This is all walking from my home, no bike or public transit; and certainly not a car.<\/p>\n
This one I found while walking to San Joaquin:<\/p>\n
This was the monthly trip with the Sea & Sage Audubon Society. I can’t believe I missed the Green Heron. Last month I saw it, but I had driven to the refuge so I can’t count that one.<\/p>\n
I was away in China for about 10 days, and quite a lot of new species had migrated
\nin by the time I returned:<\/p>\n
The riparian strip on the east end of the park has been incredibly productive lately.<\/p>\n
About 12 in a small flock by the ponds. <\/p>\n
Bell’s Vireo was a life bird on this trip, but the real prize was the Green Heron. I swear this was my nemesis bird this year. I’ve seen it multiple times at the marsh, but only when I had driven over, never when I had walked, so until now I couldn’t count it for the BGBY list. <\/p>\n
Now the only bird I’ve seen there while driving and not walking is American Bittern, but that’s going to be even harder to refind. Usually you’re lucky to see one or two bitterns a year, even though they may breed there. They’re extremely secretive.<\/p>\n
Walked to work today, with scope.<\/p>\n
And walked back home through the refuge. <\/p>\n
Some idiot set a fire in the park while I was there, so I got stopped and questioned by the police. Still, I did add two birds to the BGBY list:<\/p>\n
Great day even if I did miss the Blue-gray Gnatcatchers other folks saw:<\/p>\n
I saw this first while walking home from San Joaquin. I had to go back in the afternoon to confirm it was a Wood-peewee and not a Willow Flycatcher. It was quite late either way. <\/p>\n
Another good day even if I did miss the Blue-gray Gnatcatchers again:<\/p>\n
These were the first sightings of these birds there since the spring. Hermit Thrush was a county bird for me. <\/p>\n
A great day! 60 species with five BGBY firsts including a life bird! I finally found the Blue-gray Gnatcatchers again, but the Sage Thrasher (a life bird) was even more impressive. <\/p>\n
Now that Daylight Savings Time is over, I can get in a couple of hours before work in the park. I’ve been looking for some reported rarities including Black-throated gray Warbler and Baltimore Oriole real close without success. However this morning I avoided the temptation to bird the riparian struip along the southwest end of the park, which, while usually productive, has been producing any new birds. Instead I headed staright out into the wild area, at Bobcat Junction which paid off with:<\/p>\n
As well as this new birds, I also racked up California Gnatcatcher, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Wrentit, and White-crowned Sparrow, all of which had been problematic for me earlier in the year. The White-crowned Sparrows seem to be everywhere now. I’m not sure why I didn’t find any back in February-April when I forst moved out here.<\/p>\n
I went looking for a Cactus Wren but instead I found a:<\/p>\n
I can add several more from my bike:<\/p>\n
Today I rode my bike over to the Muth Intepretive center in time for high tide. I was hoping to pick up several birds I’d missed earlier or seen from a trip where I’d taken a car, and I did pretty well. I got three I’d seen earlier and one that was completely unexpected:<\/p>\n
I may have to try this again. I still don’t have Hermann’s Gull, Loggerhead Shrike, Common Loon, or Sora. The first three I had the previous week there when I’d driven over. Neil Gilbert even had a scope on a Sora, and I still couldn’t find it. This may prove to be the real nemesis bird for the year.<\/p>\n
Last day of the year and last chance to fill in any misses, so In took a long ride along Upper Newport Bay and then down to Robert Badham:<\/p>\n
If we don’t count exotics, then we have to reduce this list by three: Swan Goose, Egyptian Goose, and Nutmeg Mannikin.<\/p>\n
What should be on my list but isn’t:<\/p>\n
This is all walking from my home, no bike or public transit; and certainly not a car. February 9, William R. Mason Swan Goose Canada Goose American Wigeon Mallard Ruddy Duck Horned Grebe Eared Grebe Great Egret Snowy Egret White-faced Ibis American Coot Whimbrel Long-billed Curlew Ring-billed Gull Mourning Dove Rufous Hummingbird Black Phoebe American […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1001066","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1001066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1001066"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1001066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1002529,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1001066\/revisions\/1002529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1001066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}