san dieguito lagoon

the san dieguito lagoon is right next to where i work, which makes it a convenient place for me to go birding. i like to leave an hour or so early for my shift, stop by, and check out what's flown in. every now and then something interesting shows up. on mon. 11/23, i was able to stop by and find the LAPLAND LOGSPUR that was reported the previous sunday. this species is found in san diego (i've been told) about once a year, and usually out east of the mountains. i wonder what this bird was doing all the way out at the beach. anyway, it took about an hour of waiting and searching until he finally showed up beside a nearby puddle, with a group of HORNED LARKs, to get a drink. at first glance it was hard to pick the bird out of the flock. even from a short distance the two birds look pretty similar. however, further inspection revealed the target bird - with his wider and shorter bill, subtly different facial pattern, a blackish patch/smudge on its chest, and smaller overall size. despite all these differences, if i hadn't shown up expecting to see lapland longspur, (being the amateur that i am) i probably would overlooked this bird and moved on. this illustrated to me why it's a good idea to give a flock of common birds a good going over, and to really pay attention to anything that seems off. you never know what you might find.


another recent stop at the lagoon ( mon. 11/30) produced 4 BONAPARTE'S GULLs, mixed in with a large flock of other gulls that are usually present in the northwestern most portion of the lagoon. this was a really tricky i.d. for me, because the only optics i had to see the birds with (which were about 300 yards away) were my 10x binoculars. if i had a spotting scope, this is what i'd use it for. at first i noticed two really small gulls, about half the size of all the others, swimming around in the main body of the flock. i got them in my binos and sat and stared. i wrote down all i could see... a small gull with pinkish legs, an ear smudge, small head with black bill, etc.. and prayed for them to fly off. but, all they would do was walk around, or swim back and forth. then, a flock of CANADA GEESE came in and started circling, looking for a good spot to land, and spooked a few gulls - my heart started pounding in anticipation of their take off. i could barely keep my binoculars still, hoping that seeing them in flight would prove that i had found a rarity. finally, every bird in the flock lifted off and circled into the air. it was all i could do to find my birds again in the swirling cloud above. when i finally did, i furiously drew every detail of the wing and tail pattern i could. when the flock settled down and gradually began returning to the water, my four mystery gulls ended up landing a few hundred yards closer than before. from this distance i was able to get some really good looks at them and determine that they were definitely bonaparte's gulls - a not too uncommon bird that i had seen before. but, despite that, it was a much more exciting time than seeing the longspur, which didn't present an i.d. challenge at all. one of the most fulfilling aspects of birding is working hard to make a good i.d.

mon. 11/23 tecolote canyon

today i birded tecolote canyon for the first time in a long time. i was working on a project there earlier this year until an acute case of cowardice, brought on by numerous attacks from a belligerent cooper's hawk, sidelined me for the season. i was inspired to begin my original project when my grandmother gave me a list that was compiled in the 1980's by a neighbor of hers who was a biologist and a birder. my original plan was to bird the canyon at least once a week for a year and compare lists at the end. at the time that i quit, my own list was already shaping up pretty well, with a few species that the other guy hadn't recorded. he was ahead in overall numbers, but my list was only about three months old... and that was about six months ago. who knows where i'd be now. anyway, after today's trip, i think i'll be re-launching the project, but with a less intense birding schedule. i'll try to get into the canyon once or twice a month until next march, which will be a year since the project started.

today's trip was a mission of the fact finding sort, rather than the birding sort. san diego waste water has been doing a lot of work lately on the storm drains down in the canyon, and my grandma, the always vigilant protector of tecolote canyon, asked me to take her down there to see what exactly they were doing. i just birded and tried to keep up. on our first leg of the trip i had a brief glimpse of what looked to be a WHITE-THROATED SPARROW, which would be an excellent find. the markings on its head were on the drab side, like an immature white-crowned sparrow, without the starkly contrasting black and white median lines on the top of the head. however, the bird had obviously yellow lores, a plain, clean, grayish white chest, and an obvious white throat patch which looked like a bib. however, the bird was partially obscured, and as soon as i got it in my bins, it moved deeper into a scrub oak, where i couldn't get it out again. after a minute or so of pishing, the bird flushed and flew far, far away. because this bird could have been an odd looking white-crowned sparrow, or maybe even a song sparrow that i didn't get a good look at, i can't in good conscience id it as a white-throated sparrow, even though the habitat was perfect for this species: an open grassy field, surrounded by low scrub. i fully believe there is a good chance that this bird was a white-throated sparrow. when i looked around for my grandmother she was about 100 yards ahead of me and i had to leave. i don't know when i will get the chance to check the area again, hopefully sometime soon! other than that there was nothing surprising as far as birds go. we had 3 CASSIN'S KINGBIRDs, gallons of WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWs, 1 COMMON YELLOW-THROAT, 8 YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERs, 1 ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER, 3 NUTTALL'S WOODPECKERS, 1 SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, 3 HUTTON'S VIREOs, and 2 NORTHER FLICKERs.

it's hard

you know what? it can be really hard to not use the few free hours for birding you get every week to chase down some recently reported rarity, or other bird that isn't on one of your lists. it is hard, instead, to go out and try to find something good on your own. if you're like me, you're not retired, and you don't bird for a living. when that is the case, it can be very easy to rely on online reporting services to build your list. i have been guilty of playing 'follow the leader', and not doing any real searching on my own, but just chasing the most recent 'hot' bird. it is a really good way, it you're a begginner like me anyway, to erode the little mound of skills you've been working so hard to build. not only that, but it's a good way to get bored with the sport. i mean, where the hell is the challenge in re-finding a bird that a hundred people have already chased down, re-found, and reported the exact whereabouts of? maybe you're interested in whether or not you can drive there before it flys off, i don't know. for people who are going for 'big year' records, chasing is a necessary thing, but they still do A LOT of thinking and studying about where to find good birds on their own. for me, this aspect of birding is challenging. i love to see new birds, but i also like to challenge myself to be a finder, and not just a chaser. anyway, i'll keep grappling with when to chase and when not to chase, because dammit, some good birds have been popping up lately, but i've got places i want to check out on my own!

sat 11/21 - san diego salt works

on saturday morning the san diego audubon society hosted an open house at the south bay salt works compound, which is usually closed to the public. over the years this area has proven to be an important place for all sorts of marine birds as a nesting and feeding site. i came out for a similar event last month and got a few new birds for the year. this time, good company and a nice walk made up for some pretty unremarkable birding. there were thousands of EARED GREBEs, and several hundred SURF SCOTERs (bird number 227 for the year) visible from the dykes along with tens of DOUBLE CRESTED CORMORANT, BUFFLEHEADs, AMERICAN WIDGEONs, NORTHERN PINTAILs, etc... we also had 1 NORTHERN HARRIER, 4 OSPREY, 1 PEREGRIN FALCON, 3 AMERICAN WHITE PELICANs, 1 each BELTED KINGFISHER, BLACK NECKED STILT, and LITTLE BLUE HERON, numerous WESTERN and LEAST SANDPIPERs, and a mixed bag of CALIFORNIA, WESTERN, and RING-BILLED GULLs.

fri. 11/20: miramar wholesale, sd river mouth, famosa slough

- miramar wholesale-

one of the new places i've been birding lately is miramar wholesale nursery, on the far east end of governor dr. the site seems to be a good one, with 200 acres of diverse stock, including some relatively mature sections. unfortunately, sections tend to be segregated by age/height, which means the dense, multilevel layering of flora seen in a natural environment is not present. other pros and cons, respectively, include its situation on the western edge of MCAS miramar, making it in range for lots of native birds, and its not so prominent geographic lie, which may make it an out of the way stop for migrants.

so far, i've been focusing on finding the most productive areas to stake out for future trips, which is a job that will take some time, as it involves covering 200 acres. today i started behind the loading dock, in the center of the nursery, where i had a LARK SPARROW. the 'sd bird atlas' calls the lark sparrow's distribution in san diego 'anticoastal', which puts this bird on the far western edge of its range here (less than 5 miles from the beach). i then worked my way east, and looped around toward the north and west. the place seems to be promising for migrants. today i had a plague of YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERs, one SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, 8 WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWs, and 2 RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETs (my last trip - 11/16 - produced several HERMIT THRUSH and FOX SPARROWs). the section nearest the base, where i saw the sharp-shinned, should be good for raptors - it's very open, and there are lots of good spots to perch. i also had our three most common flycatchers, CASSIN'S KINGBIRD, SAY'S PHEOBE, and BLACK PHEOBE, so there must be bugs enough. with the exception of two healthy coyotes, there is not much else to report...

- sd river mouth -

it was a pretty typical late fall day at the river mouth. the tide was really high, and all the ducks (quite a few NORTHERN PINTAIL, BUFFLEHEAD, BLUE-WINGED TEAL, AMERICAN WIDGEON, LESSER SCAUP, etc...) were in their usual places. i had two SNOW GOOSE, one a juvenile type, motoring east under highway 5, which were new for me and brought my year list to 225 birds. shortly there after, while walking back to my car, i noticed a tiny little duck hunkered down under some overhanging foliage on the rivers edge. when i got him in my binos, i got my 226th bird for the year: a male GREEN-WINGED TEAL. i had no idea how small they are, apparently they're our smallest duck. other highlights included 7 SAVANNAH SPARROWs, and a very menacing PEREGRINE FALCON making several unsuccessful passes at a number of slippery WESTERN GREBEs. further west, near robb field, there was just the normal flock of BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS, 13 RUDDY TURNSTONE, 1 LITTLE BLUE HERON, 1 OSPREY, other miscellanea, and a large flock of gulls comprised of approx. 80 RING-BILLED GULLs, 80-90 CALIFORNIA GULLs, and 15-20 WESTERN GULLs. nothing exciting.

- famosa slough -

it's funny what a difference a quarter mile makes. in my short jaunt at the slough, i had, besides the ducks mentioned above, 1 BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON, 6 BLACK-NECKED STILTs, 16 AMERICAN AVOCETs, 1 KESTREL, 1 juvenile RED-SHOULDERED HAWK, 1 BELTED KINGFISHER, and 6 YELLOW LEGS (i'm still not comfortable distinguishing between the LESSER and the GREATER - i need some mentoring).

it was a good day of birding in san dieog. i'm looking forward to my next trip and my next new bird!

mission statement

it is the goal of this blog to:

entertain the reader -
by reporting regularly on birding outings and any interesting birds, anecdotes, or thoughts about birding that occur while on them. i will also be attempting to get some (hopefully) interesting projects off the ground. as of now my ideas include 1.) 'target bird projects', in which i'll try to hunt down a specific bird through research and focused exploration, 2.) 'listing projects', i.e. year and season lists for specific locations in san diego, 'big day' lists, etc..., and 3.) a constant search for new places to bird.

advocate a certain kind of birding -
though my personal style of birding will always be evolving, my guiding principle is that the hunt for new birds should be an exercise that tests the depth of my research and the soundness of my conclusions. i feel i should rely more heavily on hunting down my own birds, using my own knowledge, than relying on online reporting services to find them for me. true, these resources are important and can be very helpful (especially in the case of the really rare birds we all want to see), but, they are easily abused. my hope is that by relying primarily on my own faculties, and acting on my own hunches, i will cover a greater area of san diego county, and uncover a greater variety of birds in san deigo county, than i would otherwise.