed on and we met up back at the mouth of the canyon on the way down. I hiked about 10.3 miles and Steve did another two miles on top of that!
The full set of pictures from this day can be viewed on my flikr page at this LINK
The sun reaches Split Mountain to the south.
Halfway to the mouth of Alma Canyon in the distance.
A most unusual Fish-hook or Nipple Cactus (Mammillaria dioica)
Side-blotched lizard genus Uta are abundant but a complicated family and this is probably Common side-blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana)
Male Phainopepla (Phainopepla nitens)
Orange-crowned Warbler (Oreothlypis celata)
Steve at an Elephant Tree.
Paper-like bark on the trunk of the Elephant Tree or Torote (Bursera microphylla)
Wright’s Metalmark (Calephelis wrighti) on its host plant Sweetbush (Bebbia juncea).
Looking east across the Salton Sea, Imperial Valley, Algodones Dunes and the Chocolate Mountains.
Below is my eBird report for the day.
See ya at the sea………………………………….
Anza-Borrego Desert SP–Elephant Tree Forest, San Diego, US-CA
Feb 3, 2013 6:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Protocol: Traveling
10.34 mile(s)
Comments: With Steve Ritt
19 species
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Eurasian Collared-Dove 1
Great Horned Owl 1
Costa’s Hummingbird 10
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 1
Say’s Phoebe 5
Loggerhead Shrike 3
Common Raven 4
Verdin 5
Rock Wren 10
Canyon Wren 6
Cactus Wren 2
Black-tailed Gnatcatcher 4
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 3
Phainopepla 15
Orange-crowned Warbler 2
Black-throated Sparrow 15
House Finch 5
Lesser Goldfinch 5
View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S12855450
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org/california/)
Greetings Birders,
This morning (Apr 1, 2013) I spent about 2 1/2 hours at Cibola NWR and came up with a list of 50 species. Best birds were 2 NEOTROPICAL CORMORANTS at the farmer’s pond in Palo Verde and a MASKED DUCK at the Hart Mine Marsh.
A CRISSAL THRASHER was close to the new Colorado River bridge. A BELL’S VIREO was singing on the Cornfield Nature Trail, but otherwise the trail was pretty quiet. As expected, the geese, waterfowl, and cranes have all departed. Three BURROWING OWLS were visible along the Goose Loop.
At the Hart Mine Marsh a KILLDEER was incubating four eggs and the YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRDS were drowning out everything but the MARSH WRENS. Didn’t hear one rail. The best bird of the day (the MASKED DUCK) showed briefly, and then disappeared in the reeds. A poor photos follows:
Masked Duck at Cibola NWR
Directions to these areas are in my new La Paz County bird-finding guide: http://www.southwestbirders.com/swb_LaPaz_County_Book.htm
Good hunting!
Henry
On Saturday (Mar 16) Rick Romea, Al, Mike, Brock, Lowell, and I spent a great day roaming Yuma County in search of birds and came up with 112 species.
(FOS = First of Season)
We started out at the Yuma West Wetlands with
CRISSAL THRASHER
WARBLING VIREO (FOS)
North and west of Yuma the BURROWING OWLS were out in force, and we had 13 of them.
Along the Yuma Main Drain we had 6 HOODED MERGANSERS, and along another drain farther along we had a COMMON MERGANSER.
We spent an hour south of County Ave 19 and had the following raptor count:
NORTHEN HARRIER
RED-TAILED HAWK, 12
FERRUGINOUS HAWK, 8
SWAINSON’S HAWK, 14
In the Wellton area we had:
GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE (Coyote Wash Golf Course)
WESTERN SANDPIPER (FOS)
RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER
WILSON’S WARBLER (FOS)
2 BLACK-CHINNED HUMMINGBIRD (FOS)
BULLOCK’S ORIOLE (FOS)
At Imperial NWR and Martinez Lake were:
6+ LUCY’S WARBLERS (heard and seen)
4 RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS
GREATER SCAUP
2 NEOTROPIC CORMORANTS
Finally, on the east side of the Yuma West Wetlands we had a VERY large western diamond-backed rattlesnake.
This past Thursday and Friday (14-15 Mar) Al and Helga have had a ZONE-TAILED HAWK fly over their place in south-central Yuma.
On Thursday (14 Mar) Brock had a GRAY VIREO in the King Valley on Kofa NWR.
Good hunting!
Henry
Bird List, 16 Mar 2013
1 Pied-billed Grebe
2 Eared Grebe
3 Western Grebe
4 Clark’s Grebe
5 Neotropic Cormorant
6 Double-crested Cormorant
7 Great Blue Heron
8 Great Egret
9 Snowy Egret
10 Cattle Egret
11 Green Heron
12 Black-crowned Night Heron
13 White-faced Ibis
14 Greater White-fronted Goose
15 Canada Goose
16 Gadwall
17 Blue-winged Teal
18 Mallard
19 Cinnamon Teal
20 Northern Shoveler
21 Green-winged Teal
22 Redhead
23 Ring-necked Duck
24 Greater Scaup
25 Bufflehead
26 Common Goldeneye
27 Hooded Merganser
28 Common Merganser
29 Red-breasted Merganser
30 Ruddy Duck
31 Osprey
32 Northern Harrier
33 Cooper’s Hawk
34 Swainson’s Hawk
35 Red-tailed Hawk
36 Ferruginous Hawk
37 American Kestrel
38 Ring-necked Pheasant
39 Gambel’s Quail
40 Clapper Rail
41 Sora
42 Common Moorhen
43 American Coot
44 Killdeer
45 Black-necked Stilt
46 Greater Yellowlegs
47 Spotted Sandpiper
48 Long-billed Curlew
49 Western Sandpiper
50 Least Sandpiper
51 Long-billed Dowitcher
52 Wilson’s Snipe
53 Turkey Vulture
54 Rock Pigeon
55 Mourning Dove
56 Inca Dove
57 Common Ground-Dove
58 Eurasian Collared Dove
59 Greater Roadrunner
60 Great Horned Owl
61 Burrowing Owl
62 Black-chinned Hummingbird
63 Anna’s Hummingbird
64 Costa’s Hummingbird
65 Belted Kingfisher
66 Gila Woodpecker
67 Red-naped Sapsucker
68 Ladder-backed Woodpecker
69 Northern Flicker
70 Black Phoebe
71 Say’s Phoebe
72 Vermilion Flycatcher
73 Ash-throated Flycatcher
74 Western Kingbird
75 Loggerhead Shrike
76 Warbling Vireo
77 Common Raven
78 Horned Lark
79 Tree Swallow
80 Northern Rough-winged Swallow
81 Cliff Swallow
82 Verdin
83 House Wren
84 Marsh Wren
85 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
86 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
87 Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
88 Northern Mockingbird
89 Crissal Thrasher
90 European Starling
91 Phainopepla
92 Wilson’s Warbler
93 Orange-crowned Warbler
94 Yellow-rumped Warbler
95 Common Yellowthroat
96 Abert’s Towhee
97 Chipping Sparrow
98 Brewer’s Sparrow
99 Savannah Sparrow
100 Song Sparrow
101 Lincoln’s Sparrow
102 White-crowned Sparrow
103 Red-winged Blackbird
104 Western Meadowlark
105 Yellow-headed Blackbird
106 Brewer’s Blackbird
107 Great-tailed Grackle
108 Brown-headed Cowbird
109 Bullock’s Oriole
110 House Finch
111 Lesser Goldfinch
112 House Sparrow
Greetings Birders,
Mike, Wendy, and I spent a beautiful day on the 1st of March in the Imperial Valley and along the southeast portion of the Salton Sea. Nothing rare, but lots of the regulars.
We had three owl species for the day. A number of BURROWING OWLS were just barely peering at us along Garst Road. At the headquarters one of the volunteers pointed out a GREAT HORNED OWL; the BARN OWL was in its regular “palm” perch.
Verdin, Salton Sea NWR Headquarters
At Unit 1 one mid-sized flock of SNOW/ROSS’S GEESE and a small flock of SANDHILL CRANES remain in the Valley. We enjoyed watching an AMERICAN BITTERN that made two passes next to the lookout tower and a listening to a number of CLAPPER RAILS calling.
A first-of-season VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW was a good sighting.
At the remediation marsh on the north side of McDonald was a WHITE-TAILED KITE; last weekend we had one just east of Unit 1.
White-tailed Kite
Good birding!
Henry
March 1, 2013
—————————————
1 Pied-billed Grebe
2 Eared Grebe
3 Western Grebe
4 Clark’s Grebe
5 American White Pelican
6 Brown Pelican
7 Double-crested Cormorant
8 American Bittern
9 Great Blue Heron
10 Great Egret
11 Snowy Egret
12 Cattle Egret
13 Black-crowned Night Heron
14 White-faced Ibis
15 Sandhill Crane
16 Snow Goose
17 Ross’ s Goose
18 Gadwall
19 American Wigeon
20 Mallard
21 Cinnamon Teal
22 Northern Shoveler
23 Northern Pintail
24 Green-winged Teal
25 Canvasback
26 Redhead
27 Greater Scaup
28 Bufflehead
29 Ruddy Duck
30 White-tailed Kite
31 Northern Harrier
32 Cooper’s Hawk
33 Red-tailed Hawk
34 American Kestrel
35 Merlin
36 Ring-necked Pheasant
37 Gambel’s Quail
38 Clapper Rail
39 Virginia Rail
40 Sora
41 American Coot
42 Black-bellied Plover
43 Killdeer
44 Black-necked Stilt
45 American Avocet
46 Greater Yellowlegs
47 Lesser Yellowlegs
48 Willet
49 Long-billed Curlew
50 Marbled Godwit
51 Least Sandpiper
52 Long-billed Dowitcher
53 Turkey Vulture
54 Ring-billed Gull
55 Herring Gull
56 Caspian Tern
57 Rock Pigeon
58 Mourning Dove
59 Common Ground-Dove
60 Eurasian Collared Dove
61 Greater Roadrunner
62 Barn Owl
63 Great Horned Owl
64 Burrowing Owl
65 Anna’s Hummingbird
66 Costa’s Hummingbird
67 Belted Kingfisher
68 Gila Woodpecker
69 Northern Flicker
70 Black Phoebe
71 Say’s Phoebe
72 Common Raven
73 Horned Lark
74 Tree Swallow
75 Violet-green Swallow
76 Northern Rough-winged Swallow
77 Verdin
78 Cactus Wren
79 Rock Wren
80 Marsh Wren
81 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
82 Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
83 American Robin
84 Northern Mockingbird
85 European Starling
86 American Pipit
87 Phainopepla
88 Yellow-rumped Warbler
89 Common Yellowthroat
90 Orange-crowned Warbler
91 Abert’s Towhee
92 Chipping Sparrow
93 Savannah Sparrow
94 Song Sparrow
95 White-crowned Sparrow
96 Red-winged Blackbird
97 Western Meadowlark
98 Great-tailed Grackle
99 House Finch
100 House Sparrow
Hi all,
Crazy busy birding time of the year and I will have lots of great stuff to post…when I can! This little bit just could not wait though. While headed home from the Salton Sea on Brandt Road I ran across a scene that would cause concern for the Hitchcock fans among us.
Tens of thousands of birds were congregated in a Bermuda grass field being irrigated. I spent several hours watching this amazing pectacle! Mostly Ring-billed Gulls. Also in the mix are Red-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds, White-faced Ibis, Cattle Egret, Long-billed Curlew and Northern Harrier. Prairie Falcon and Red-tailed Hawk were in the area but not seen in the video. There was another field being irrigated half a mile away that held the same if not more birds plus there were many at the nearby cattle feedyard!.My estimate was about 100,000 Ring-billed Gulls within a mile of where I sat!! The raptors were there to catch birds to eat and they were the reason for all of the birds erupting into the air and swirling around. The term for the blackbirds swirling around is murmuration and that display is most often seen overseas in European Starlings.
This video is long I know but it mezmerized me for over two hours and you only get 48 minutes of it!! Click on the following link.
YouTube
See ya at the sea………..or on the ocean if you will be attending the San Diego Bird Festival next weekend!