{"id":1001113,"date":"2008-04-20T03:04:28","date_gmt":"2008-04-20T08:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/birding\/2008\/04\/20\/407-and-408-at-the-base-of-the-santa-ana-mountains\/"},"modified":"2008-05-25T23:34:24","modified_gmt":"2008-05-26T04:34:24","slug":"407-and-408-at-the-base-of-the-santa-ana-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/birding\/2008\/04\/20\/407-and-408-at-the-base-of-the-santa-ana-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"#407 and 408 at the Base of the Santa Ana Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I spent some time looking for Black-headed Grosbeak last May in San Francisco without success. Who knows? Maybe I even saw it but didn&#8217;t recognize it. I certainly didn&#8217;t recognize life bird #407 in Santiago Oaks two weeks ago on a Sea &amp; Sage trip led by Linette Lina. However I did at least recognize that i twas something weird when I saw it. My first reaction as Oriole. My second was Robin. My third was Bluebird, and all this within the space of a couple of seconds.  That should have clued me in that I had something new. Fortunately Linette recognized it as soon as I pointed it out as a Black-headed Grosbeak. <\/p>\n<p>Migration hadn&#8217;t quite fully kicked off yet, but we had a more than respectable showing with over 30 species:<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>  \tCalifornia Quail  \t<\/li>\n<li> \tTurkey Vulture \t<\/li>\n<li> \tCooper&#8217;s Hawk \t<\/li>\n<li> \tRed-tailed Hawk \t<\/li>\n<li> \tMourning Dove \t<\/li>\n<li> \tWhite-throated Swift \t<\/li>\n<li> \tAnna&#8217;s Hummingbird \t<\/li>\n<li> \tAcorn Woodpecker \t<\/li>\n<li> \tNuttall&#8217;s Woodpecker \t<\/li>\n<li> \tDowny Woodpecker \t<\/li>\n<li> \tPacific-slope Flycatcher \t<\/li>\n<li> \tWestern Scrub-Jay \t<\/li>\n<li> \tAmerican Crow \t<\/li>\n<li> \tCommon Raven \t<\/li>\n<li> \tOak Titmouse \t<\/li>\n<li> \tBushtit \t<\/li>\n<li> \tHouse Wren \t<\/li>\n<li> \tRuby-crowned Kinglet \t<\/li>\n<li> \tWrentit \t<\/li>\n<li> \tYellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon&#8217;s) \t<\/li>\n<li> \tBlack-throated Gray Warbler \t<\/li>\n<li> \tCommon Yellowthroat \t<\/li>\n<li> \tSpotted Towhee \t<\/li>\n<li> \tCalifornia Towhee \t<\/li>\n<li> \tSong Sparrow \t<\/li>\n<li> \tDark-eyed Junco \t<\/li>\n<li> \tBlack-headed Grosbeak \t<\/li>\n<li> \tBullock&#8217;s Oriole \t<\/li>\n<li> \tHouse Finch \t<\/li>\n<li> \tLesser Goldfinch \t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Besides the Black-headed Grosbeak, this list included two Orange County Birds for me: White-throated Swift and Wrentit. <\/p>\n<p>The Audubon trip ended a little early so on my way home I stopped off at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ocparks.com\/irvinepark\/\">Irvine Regional Park<\/a> to see if I could find the Ladder-backed Woodpecker that&#8217;s been reported there. I didn&#8217;t (it might have helped to check the reported location before going to the 477 acre park; but while I was exploring the far side of the creek bed, I heard a distinct mewing like a cat.  Well, not really like a cat. In fact, it could only be described as cat-like by someone whose first hand  experience of cats was limited to Tom &amp; Jerry cartoons. it sounded about as cat-like as dog&#8217;s squeaky toy and not nearly as good an imitation as a Gray Catbird does. Nonetheless I could see that someone might perhaps describe this sound as cat-like so I hung out hoping it might be the bird I&#8217;d been looking for lo these many weeks.<\/p>\n<p>And Lo it was! In short order out popped a tiny blue-gray bird with a distinct black cap&#8221; a California Gnatcatcher, and Life Bird 408.<\/p>\n<p>On the way home I pulled off at Peters Canyon Wilderness Area, which is also supposed to be a good spot. I didn&#8217;t have the energy left to walk the trail, but just hanging out, I added several birds to the day list, and two to my Orange County List: Ring-necked Duck and Canvasback. I should have spent more time there because another local birder who was there almost exactly the same time I was later reported Violet-Green Swallow and Lawrence&#8217;s Goldfinch, the latter a potential lifer for me.  I&#8217;ll have to go back when I have more time and energy.<\/p>\n<p>Next stop: Beijing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I spent some time looking for Black-headed Grosbeak last May in San Francisco without success. Who knows? Maybe I even saw it but didn&#8217;t recognize it. I certainly didn&#8217;t recognize life bird #407 in Santiago Oaks two weeks ago on a Sea &amp; Sage trip led by Linette Lina. However I did at least recognize [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[410],"class_list":["post-1001113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birding","tag-flash"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"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=1001113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001113\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1001113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1001113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1001113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}