Mokka mit Schlag » Birding

Since moving out here to Orange County, I’ve spent a lot of time birding in the marshes, mountains, and beaches in about that order. However I’ve managed to miss the rocky coast aside from a couple of not especially productive trips in the early summer. Yesterday I decided to correct that. I checked the tide tables, and they didn’t look good (high tide about 4:00 P.M.) but Beth was at the ballet and I didn’t have anything better to do so I decided to go anyway.

I got to Corona del Mar about 5:30, and parked at the end of Poppy Ave. I started scoping the ocean and rocks from above. Western and Hermann’s Gulls were in abundance. from the road I spotted a couple of Black Turnstones, #444. They were soon joined by several Ruddy Turnstones. A Willet was also hanging out. There was one more bird on the rocks I couldn’t quite make out, so I walked down to the beach.

From the beach, I could easily pick out birds on the rocks with binoculars alone. The turnstones and Willet were still present and surprisingly unafraid of people. I relocated the mystery bird. It acted a lot like a Spotted Sandpiper, but was larger and grayer. There were two obvious possibilities, either of which would be life birds for me: Surfbird and Wandering Tattler. Then it flew from one rock to another giving a distinct flash of white on the tail. That’s usually a good field mark, and checking my Sibley’s, sure enough, there it was: Surfbird! #445. I hung around till dusk hoping for a Tattler to wander in, but no such luck. I did add a Black Phoebe, a Brown Pelican, and a Black-bellied Plover. Maybe I’ll see the Tattler next time if the tide’s lower.
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Tuesday Neil Gilbert posted about a Chestnut-sided Warbler on the Orange County Birds mailing list:

I got October off to a good start with a very nice hatch-year CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER at Irvine Regional Park in Orange. I saw it near the entrance to the park. It was hanging out with an enormous flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers, Western Bluebirds, House Finches, and Lark Sparrows.

Now Chestnut-sided Warblers are actually reasonably frequent in migration in New York City parks, so this wasn’t a target bird for me. However the Lark Sparrows he mentioned almost in passing are not a common East Coast bird, and I’d never seen one, so Wednesday afternoon after work I hopped in the Prius and headed up Jamboree to Irvine regional Park. I got there about 6:00 and found his flocks of robins, bluebirds, and warblers. There were also lots of House Finches. However I did not find either the Chestnut-sided Warbler or the Lark Sparrows. :-(

Sometimes you have to keep trying though, so the next morning I made a 15-mile detour on the way to work and stopped in the park around 9:00 A.M. This time the flocks of Robins and Bluebirds had vanished, though there were more than usual numbers of Anna’s Hummingbirds. I drove around Sycamore Hill and as I was coming back to the entrance I heard an unusual call I didn’t recognize so I parked and hopped out.

I never did figure out what the call was, but by the baseball backstop I found four Lark Sparrows:

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I had a hard time deciding whether to walk over to San Joaquin this morning or drive up to Santiago Oaks for the monthly Sea & Sage Walk led by Susan Sheakley. San Joaquin’s been great lately, but I haven’t been up in the hills in the morning for quite some time. Fortunately I decided to go to the mountains because we had an exceptionally cool morning, which meant we walked further than usual, which meant we got all the way to the dam, which meant we found this Rock Wren, a bird I hadn’t even thought of looking for in Orange County:

(I’ve been focused on Black-chinned Hummingbird and Barn Owl.)
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Short-billed Dowitcher, Limnodromus griseus
Bolsa Chica, 2008-08-31
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Today is the 100th birthday of the man who did more than any other to invent birding as it exists today. Among other achievements he invented the modern field guide and the big year.

• Gentle Giant
• Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History
• Wikipedia

Elegant Tern is an embarrassing bird for me. Hundreds breed at Bolsa Chica. They are common in flight up and down the coast, and occasionally show up almost in my backyard at Upper Newport Bay and San Joaquin Wildlife Refuge. I’ve seen them repeatedly as far back as 2005 on my first trip to Orange County, and until every single time I’ve misidentified them as Royal Tern (a much less common bird out here).

I finally realized my mistake this past Spring, and have paid somewhat more attention to large terns since. However I didn’t get back out to Bolsa Chica to correct my mistake until just this last weekend, and there they were, dozens of Elegant Terns just sitting there with all the Western Gulls, Forster’s Terns, and even a couple of Gull-billed Terns:

Fall migration is kicking into high gear. I’m not sure if I should target something next, or just spend a lot of time at the shore. A juvenile Black-chinned Sparrow has been reported at San Joaquin. Maybe I’ll spend some time looking for that.