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No salesman will call, at least not from us. Maybe from someone else.
Malibu Lagoon trip is a go: Sunday, 26 Mar. 2023
Link to prior announcement here.
We still have spaces open. Send your reservation to Chuck: click here [not to the blog, please.]

Suggestions:
- Dress in layers.
- Bring your mask. You may want to wear it at least during the first 30-45 minutes when the group is more compact and crowded.
- If you feel sick, stay home and isolate.
- If you have been around anyone who has tested positive for Covid-19, or who is experiencing Covid-19 symptoms, please be considerate of others, and stay home.
- Latest Covid data (weekly) LA county per week: (Who knows? The linked site is almost useless. Got a better one?)
National Weather Service predicts: Cloud cover 9-27%, 43° to 58°, N to NNW wind 9-10 mph. Precipitation potential: 0%
Low tide of +0.28 ft. is at 8:00 am! Beaches & tide pools visible! Birds on offshore rocks! High tide +2.70 ft. at 2:32 pm.

To reiterate a few rules:
- If I checked your Covid card last month, I won’t check it again.
- For all others, bring your covid vax card. Yes, I have a list.
- Masks are not required but are appreciated.

The prior rules, still in force
- Registration required, max. 30 people. No drop-ins, please.
- Bring your Covid-19 Vaccination Record Card and a photo ID card. They will be checked. If you do not have two shots and a booster (preferably three boosters) recorded on your card, you must wear a mask while you are with the group.
- If we checked your Covid card last month, we won’t check it this month.
- Bring your own binoculars.
- All Field Trips are designed to maximize your safety, while also enjoying birds. CDC Guidelines are followed. Participants are encouraged to observe safe distancing, and face coverings are required for those who are not fully vaccinated (2 shots + booster) for Covid-19.
- Participation in social activities, such as field trips, comes with an inherent risk of exposure to infectious disease. Prospective participants should self-evaluate or discuss with their doctor if their participation merits this risk. If you’re sick or experiencing any symptoms that indicate you might be sick, STAY HOME.
- The 10am Children & Parents Walk will be reinstated in April.
- For general questions or help registering, contact Chuck: misclists@verizon.net
- Additional information on our permanent Covid-19 blog page:

(L. Loeher 3-24-19 Malibu Lagoon)
Bonus News if you read this far: Starting April no more reservations needed or Covid cards checked.
Bald Eagles in the Snow — Renesting? | Facebook
[Posted by Chuck Almdale]
About the time I posted the first blog on Jackie & Shadow Bald Eagle — the two Bald Eagles nesting in a tree at Big Bear Lake — they abandoned their nest with two unhatched overdue eggs in it. Too cold, too much snow.
Now, 19 days later, it looks like they’re trying again, or at least going through the motions. Today, Thursday, 2023-03-23, at about 17:30, with the nest full of snow, one of the eagles appeared with talons full of little sticks, arranged them a bit, then the other eagle appeared with more little sticks and arranging continued. This is all on top of a nest full of snow. Tune in on the nonstop action!
In case you’re wondering, this is open to everyone and you don’t need to join Facebook to watch it.
Link to Live Eagle-Cam at Big Bear.
https://www.youtube.com/live/B4-L2nfGcuE?feature=share
It still looks and sounds mighty cold.
A Few Odd Birds: Malibu Lagoon, 26 February 2023
[By Chuck Almdale]

After eight months in a row of high tides, it was nice to see it low. Sand, mud, pools, puddles, rocks, tide pools, peeps running around, actual beach upon which one can walk. High tides can be exciting with the beach disappearing before your eyes, water rushing in and out the channel, all the birds bunched up on what few square feet of sand remain, the perpetual wondering if all the Malibu Colony houses will make it through “this one” — but everything gets old after a while. Low tide renews the beach, or at least one’s view of it.


Our first surprise of the day were the Black Skimmers sitting with the pelicans and cormorants. We don’t get a lot of Black Skimmers. Every now and then a few drop in: 227 birds in 26 sightings, or 12% of visits out of the past ten years. They need an expanse of calm water in order to catch fish by skimming the surface and snapping whatever they bump into. Malibu Lagoon is a bit small for them and the ocean has far too many waves; they much prefer Upper Newport Bay in the winter, or Bolsa Chica and San Diego Bay where they breed. When they sleep on the sand with their heads and enormous bills lolling to the side, they look dead. If you see this, don’t panic.

There was another surprise in the lagoon-edge line of Brown Pelicans and Double-crested Cormorants.

White Pelicans are even more uncommon. I was certain we’d seen one at the lagoon within the past year or two, but it must have been on a non-census day, as the last one I recorded were two birds on 22 Oct. 2017. Like the skimmers, they prefer calm waters where they can work as a team herding fish into a team. It’s tough to work as a team when there’s only one of you. I don’t know if this bird caught anything. When they’re swimming or resting on the sand their plumage is completely white, but when the get up and fly and all those black feathers appear, it’s a bit of a surprise if you’re not expecting it.



There were ducks, of course; eleven species in fact. Green-winged Teals are expected this time of year, and this is the fifth month in a row for them. I like Ray’s photo above as it show why it’s a “Green-winged” Teal. It’s hard to capture this in a photo as the green speculum is usually hidden when wings are folded. On the Northern Shoveler, like this male below, the baby-blue forewing patch is also hard to see, except in flight. Look closely.

You may be shocked to hear we also had gulls; 324 gulls in 9 species, 73% of them California Gulls. Out of the 5 February months during 2018-2022, three had almost the same total gulls in the mid-300s, while two had more than double that. So it goes, as Kurt Vonnegut wrote more than once.

The Herring and Glaucous-winged Gulls are regular winter visitors in low numbers at the lagoon. [Their relative size above is a photographic illusion. The right-hand Glaucous-winged is actually an inch longer than the Herring.] The both have pale gray backs. The Herring wingtips are black with white mirrors while the Glaucous-winged wingtips are pale gray, about the same shade as the mantle. Herring has a lot of speckling on the neck and a light eye; Glaucous-winged has little speckling and a dark eye. Both have pink legs, a large yellow bill with a prominent gonydeal bump and red gonys spot on lower bill. Most of the Glaucous-winged gulls we get at the lagoon are 1st-year birds, I don’t know how the Herrings that show up there fall out on age.
We also had a few of their cousins, the Royal Terns. These three below show that they can be the same age at the same time of year and still look different.

(Chris Todevin 2/26/23)
Our last unusual bird of the day was the Short-billed Gull, which we used to call the Mew Gull after the sound of its call. For centuries it was considered to be the same species as the Common Gull of Europe. In 2021 it was split off and for reasons unknown to me it was named “Short-bill” rather than the perfectly good “Mew.” I suspect that many British Isles people still call their “Common” Gull the “Mew” as that ancient name dates back to Old English. But people would become confused with their unofficial Mew and our official Mew being different species. The British maintain their sense of history and are reluctant to toss out willy-nilly perfectly good names on the basis of a frivolous fad or implausible plaint. They can still call their bird the Mew and everyone there knows what they referring to.

Whatever we call it, it still has a mewing call and a distinctive thin, short bill. This distinctiveness doesn’t stop birders from thinking the occasional skinny-billed Ring-billed Gull is really a Mew. [I know a few such people, myself included.] We don’t get many Mews … er, Short-bills … at the lagoon. They seem to really like sewage outfalls, so I suppose their absence is a Good Thing for Malibu. Ventura, up the coast, has a water treatment facility by their harbor. Behind a chain-link fence near the road they had several large round structures filled with charcoal or some filtration material, and a central arm would slowly rotate dribbling water down onto the charcoal. The Mew Gulls loved those arms with a deep and abiding passion and would sit on them by the hundreds for hours, going slowly around in a circle. If you wanted to see a Mew Gull for some obscure reason, it was an utterly reliable location. Then the facility covered over the top of these structures, preventing gull access (and birder viewing), and another prime birding spot bit the dust. The best local spot I know of now for them is on Dockweiler Beach in front of the Hyperion water treatment facility south of Marina del Rey. Coincidence? I think not.

The swallows are returning. (Don’t tell the people at San Juan Capistrano this, lest they become apoplectic with rage or envy. They think swallows return on March 25 every year, no matter what.) The SJC swallows are Cliff Swallows, like these below. They build nests of mouthfuls of mud, globbed (a technical term) onto a wall or underside of a bridge and the like, one glob at a time. The resulting cup of mud globs holds the chicks. They used to nest in great numbers on the outside of the stone walls of the San Juan Capistrano Mission church. But the people who run the church did some … ahem … improvements … a few years back and the swallows didn’t like the results and for the most part stopped nesting there. I don’t know the swallow situation at the church these days. Maybe they forgave the church Fathers and nest there again. Maybe not.

About 20-30 years ago we had a big El Nino winter and so much water came down Malibu Creek carrying logs and rocks and whatnot that the Pacific Coast Highway bridge was dangerously damaged. The highway crews re-built most of it, but whatever process they used to make the walls of the supports was very swallow-unfriendly. Too smooth perhaps. The nests used to be abundant there; now there are few-to-none during nesting season. What Cliff Swallows we still have nesting in Malibu now use the Civic Center and shopping center walls. Think about that next time you built a bridge in Cliff Swallow Country (like the entire central valley of California), road engineers, OK? Leave the walls a little rough for the nest’s mud to adhere. Bugs bite people, especially movie people (everyone knows that!); swallows eat bugs; win-win (except for the biting bugs, who lose).

(Chris Todevin 2/26/23)
Birds new for the Season: Cinnamon Teal, Northern Shoveler, Mourning Dove, Short-billed Gull, Black Skimmer, Brandt’s Cormorant, American White Pelican, White-faced Ibis, Cooper’s Hawk, Say’s Phoebe, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Cliff Swallow.
Malibu Lagoon on eBird as of 2-28-23: 6681 lists, 318 species
Many thanks to photographers: Ray Juncosa, Chris Tosdevin

(Chris Todevin 2/26/23)
Upcoming SMBAS scheduled field trips:
- Malibu Lagoon, Sun Mar. 26, 8:30 am
- Sycamore Canyon Sat. Apr. 8, 8 am
- Malibu Lagoon, Sun Apr 23, 8:30 am No reservations or Covid card required for this trip.
- Morongo Valley & Black Rock Campground Sat. May 6, 3pm; Sun 7:30am am. If you want to stay overnight Sat. May 6, you’ll need to reserve a Yucca Valley motel room or Black Rock campsite.
- These and any other trips we announce for the foreseeable future will depend upon expected status of the Covid/flu/etc. pandemic at trip time. Any trip announced may be canceled shortly before trip date if it seems necessary. By now any other comments should be superfluous.
- Link to Programs & Field Trip schedule.
The next SMBAS Zoom program: Corvids, with Dr. John Marzluff. Tuesday, 4 April 2023, 7:30 p.m.
The SMBAS 10 a.m. Parent’s & Kids Birdwalk will restart in April. Reservations for groups necessary, but not for families.

Links: Unusual birds at Malibu Lagoon
9/23/02 Aerial photo of Malibu Lagoon
More recent aerial photo
Prior checklists:
2021: Jan-July, July-Dec 2022: Jan-June, July-Dec
2020: Jan-July, July-Dec 2019: Jan-June, July-Dec
2018: Jan-June, July-Dec 2017: Jan-June, July-Dec
2016: Jan-June, July-Dec 2015: Jan-May, July-Dec
2014: Jan-July, July-Dec 2013: Jan-June, July-Dec
2012: Jan-June, July-Dec 2011: Jan-June, July-Dec
2010: Jan-June, July-Dec 2009: Jan-June, July-Dec
The 10-year comparison summaries created during the Lagoon Reconfiguration Project period, remain available—despite numerous complaints—on our Lagoon Project Bird Census Page. Very briefly summarized, the results unexpectedly indicate that avian species diversification and numbers improved slightly during the restoration period June’12-June’14.
Many thanks to Chris & Ruth Tosdevin, Ray Juncosa, Chris Lord and others for their contributions to this month’s checklist.
The species lists below is irregularly re-sequenced to agree with the California Bird Records Committee Official California Checklist, which was updated 4 Feb 2023. If part of the chart’s right side is hidden, there’s a slider button at the bottom.
[Chuck Almdale]
Malibu Census 2022-23 | 9/25 | 10/23 | 11/27 | 12/25 | 1/22 | 2/26 | |
Temperature | 72-79 | 61-73 | 54-62 | 65-72 | 49-57 | 53-55 | |
Tide Lo/Hi Height | H+5.01 | H+5.33 | H+6.04 | H+6.59 | H+6.81 | L+0.81 | |
Tide Time | 0949 | 0839 | 1045 | 0950 | 0858 | 0911 | |
1 | Canada Goose | 4 | 2 | ||||
1 | Cinnamon Teal | 1 | |||||
1 | Northern Shoveler | 7 | |||||
1 | Gadwall | 26 | 18 | 8 | 16 | 26 | 58 |
1 | American Wigeon | 14 | 8 | 4 | |||
1 | Mallard | 28 | 12 | 16 | 6 | 20 | 32 |
1 | Northern Pintail | 1 | |||||
1 | Green-winged Teal | 2 | 6 | 38 | 15 | 26 | |
1 | Lesser Scaup | 1 | |||||
1 | Surf Scoter | 12 | 3 | 1 | 6 | ||
1 | Bufflehead | 11 | 11 | 10 | 5 | ||
1 | Common Goldeneye | 2 | |||||
1 | Hooded Merganser | 5 | 1 | ||||
1 | Red-breasted Merganser | 25 | 7 | 6 | 3 | ||
1 | Ruddy Duck | 3 | 35 | 32 | 42 | 8 | |
2 | Pied-billed Grebe | 6 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 1 |
2 | Horned Grebe | 1 | |||||
2 | Eared Grebe | 2 | 8 | 5 | |||
2 | Western Grebe | 2 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 40 | |
7 | Feral Pigeon | 6 | 15 | 4 | 6 | 16 | 5 |
7 | Mourning Dove | 4 | 2 | 2 | |||
8 | Anna’s Hummingbird | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||
8 | Allen’s Hummingbird | 2 | 2 | 3 | |||
2 | Sora | 1 | 1 | ||||
2 | American Coot | 47 | 145 | 85 | 130 | 38 | 73 |
5 | Black-bellied Plover | 67 | 64 | 83 | 51 | 43 | 62 |
5 | Killdeer | 7 | 2 | 31 | 11 | 4 | 12 |
5 | Semipalmated Plover | 3 | 2 | ||||
5 | Snowy Plover | 25 | 39 | 18 | 16 | 16 | |
5 | Whimbrel | 15 | 5 | 35 | 9 | 7 | 2 |
5 | Marbled Godwit | 21 | 6 | 38 | 23 | 18 | 17 |
5 | Ruddy Turnstone | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 3 |
5 | Sanderling | 14 | 33 | 45 | 27 | 35 | 32 |
5 | Dunlin | 1 | |||||
5 | Least Sandpiper | 23 | 15 | 62 | 19 | 22 | 27 |
5 | Western Sandpiper | 8 | 4 | 8 | 4 | ||
5 | Spotted Sandpiper | 1 | |||||
5 | Willet | 73 | 9 | 43 | 15 | 15 | 9 |
5 | Red-necked Phalarope | 2 | |||||
6 | Heermann’s Gull | 9 | 8 | 16 | 85 | 27 | 3 |
6 | Short-billed Gull | 1 | 1 | ||||
6 | Ring-billed Gull | 2 | 22 | 28 | 55 | 36 | 40 |
6 | Western Gull | 72 | 64 | 105 | 68 | 49 | 38 |
6 | California Gull | 57 | 155 | 390 | 450 | 1330 | 237 |
6 | Herring Gull | 2 | 1 | ||||
6 | Glaucous-winged Gull | 3 | 7 | 4 | |||
6 | Forster’s Tern | 1 | |||||
6 | Royal Tern | 1 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 14 | |
6 | Elegant Tern | 15 | |||||
6 | Black Skimmer | 3 | |||||
2 | Red-throated Loon | 1 | |||||
2 | Common Loon | 1 | |||||
2 | Black-vented Shearwater | 100 | |||||
2 | Brandt’s Cormorant | 1 | |||||
2 | Pelagic Cormorant | 1 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 1 | |
2 | Double-crested Cormorant | 56 | 51 | 45 | 62 | 36 | 67 |
2 | American White Pelican | 1 | |||||
2 | Brown Pelican | 64 | 65 | 220 | 158 | 343 | 159 |
3 | Great Blue Heron | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 2 | |
3 | Great Egret | 1 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
3 | Snowy Egret | 9 | 9 | 31 | 35 | 16 | 6 |
3 | Green Heron | 1 | |||||
3 | Black-crowned Night-Heron | 1 | 1 | ||||
3 | White-faced Ibis | 1 | |||||
4 | Turkey Vulture | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |
4 | Cooper’s Hawk | 1 | |||||
4 | Red-shouldered Hawk | 1 | |||||
4 | Red-tailed Hawk | 3 | 1 | ||||
8 | Belted Kingfisher | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||
8 | Nuttall’s Woodpecker | 1 | |||||
4 | American Kestrel | 1 | |||||
4 | Merlin | 1 | |||||
4 | Peregrine Falcon | 1 | |||||
9 | Cassin’s Kingbird | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
9 | Black Phoebe | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
9 | Say’s Phoebe | 1 | 1 | ||||
9 | California Scrub-Jay | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
9 | American Crow | 3 | 8 | 12 | 3 | 11 | 27 |
9 | Common Raven | 2 | 1 | ||||
9 | Oak Titmouse | 2 | |||||
9 | Northern Rough-winged Swallow | 2 | |||||
9 | Cliff Swallow | 24 | |||||
9 | Bushtit | 8 | 10 | 2 | 15 | 14 | 3 |
9 | Wrentit | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||
9 | Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||
9 | Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | 2 | 1 | ||||
9 | House Wren | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||
9 | Marsh Wren | 1 | 1 | ||||
9 | Bewick’s Wren | 1 | 2 | ||||
9 | Northern Mockingbird | 1 | |||||
9 | European Starling | 8 | 6 | 9 | |||
9 | Hermit Thrush | 3 | 1 | ||||
9 | House Finch | 4 | 15 | 18 | 16 | 9 | 6 |
9 | Lesser Goldfinch | 6 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 10 | |
9 | White-crowned Sparrow | 12 | 40 | 16 | 12 | 25 | |
9 | Song Sparrow | 3 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 5 | |
9 | California Towhee | 3 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 3 | |
9 | Spotted Towhee | 1 | 1 | ||||
9 | Red-winged Blackbird | 4 | 3 | 8 | 12 | ||
9 | Great-tailed Grackle | 5 | 1 | ||||
9 | Orange-crowned Warbler | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||
9 | Common Yellowthroat | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
9 | Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon’s) | 4 | 16 | 15 | 6 | 2 | |
9 | Townsend’s Warbler | 1 | |||||
Totals by Type | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Jan | Feb | |
1 | Waterfowl | 57 | 68 | 125 | 136 | 85 | 152 |
2 | Water Birds – Other | 174 | 275 | 471 | 363 | 434 | 343 |
3 | Herons, Egrets & Ibis | 13 | 15 | 40 | 44 | 20 | 9 |
4 | Quail & Raptors | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 7 |
5 | Shorebirds | 263 | 183 | 367 | 161 | 166 | 180 |
6 | Gulls & Terns | 141 | 277 | 546 | 658 | 1453 | 341 |
7 | Doves | 6 | 19 | 6 | 6 | 16 | 7 |
8 | Other Non-Passerines | 2 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 3 |
9 | Passerines | 56 | 76 | 129 | 84 | 96 | 128 |
Totals Birds | 714 | 914 | 1690 | 1460 | 2276 | 1170 | |
Total Species | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Jan | Feb | |
1 | Waterfowl | 3 | 5 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 11 |
2 | Water Birds – Other | 5 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 8 |
3 | Herons, Egrets & Ibis | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
4 | Quail & Raptors | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
5 | Shorebirds | 14 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 9 |
6 | Gulls & Terns | 5 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 9 |
7 | Doves | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
8 | Other Non-Passerines | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
9 | Passerines | 17 | 16 | 20 | 15 | 20 | 18 |
Totals Species – 104 | 52 | 54 | 65 | 55 | 61 | 64 |
[Posted by Chuck Almdale]
I recently read somewhere that every human being on earth has plastic in their body. Among its known effects are changes to our endocrine systems: testosterone, estrogen, oxytocin, melatonin, corticotropin. And there’s all those “unknown unknowns.” As with DDT, seabirds (Brown Pelicans in that case) may be the ‘canary in the coal mine’ yet again. We’re not talking about plastic toys, vegetable bags, and the fenders off your electric plastic car, but microplastics, particles small enough to float around your bloodstream and collect in your organs, clogging and dissolving into ever-smaller particles. Might this be affecting our minds and behavior?
Seabirds that swallow ocean plastic waste have scarring in their stomachs – scientists have named this disease ‘plasticosis’
The Conversation | Matthew Savoca, Stanford University | 21 March 2023
From the Article:
Numerous laboratory studies, some dating back a decade, have demonstrated chronic effects on invertebrates, mammals, birds and fish from ingesting plastic. They include changes in behavior, loss of body weight and condition, reduced feeding rates, decreased ability to produce offspring, chemical imbalances in organisms’ bodies and changes in gene expression, to name a few.
The article contains a 4-minute YouTube from Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Just a little rain – Sepulveda Basin, 11 Mar 2023
[By Chuck Almdale]

Despite the NOAA prediction that the rain would stop by 4 AM, we had fair-to-middlin’ mist until about 10am. The sun never broke through and temperatures were in the 50’s. With little-to-no wind, it was quite pleasant and a welcome respite from the endless sun sun sun that constitutes SoCal weather nine months of the year.

(Ray Juncosa 3/11/23)
The binoculars and telescope lenses got a bit damp and had to be wiped from time to time. But it wasn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things, said grand scheme including a morning of birding once in a while.

The clouds and rain suppressed air traffic at nearby Van Nuys airport which can get disconcertingly noisily frequent on clear days, and for most of the morning the only planes we heard or saw were the radio-controlled jobbies over at the model airplane field on the west side of Woodley Ave. Some of them have sound effects that are quite ferocious, or at least reminiscent of dog fighters and dive bombers from WW II movies. The Angry Gnats Squadron, defending freedom against the Bosch.

(Ray Juncosa 3/11/23)
It’s pretty easy to find five species of heron/egret at the nature reserve. Here’s three of them. Black-crowned Night-Herons are — for them — almost abundant with both adults and immature plumages present, due to the reed beds surrounding the lake. They were also sitting in the trees on the central island. I was recently advised that this body of water is now officially a “lake” as it covers 10 acres or more, and no longer merely a pond. I forgot the name of this new lake. Green Herons are nearly as abundant here. We had four. Some looked as if they were sporting fresh plumage as their backs were actually green, even in the clouded indirect lighting, and were quite pretty.

(Chris Tosdevin 3/11/23)
Two-bluebird days are pretty uncommon and I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen two bluebird species at the same time & place before. Western Bluebirds like parks and riparian areas; Mountain Bluebirds like wide-open spaces in the winter. In the winter we usually find the latter in the grasslands of the Carrizo Plain, Antelope Valley, San Joaquin Valley or south of the Salton Sea. Not in the Los Angeles Basin or San Fernando Valley. Both species are cavity-nesters. In olden days they sought out old woodpecker holes to nest in, but now they both readily nest in human-built bird houses.

The Mountain Bluebirds were all out in the big field at the corner of Burbank Blvd. and Woodley Ave. So were a number of sparrows and lots of Turkey Vultures.


There had been a lot of rain coming down Woodley Creek, judging by all the trash on its banks or caught in the brush. We found fish washed up by the side of the path in several locations. This one was fresh-looking, didn’t smell (as dead fish quickly do) and looked alive, but it didn’t move when I poked it with my foot. It looked as if it were made of rubber.

The bird below was taking a bath in one of the pools left when the creek overflowed it’s banks. Nuthatches are almost always seen in trees, clambering up and down the trunk and limbs, looking for insects. One out in the open, on the ground, taking a bath, is…unusual.

(Chris Tosdevin 3/11/23)
There weren’t a lot of ducks on the pond; mostly coots, cormorants, a pair of Hooded Mergansers, a few White Pelicans (most of them were on the island) and some Pied-billed Grebes, like this one.

Around the edges of the lagoon and on the island there were quite a number of birds including Osprey, several hawks, a Merlin, sparrows, warblers, finches, goldfinches and others species.

(Chris Tosdevin 3-11-23)

(Chris Tosdevin 3/11/23)

We continued down the west side path until we came to this sight below. The tree must have been there for a while because a well-trodden path, invisible until you got right up to it, circumvented it on the left side. We continued down the path to the south end of the lake where we saw oodles of swallows, four (perhaps more) species in all, mostly Tree, followed by Rough-winged.

I saved what may be the best for last. Although it’s very tough to beat a field full of Mountain Birds — probably about 50 of them and more than I’ve ever seen in one place before — dozens of Lawrence’s Goldfinches hopping, flitting and poking on a dewy green lawn can do it, at least for me. I find this species of Goldfinch the most admirable, partially because they’re the least abundant in SoCal, and so when you happen upon them, it’s always a special treat.

The dark black face nicely contrasts what I think is one of the loveliest colors on a bird, this greenish-yellow on the bird’s belly and wings. Is it chartreuse? I commented to the group that I thought it was, and someone said no, chartreuse is a different shade of yellow, more of a greenish-yellow. OK. Here’s what I got when I googled “chartreuse.” Pretty close, I think, but color is in the eye (and the brain) of the beholder.

Anyway, great birding on a lovely day.
Before the trip began I stopped by the Burbank Blvd. bridge over the Los Angeles River, just to make absolutely sure that it was full of raging foamy water and unbirdable. It was, overflowing the concrete wall in one low spot and forming a shallow pool by which two Canada Geese kept watch.
As you can see from the list below, we hadn’t had a trip here in five years. We scheduled one for March 14, 2020, just after you-know-what hit America, and we had to cancel it. No, not because of COVID-19, but because the wildlife area was flooded with water and Woodley Ave. was closed. It had rained.
Abundance Code Key: X – present, A – 1-5, B – 6-10, C – 11-20,
D – 20-50, E – over 50
Sepulveda Basin Field Trips | ||||
Common Name | 3/11/23 | 3/10/18 | 2/11/17 | 2/13/16 |
Canada Goose | E | X | X | X |
Egyptian Goose | A | X | X | X |
Muscovy Duck | X | |||
Mallard | B | X | X | X |
Hooded Merganser | A | X | X | |
Pied-billed Grebe | B | X | X | X |
Neotropic Cormorant | 1 | |||
Double-crested Cormorant | D | X | X | X |
American White Pelican | C | X | X | |
Great Blue Heron | A | X | X | X |
Great Egret | B | X | X | X |
Snowy Egret | A | X | X | |
Green Heron | A | X | X | X |
Black-crowned Night-Heron | B | X | X | X |
Turkey Vulture | C | X | X | X |
Osprey | A | X | X | X |
Cooper’s Hawk | A | X | X | |
Red-shouldered Hawk | A | |||
Red-tailed Hawk | A | X | X | |
American Coot | D | X | X | X |
Killdeer | X | |||
Western Gull | X | |||
Rock Pigeon | D | X | ||
Eurasian Collared-Dove | 1 | |||
Mourning Dove | C | X | X | X |
Great Horned Owl | X | |||
White-throated Swift | X | |||
Anna’s Hummingbird | A | X | X | X |
Rufous Hummingbird | X | |||
Allen’s Hummingbird | B | X | X | X |
Belted Kingfisher | 1 | X | X | X |
Acorn Woodpecker | A | |||
Red-breasted Sapsucker | X | |||
Nuttall’s Woodpecker | A | X | X | X |
Downy Woodpecker | X | X | ||
Northern Flicker | A | X | X | |
Merlin | 1 | |||
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet | X | X | ||
Black Phoebe | A | X | X | X |
Ash-throated Flycatcher | X | |||
Cassin’s Kingbird | A | X | X | |
Western Scrub-Jay | X | X | ||
American Crow | X | X | ||
Common Raven | B | |||
Tree Swallow | D | X | ||
Violet-green Swallow | A | X | ||
No. Rough-winged Swallow | C | X | X | |
Cliff Swallow | B | |||
Bushtit | C | X | X | |
White-breasted Nuthatch | A | |||
House Wren | X | |||
Bewick’s Wren | X | X | ||
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | X | X | ||
Ruby-crowned Kinglet | A | X | X | |
Western Bluebird | B | X | X | X |
Mountain Bluebird | D | |||
Hermit Thrush | X | |||
American Robin | A | |||
California Thrasher | X | |||
Northern Mockingbird | A | X | X | |
European Starling | C | X | X | |
Orange-crowned Warbler | X | X | ||
Common Yellowthroat | B | X | X | X |
Yellow-rumped Warbler | D | X | X | X |
Spotted Towhee | X | X | X | |
California Towhee | B | X | X | X |
Chipping Sparrow | B | X | X | |
Lark Sparrow | X | X | ||
Savannah Sparrow | X | X | ||
Song Sparrow | C | X | X | X |
White-crowned Sparrow | D | X | X | X |
Dark-eyed Junco | X | |||
Red-winged Blackbird | D | X | X | X |
Western Meadowlark | A | |||
Great-tailed Grackle | C | X | X | |
House Finch | D | X | X | X |
Lesser Goldfinch | D | X | X | X |
Lawrence’s Goldfinch | D | |||
American Goldfinch | X | |||
Total Species – 79 | 56 | 44 | 51 | 51 |