Mokka mit Schlag » Birding

I went back to Robert E. Badham Marine Life Refuge in Corona del Mar tonight after work. Unfortunately I had miscalculated the tides. I knew they’d be two hours away from where they were Tuesday, but I thought they were two hours further away from high tide and instead they were two hours closer to it. In fact,when I got there around 5:45 it was pretty damn close to high tide. I almost didn’t bother walking down from the street to the beach, but I scoped it and fortunately there were still a few birds hanging out including many Western and Hermann’s Gulls. There also appeared to be a few good shorebirds down there: some turnstones and plovers and what not.

When I reached the bottom, I found a couple of dozen Brandt’s Cormorants settling in for the night, a lone Black Phoebe, and small numbers but good variety of shorebirds: about five Black Turnstones, one Ruddy Turnstone, a Willet or two, one Sanderling, and one juvenile Black-bellied Plover. But it was while I was watching about four Black Turnstones in the flotsam, that I noticed one larger bird picking through the seaweed.

At first I thought it was another Surfbird like Tuesday’s, but the bill was much too long. A quick check of the field guide and I realized it must be the elusive Wandering Tattler, #446! It had a thin eye ring and a barely discernible white eyeline. The patterning was right, and although it was hard to make out in the fading light, through the scope you could just tell that legs were a pale yellow.

It was way too dark to get photos of this bird with my 4X point-and-shoot, but I did manage to get some photos of the Black Turnstones that I missed taking on Tuesday when I forgot my camera:

I’m going to have to try this site again at low tide and in brighter light. There are several other spots to the south I also want to check out. Wandering Tattler was the last local shorebird I could reasonably expect, but the winter gulls should be coming in soon too, and possibly some near-shore pelagic birds like shearwaters and jaegers.

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 now, 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.