California, 2024 (7 Viewers)

[rkj]

20 May 2024

I started out in search of parrots this morning, but started feeling poorly and soon headed back to the hotel. I felt better by late afternoon and went back to the Chula Vista Bayfront Park. I did not see anything new, but the light was better for some photos.

No new birds, still at 334.

 

[rkj]

21 May 2024

Thinking that traffic might be better for a drive up to Orange County after 9:00 AM, I started off the day with a trip back to the Bird and Butterfly Garden. There were birds. There were butterflies. No birds I did not see there a few days prior, but I got some better (not to say great) photos of some of them.

There were still a few slow downs on the drive north, but it was not too bad. I stopped at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, on the coast at Huntington Beach. There is a colony of Least Terns that breed there. I had already seen them in San Diego, but at Bolsa Chica one can get up close to them. It turned out, you can’t get up close to nearly as many as you formerly could. At this same time of year in 2022 I estimated I saw 40; in 2024 I saw 12. I do not know the reason for the decline. A complete listing of what I saw is here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S176475746.

I went next to Huntington Central Park, which can be good for the smaller introduced passerines that have established populations in southern California. I did not find any of them today. I missed a Pin-tailed Whydah by just a few minutes, according to other birders there. It was moderately birdy, and there was a pair of Vermillion Flycatchers, which are always nice to see. The only new year bird for me was a big introduced non-passerine: Egyptian Goose. I may have missed a vagrant. Merlin Sound ID claimed an American Redstart was to be found. Merlin Sound ID has told me there were American Redstarts to be found about a dozen times, and I have never found them. It has always been where there were Yellow Warblers around, and I had come to assume it was mistaking a Yellow Warbler call for a Redstart call. Later in the day someone else found an American Redstart at the park. So it goes. All that went is here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S176476463.

After an early dinner at Shake Shack (good chocolate milkshake, bad chicken sandwich, really crowded with a long wait) I went to a little site that overlooks Upper Newport Bay. It was not what was on the bay that interested me nearly as much as what was on the sides of the bluffs bordering the bay. There were California Gnatcatchers there. I found three, two of which were clearly a pair with a nest of babies to feed. I am guessing they were big (well, big for gnatcatchers), hungry babies from the frequency with which the parents delivered food to the bush where the nest had to be. An eBrid list is here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S176476778.

My hotel for the night was the Cozy Inn in Costa Mesa. The cost was $77/night including taxes and fees. The room was large and well furnished. There was a refrigerator, a surprisingly large microwave, and coffee service. The room was clean, though there were some places where the paint was flacking off the walls and others where there were spots. The large tv had an average channel selection. The bathroom had hair products, but was missing a bath towel and wash cloth; the shower dripped, the under-counter mounted sink was falling off, and the vent fan sounded like someone was torturing a donkey. I wished I had spent a bit more and had a place where they got the little things right.

Two species new to my year list today, Egyptian Goose and California Gnatcatcher, and the total is now 236.

 

[rkj]

22 May 2024

This was a day to look for a couple birds that according to the American Birding Association list are not countable. They were Pin-tailed Whydah and Northern Red Bishop, both small introduced species with populations in the L.A. area that are not yet sufficiently established to merit countability status. I thought they would be nice birds to see anyway. Having reviewed recent sightings, I decided the best place to look for the whydah was at Huntington Central Park, even though I missed them there the day before. I tried the west side, rather than the east side I had previously visited. The birds ended up being very similar for the two sides, but I did get a handsome male and pretty female whydah. The male even did a courtship display. The eBird list is here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S176879607.

The best place for the Northern Red Bishop seemed to be the Santa Ana River Trail north of Adams Avenue. To get there is about a mile walk down from Gisler Avenue. There is little actual water in the river at this point, the walk is above a concrete channel with sand on the bottom. There are some birds on the other side of the trail, which mostly borders a golf course, but few in the river bed. When you get down near Adams there are some reeds along the puddles of water and some mounding shrubs, and this is where the bishops were. I am afraid I did not find it very exciting. The birds were just too far – little orange spots on a green background. An eBird list is at this address: https://ebird.org/checklist/S176880201.

So it was two new birds today, Pin-tailed Whydah and Northern Red Bishop, but they shall remain uncounted, and the total remains 336.

 

[rkj]

I failed to note that dinner on the 22nd was with my niece, who picked Filomena's Italian Kitchen and Market in Costa Mesa. I had a Ceasar salad and chicken marsala with linguine, she had cheesy garlic bread and pesto penne chicken Florentine. It was all very good, but pricey: $100 without tip.


23 May 2024

The big excitement in the L.A. birding world the last few days has been a Yellow-headed Caracara being seen outside a butcher shop near the harbor. I am not sure anyone thinks this South American bird arrived there on its own, but I decided to try to have a look at it anyway. The bird had been quite cooperative for others, but I obtained only a brief, poor view. In the same area is Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park where a few vagrants had been reported recently. I made a visit, but I could not figure out where in the park the rarities had been seen and soon left. eBird list: https://ebird.org/checklist/S177567285.

Up I went to Pasadena, to spend some time in that area, principally to look for parrots. The Los Angeles County Arboretum was the place to begin. This is well worth a visit to see the collection of plants; I particularly liked the succulent garden. It is also the easiest place to find an established exotic bird: not a parrot, but the Red-whiskered Bulbul. The bulbuls were easy to find. They tended to stay up in the trees, calling loudly from exposed perches. The peacocks were the only birds to which most visitors paid any attention. Some of the native birds, particularly Northern Mockingbirds, have become habituated to people and allow much closer approach here than they do most of the places where they live. I found a few Pin-tailed Whydahs associating with House Finches, Lesser Goldfinches, and Scaly-breasted Munias. I did see a few parrots too, I think Red-crowned and Yellow-headed, but I was unable to confirm the identifications. eBird list: https://ebird.org/checklist/S177571461.

I checked in to the Best Western Pasadena Inn. If I recall correctly, it was about $100/night with taxes and fees. The room was a bit smaller than most I have stayed in this trip, but quite adequate. It was clean, had a good bed and all the things you would expect, except a microwave. It came with a good breakfast.

As I was going out for dinner some parrots flew over and I decided to see if I could chase them down. I don’t know if they were the same ones, but a few blocks away I did find what were certainly Red-crowned Parrots.

Dinner was take-out from the Wok Master on Colorado Boulevard. My shrimp with vegetables was very good at $18.

I am not counting the Yellow-headed Caracara, so it was two new species: Red-crowned Parrot and Red-whiskered Bulbul. The total is up to 338.

 

[rkj]

24 May 2024

Today was parrot day. I have never paid much attention to feral parrots – I have always been more concerned with native species. However, if I am going to get to 400 species in California this year, it is likely I will need some. There are six parrot species found in the Los Angeles area that are regarded as established by the American Birding Association: Red-crowned and Lilac-crowned Parrots, and Nanday, Mitred, Red-masked, and Yellow-chevroned Parakeets. Several more species are present but not yet considered established. Nanday Parakeets are mostly in the Santa Monica/Malibu area and I did not expect to find them without a trip out there. The other five all occur in the Pasadena area and it was them that I sought.

A group of Red-masked Parakeets has been roosting overnights on a street in Temple City, south of Pasadena. I got up early and went down there hoping to catch them before they dispersed for the day. I was in luck and a few were still around. In the low light of an overcast dawn it was hard to see the colors on their heads necessary to identify them, but there was enough. Photographing them was another story. My efforts produced grainy pictures resembling a pointillist painting. Another Temple City roost was reported to have Red-crowned Parrots and Mitred Parakeets, but they had gone by the time I arrived there. My eBird checklist may be found here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S177623333.

After going back to the hotel for breakfast, I decided to try for Lilac-crowned Parrots at Griffith Park. They were reported from the Old Zoo Trails. People at the new zoo put me straight on where that was. Parrots were screeching high above as I got out of the car. The trails led up, and soon I was not exactly at eye level with the parrots, but close enough to confirm that there were both Red-crowned and Lilac-crowned. Griffith Park eBird list: https://ebird.org/checklist/S177613584.

Yellow-chevroned Parakeets had recently been recorded at the Huntington Botanical Gardens. The gardens are part of a private cultural center including a library and art museum. It turned out that there was no access to the gardens without entering the whole complex, and on a Friday (which this was) there was no entry without prior reservations. I wandered around the parking lot, but no parakeets appeared. Yellow-chevroned Parakeets had also been seen recently at Whitter Narrows Recreation Area. This was further than I hoped to drive, but I went anyway. I spent most of the afternoon there, saw hundreds of Canada Geese and a fair variety of other birds, but no parrots at all. Here is the eBird list: https://ebird.org/checklist/S177620951.

I had an early take-out dinner at the hotel, then went back to the Red-crowned Parrot/Mitred Parakeet roost in Temple City, hoping those birds would have started arriving for their nighttime gathering. The Mitred Parakeets had. At first there were just a few in the tops of tall palm trees, but more kept coming and some began chewing on something on the trunks of some of the palms. I could not tell what they were after, but I hoped it was not the wires of Christmas lights spiraling around the wood. I left before any Red-crowned Parrots appeared and went back and parked outside the Huntington Botanical Gardens, hoping some Yellow-chevroned Parakeets might fly by. They did not, but some Red-crowned Parrots were feeding on the fruits of one of the street trees and a Yellow-headed Parrot perched high above.

It was three new countable species for the day: Red-masked Parakeet, Mitred Parakeet, and Lilac-crowned Parrot. The total has reached 341.

 

[rkj]

25 May 2024

I bypassed several options to tally another species or two and just drove home today. There were a few brief slowdowns, but traffic was not bad at all. The only new bird-note to add to this vacational trip report is a negative one. The highway rest stop on US 101 near Camp Roberts was long the place to go to see Yellow-billed Magpies up close. There are many places easier to get to where you can see them, but the Camp Roberts Rest Stop had birds that would come right up under your feet. That does not seem to be the case anymore; I did not see any at all, either heading south on the 5 May or heading back north today.

A review of the trip. According to my odometer, I drove 2887 miles. That must have taken about 82 gallons of gasoline and cost about $400. That is more than I had expected and better planning could have reduced the amount somewhat, but there was a lot of going back again to sites where I missed the birds the first time and that surely added to the total. I am a little astonished that I made the whole trip, including more than a week in coastal southern California, and never had more than a short delay in traffic. Accommodations were mostly fine, though there were two or three hotels that could have been better. People were cool, I never encountered an unfriendly situation. But then I did not wear my San Francisco Giants cap. The deserts were great. I only had a few really hot days; it could have been much worse. I was a bit worried going to San Diego. Their tourism board runs tv ads in which everyone is dancing. They are dancing on the beach, dancing on the streets, dancing in hotels. I was a little afraid I might at any time be forced to join a conga line, but that did not happen. Actually, I did not see anyone dancing at all. Los Angeles was big, but, again, surprisingly, traffic was not bad. Overall I think I did well with the birds. I added 62 species to my year total. The only species on my hit list that I did not see were Yellow-chevroned and Nanday Parakeets, and a few wanderers that I had hoped for but were not actually present in southern California at the time. I now have seen 341 species that I am counting toward my goal of 400. There are about 40 more that I should pick-up with a trip to the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin, a fall pelagic trip, and more birding locally. It is going to take some luck and effort to get the final 20 or so.