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!