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Morongo Valley Canyon Reserve birding, May 3, 2026
[By Jean Garrett, additional comments by Chuck Almdale, photos by Chuck Almdale & Ray Juncosa]
At Big Morongo Canyon Preserve, before we even left the parking lot, the sound of Yellow Warblers was everywhere but the first bird seen was the Vermilion Flycatcher, then the Yellow Warblers. Anna’s Hummingbirds were checking the last of the flowers and the Gambel’s Quails were out in the field. Wilson Warblers were the most common bird all day long followed by Western Tanagers. In previous years we would see lots of Summer Tanagers and just a few Western Tanagers. We got our share of Hooded Orioles and were lucky to also get some Bullock’s. The Brown-crested Flycatcher’s liquid “whit” kept us on the lookout and eventually the bird was seen.
At Covington Park there was the male Horned Owl but we never found the owlets and mother that people said were there. Several Western Bluebirds and a two Cedar Waxwings were found in the park along with a Kestrel.
At the Preserve’s feeder station
Going back to the Preserve, only one Summer Tanager was spotted. At the feeders near the nature preserve, Anna’s and Costa’s Hummingbirds were there along with several young squirrels, lots of the above mentioned Orioles and California Towhees were on the ground. Even the Common Yellowthroat warbler enjoyed the water near the feeders.
Going back to the trail, the Yellow-breasted Chat was found in an area filled with Bushtits and a Swainson Thrush. Someone took us to where he had found a snake and it was a King Snake (which I thought I would never see). It was at least 4 feet long with creamy white and black (with deep maroon overtones) rings and was gorgeous.
The head end of the snake
Front and middle of a snake that can be 30-80″ long.
The Hutton’s and the Warbling Vireos were in the wooded area and we finished with a Purple Finch. Not a lot of birds but like I said about Black Rock Campground the day before, it seems like spring came early so we may have missed some transient birds.
According to the preserve’s unillustrated checklist, there are three amphibians, thirteen lizards, fourteen snakes and one tortoise. I could not figure out what the above lizard is.
There was a heavy rainstorm and flooding in the preserve in August 2023, cause by the passage of tropical storm Hilary, originally predicted to be a hurricane. Five inches of rain brought mudslides, knocking over trees and severely damaging the boardwalk, and high winds broke off many limbs. The preserve partially reopened with limited trail access in September 2023. The damaged boardwalks were rebuilt and all trails officially reopened on March 4, 2026. There are still many fallen trees and branches in the northern section of the riparian area, especially along the western and northern sections of Marsh Trail, where these pictures were taken. In the southeastern section of Mesquite Trail, just above the north end of the West Canyon Trail, the large viewing platform is still inaccessible. But we had no trouble at all getting anywhere we wanted.
If you haven’t been to Morongo Valley before, the birding is best in April and May. We had a great many Wilson’s Warblers on this trip, and perhaps a dozen Northern Yellow Warblers, but not much else in the way of warblers. It’s the luck of the draw and bird abundance on any particular morning depends heavily on the winds or lack thereof the previous day and night in the Coachella Valley to the south. That’s where the birds are coming from.
Please note that the map below has north at the bottom.
Covington Park is right next door to the preserve (look for the fence gate), shares most of the same habitat, and birding there can be just as good as at the preserve. (Stay away Easter mornings – Easter Egg hunt.) There are also several houses across the street (westward) from the park where the owners have feeders and water out for the birds. You never know what you’ll see or where it will show up, and rarities frequently appear. There are half-a-dozen places to get food in the small town of Morongo Valley. I can recommend the Morongo Valley Cafe on the SW corner of Hwy 62 and Park Avenue (no, not that Park Avenue!) where we ate lunch. Tell them you’re a birder and their place comes birder-recommended.
| Morongo Valley Canyon Preserve & Covington Park | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| M – Present H – Heard Only | |||
| Species List | 5/3/26 | 5/3/15 | 5/5/13 |
| Gambel’s Quail | 2 | M | M |
| Feral Pigeon | M | M | |
| Eurasian Collared-Dove | M | M | |
| White-winged Dove | 3 | M | M |
| Mourning Dove | M | M | |
| White-throated Swift | M | ||
| Black-chinned Hummingbird | M | M | |
| Anna’s Hummingbird | 4 | M | M |
| Costa’s Hummingbird | 1 | M | M |
| Calliope Hummingbird | M | ||
| Allen’s Hummingbird | M | ||
| Virginia Rail | M-H | M-H | |
| Green Heron | M | ||
| Turkey Vulture | 2 | M | M |
| Cooper’s Hawk | M | M | |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 1 | M | |
| Great-horned Owl | 1 | ||
| Nuttall’s Woodpecker | 2 | M | M |
| Ladder-backed Woodpecker | 3 | M | M |
| Woodpecker hybrid “Nutterback” | 1 | M | M |
| American Kestrel | 1 | M | |
| Olive-sided Flycatcher | M | ||
| Western Wood-Pewee | 2 | M | M |
| Willow Flycatcher | M | ||
| Western Flycatcher | M | M | |
| Black Phoebe | M | M | |
| Vermilion Flycatcher | 2 | M | M |
| Ash-throated Flycatcher | 1 | M | |
| Brown-crested Flycatcher | 2 | M | M |
| Cassin’s Kingbird | M | M | |
| Western Kingbird | M | ||
| Bell’s Vireo | M | M | |
| Hutton’s Vireo | 1 | ||
| Cassin’s Vireo | M | M | |
| Western Warbling Vireo | 2 | M | M |
| Loggerhead Shrike | M | ||
| California Scrub-Jay | M | M | |
| Common Raven | 5 | M | M |
| Mountain Chickadee | M | ||
| Oak Titmouse | 2 | M | M |
| Verdin | M | ||
| Bushtit | 5 | M | M |
| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | M | ||
| House Wren | H | M | M |
| Bewick’s Wren | M | M | |
| European Starling | 5 | M | M |
| California Thrasher | M | M | |
| Western Bluebird | 4 | M | M |
| Townsend’s Solitaire | M | ||
| Swainson’s Thrush | 1 | M | |
| Hermit Thrush | M | ||
| Cedar Waxwing | 2 | ||
| Phainopepla | M | M | |
| House Sparrow | M | M | |
| House Finch | 6 | M | M |
| Purple Finch | 1 | ||
| Pine Siskin | M | ||
| Lesser Goldfinch | 1 | M | M |
| Lawrence’s Goldfinch | 2 | M | M |
| Song Sparrow | 4 | M | M |
| California Towhee | 2 | M | M |
| Spotted Towhee | M | ||
| Yellow-breasted Chat | 1 | M | M |
| Hooded Oriole | 4 | M | M |
| Bullock’s Oriole | 3 | M | M |
| Brown-headed Cowbird | M | M | |
| Great-tailed Grackle | M | ||
| Orange-crowned Warbler | M | M | |
| Nashville Warbler | M | ||
| Common Yellowthroat | 3 | M | M |
| Northern Yellow Warbler | 8 | M | M |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | 4 | M | M |
| Black-throated Gray Warbler | M | ||
| Townsend’s Warbler | M | ||
| Hermit Warbler | M | ||
| Wilson’s Warbler | 30 | M | M |
| Summer Tanager | 1 | M | M |
| Western Tanager | 20 | M | M |
| Rose-breasted Grosbeak | 1 | ||
| Black-headed Grosbeak | 5 | M | M |
| Blue Grosbeak | M | ||
| Lazuli Bunting | M | ||
| Total Species: 81+1 | 41+1 | 57+1 | 69+1 |
Black Rock Campground Birding, May 2, 2026
[By Jean Garrett, additional comments by Chuck Almdale , photos by Chuck Almdale & Ray Juncosa]
One of the things “they” say is “Any day with a roadrunner in it is a good day.”
We arrived at 3:00 PM to a quiet scene at the campground. Again, a Say’s Phoebe family had their nest by the door of the nature preserve station. It must be a safe place!
Nearby, a Bewick’s Wren led us to his nest where we could hear the young ones chirping. A California Thrasher perched conveniently for us while we were looking at a male & female Ladderback Woodpecker accompanied by the sound of Black-throated Sparrows.
Little did we know that we would be seeing the Black-throated sparrows everywhere we went in the campground.
Although Black-throated Sparrows are highly-adapted to arid deserts, they will drink water when they can get it. But during the long, dry desert summers they can survive for long periods without it, getting necessary moisture from their diet of insects, succulent vegetation, and seeds.
Another sound we could hear (besides House Finches) was the Gambel’s Quail whose call sounds so close to the California Quail’s “chi-ca-go”. But after settling the debate on the sound, the sentinel Gambel’s Quail finally showed itself.
The very best sighting for the day was a Roadrunner (photo at the top) standing on a rock and letting us see him for at least five minutes. All that was missing was to hear him sing.
Scrub Jays bounded through the Joshua trees and Eurasian Collared-Doves gave background songs.
Looking up at the sky offered a glimpse of a Turkey Vulture and a Red-tailed Hawk. We finished our list with an American Kestrel and a couple of Cactus Wren nests but no bird. Judging by the lack of flowers and the maturity of the seed pods on the Joshua Trees, it seemed like spring had come early.
Black Rock campground is a great place to visit if you want to see what Joshua Tree National Park looks like, but are too thrifty or pinched for time to drive into the main park. It’s part of the National Park, but you don’t have to pay admission, you can park by the camp HQ and walk anywhere you want. You can camp (now $35!, reservation needed), it’s only a few miles to the town of Yucca Valley, and the habitat is much the same as the main park with lots of cactus you can admire at an appropriate distance. Many of the cholla cacti harbor old nests of Cactus Wrens. We stayed at a town motel, and can recommend Las Palmas Mexican Cuisine for dinner.
We then drove through the campground, past the rangers’ offices and left up the dirt road that leads to the Hi-View Trailhead, perhaps a mile up-canyon. As you can see on the map below, trails branch out in all directions. Wear appropriate shoes, or better, thick soled boots. Cholla cactus thorns are long and strong, very tough to pull out of your boot or ankle and they hide on the ground when the cactus joint falls off.
At the parking lot we found a large lizard sunning itself on a fence post. The dark mark on the neck identified it as a Desert Spiny Lizard, Sceloporus magister.
The Peterson Field Guide to Western Reptiles & Amphibians says this lizard is 3.5-5.5″ long, from snout to the vent by the rear legs. As the tail is definitely longer than the body, this makes it about a foot long.
Note the blue-green throat.
The altitude here is slightly higher than in the campground and the trail we had just walked, and there were more short bushy juniper trees than there had been down slope.
The trees became increasingly more numerous as we walked upslope. We hoped for Pinyon Jays to pass overhead as this is the edge of their Pinyon-Juniper habitat, and we often see them in the general Black Rock vicinity. Once, in the early morning, about 100 of them invaded the campground, perching on yuccas, joshua trees, poles, wires and picnic tables everywhere. But no such luck today.
Our local “Nutterback*” Woodpecker hybrid: Ladderbacked x Nuttall’s
Ladderbacked Woodpeckers are resident in the arid deserts from SE California east to SE Colorado, West Oklahoma, the western half of Texas and nearly all of Mexico. Nuttall’s Woodpecker is the western damp riparian habitat version, resident from northern California to northern Baja California, from the ocean to the montaine forest of the Sierras and Cascades. These two are very similar in appearance, and for at least 20 years if not far longer, their hybridizing has been noted, particularly in this area near Joshua Tree National Park, and especially at Morongo Valley Preserve, which we visited the following day. Here all sorts of hybridization mixtures have appeared, as backcrosses have created what can be called a “wobbly (or ill-formed) spectrum” of variation, although there’s probably an official scientific term for what appears, when “good” types of Nuttall’s or Ladderbacked breed with one another, then with various hybrid offspring, and hybrids breed with one another until all sorts of genetic mixtures result in a mélange of plumage appearances.
I believe this bird is the first hybrid I’ve seen outside of the Morongo Valley Reserve and next-door-neighbor Covington Park, and it was on a pole near the Black Rock Campground HQ building. The pole wasn’t performing any function, but looked as if it once had a crossbar or something else placed on it. The hole (see photo below) may have held a long bolt to keep the crossbar in place.
The face pattern of this individual looks much like that of the juvenile Nuttall’s with the large white streak beginning over the eye and widening out as it descends onto the shoulder. But there is no red forecrown which juvenile Nuttall’s possess. The black face pattern also connects onto the black shoulder, as with Nuttall’s. The nasal feathers are very light brownish. Ladderbacked and female Nuttall’s can have brownish nasal feathers (or tuft), but the pattern here looks more like Ladderbacked..
The black area at the top of the shoulder is not only narrow, as with Ladderbacked, but is irregular, possibly a result of gene mixture. The amount of black here looks almost intermediate between the two species. The pale areas on face and front are quite white, as with Nuttall’s. except for the previously mentioned nasal tuft, part of the neck and part of the upper breast, which have a brownish wash like that of the Ladderbacked. The back and wing streaks/spots seem more like Ladderbacked.
In the photo below, note the slight brownish wash, most noticeable above the bill, lighter on upper breast and very light on the neck. The black face pattern connects to the shoulder, and the black bar at the top of the striped back is moderately thin and irregular.
It seems that the results of this hybridization are moving out beyond their Morongo Valley Preserve homeland. Although I do conclude that this is a hybrid, we’ve previously seen more convincing hybrids at the preserve than this one.
The primary definition of species is the Biological Species Concept, which defines a species as a group of organisms that can successfully interbreed in nature and produce fertile offspring. Ladderbacked and Nuttall’s Woodpeckers are doing this, and the blended plumages of their fertile offspring are carrying the evidence. These species will probably be lumped in the not-too-distant future.
*Later Edit Note: Longtime reader, birder and poet carol prismon-reed, daughter of SMBAS board member emeritus Mary Prismon, proposed Nutterback Woodpecker for the eventually-lumped species after reading the email version of this blog. I think it’s perfect. So welcome to our new Nutterback Woodpecker!
Unfortunately we didn’t post any reports or keep a checklist for our trips between 2015 and 2026. We had many noticeable misses on this trip, particularly flycatchers, Cactus and other wrens, sparrows, Scott’s Oriole and warblers. Again, as was noted with the absence of wildflowers and the emptiness of Cactus Wren nests, perhaps spring arrived early here this year.
| Black Rock Campground | |||
| B – Present, H – Heard Only | |||
| Species List | 5/3/26 | 5/2/15 | 5/4/13 |
| Gambel’s Quail | 5 | B | B |
| Rock Pigeon | B | B | |
| Eurasian Collared-Dove | 3 | B | |
| White-winged Dove | 1 | B | B |
| Mourning Dove | B | B | |
| Greater Roadrunner | 1 | B | |
| Black-chinned Hummingbird | B | B | |
| Anna’s Hummingbird | B | B | |
| Costa’s Hummingbird | B | B | |
| Turkey Vulture | 3 | B | |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 1 | ||
| Ladder-backed Woodpecker | 2 | B | B |
| Woodpecker hybrid LB x Nut | 1 | B | B |
| American Kestrel | 2 | B | |
| Western Wood-Pewee | B | B | |
| Black Phoebe | B | B | |
| Say’s Phoebe | 1 | B | |
| Ash-throated Flycatcher | B | B | |
| Cassin’s Kingbird | B | ||
| Western Kingbird | B | ||
| Pinyon Jay | B | B | |
| California Scrub-Jay | 1 | B | B |
| Common Raven | 1 | B | B |
| Oak Titmouse | B | ||
| Verdin | B | ||
| Rock Wren | B | ||
| Bewick’s Wren | 2 | B | B |
| Cactus Wren | B | B | |
| European Starling | B | B | |
| California Thrasher | 1 | B | B |
| Northern Mockingbird | B | B | |
| Western Bluebird | B | B | |
| Phainopepla | B | B | |
| House Sparrow | B | B | |
| House Finch | 4 | B | B |
| Lesser Goldfinch | B | ||
| Brewer’s Sparrow | B | ||
| Black-throated Sparrow | 18 | B | |
| California Towhee | B | B | |
| Spotted Towhee | B | ||
| Scott’s Oriole | B | B | |
| Yellow Warbler | B | ||
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | B | ||
| Wilson’s Warbler | B | B | |
| Total Species – 44 | 15+1 | 36+1 | 32+1 |
Zoom Recording: Evolution in Urban Dark-eyed Juncos, with Dr. Pamela Yeh & members of the Yeh Lab
The recording of this program from 5 May 2026
is now available online
Evolution in Urban Dark-eyed Juncos, with Dr. Pamela Yeh and her graduate students Mars Walters, Sierra Glassman, Prasheetha Karthikeyan, & Joey Di Liberto
Then give it about 30 seconds for “Zoom Workplace” to show up
If you don’t want CC captioning, click the CC button lower right.
The Yeh Lab is excited to be giving a talk on evolution in urban dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis). Dr. Pamela Yeh, Associate Professor at UCLA, will start by discussing some of the history of the lab’s work on the juncos and providing an overview of the work being done in her lab. PhD student Mars Walters will talk about a long-term behavioral shift in UCLA’s dark-eyed juncos induced by the COVID-19 lockdown. PhD student Sierra Glassman will talk about her in-progress research on urban genomic evolution of juncos across California. MS student Prasheetha Karthikeyan will discuss her ongoing research on the flocking behavior of urban dark eyed juncos on the UCLA campus during their nonbreeding season. Lastly, another PhD student, Joey Di Liberto, will present new research on how female juncos adjust the volume of their eggs across their nests as well as over the breeding season; and what this means for how birds manage reproductive investment in changing conditions.
Dr. Pamela Yeh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA. She studies how human activities affect the evolution of species, focusing on the evolution of birds in urban environments and the evolution of drug resistant bacteria in urban and agricultural areas. She is also interested in the role biology plays in public health, and how biological data and insights can both inform public health research as well as public health policy.She received her PhD in Evolutionary Biology from UC San Diego and has conducted post-doctoral work in the Center for Genomics Research and the Systems Biology Department, both at Harvard University. She has been at UCLA since 2013. Dr. Yeh is also an External Faculty at Santa Fe Institute.
Mars Walters is a Ph.D. student in the Yeh Lab at UCLA. They are studying the evolutionary mechanisms shaping urban phenotypes in the dark-eyed junco, from behavior to genomics. They earned an MS in from the Yeh Lab in 2022 and a BS from the University of Georgia in 2013. Mars has worked as a field ornithologist and researcher for USGS, the Audubon Society, and the Smithsonian Institute in diverse ecosystems across the United States.
Sierra Glassman is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and a second-year PhD student in the UCLA Ecology & Evolutionary Biology program in Dr. Pamela Yeh’s Lab. She is interested in birds’ responses to human-induced environmental change. She researches the morphology, behavior and genomics of urban adaptation in Dark-eyed Juncos. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in Integrative Biology in 2024, where she researched the vocal and foraging behavior of Anna’s Hummingbirds. She also has worked as an assistant for the UC Berkeley Schell Lab, where she aided urban mammal cognition and biodiversity research.
Prasheetha Karthikeyan is a first year M.S. student in the Yeh Lab, studying the social and antipredator behavior of dark-eyed juncos. She earned her B.S. in Environmental Science from UCLA, where she discovered a passion for urban ecology and joined the Yeh Lab initially as an undergraduate research assistant During this time, she also worked in positions focused on conserving Threatened and Endangered Species, with an emphasis on wildlife impacted by urbanization.
Joey Di Liberto is a graduate student in the Yeh Lab at UCLA. Using the model system of Dark-eyed Juncos across the state of California, he is examining how animals may be adapting to urban pressures across individuals, populations, and subspecies levels. Prior to beginning work at UCLA, Joey obtained his BS from UC San Diego, and his MS at the College of William and Mary and throughout has worked to study behavioral ecology and conservation in a variety of avian species.
[Posted by Chuck Almdale]
[By Lu Plauzoles, posted by Chuck Almdale]
We plan to meet at 8:30AM at the parking lot below the Sooky Goldman Nature Center. (restrooms there) I believe most navigation systems will recognize that site.
I will try to scout the area two days before the walk to ascertain the correct route and post any changes on the blog. However, expect to be taking N. Beverly Drive north past the Beverly Hills Hotel from Sunset Blvd. Left at the fork (tri-light) with Coldwater Canyon and then the very narrow Franklin Canyon Drive.
The north entrance from Mulholland Drive and the Tree People site IS STILL CLOSED because of road damage from rainstorms four years ago.
From Santa Monica, please allow 35-40 minutes travel due to early-morning traffic.
Please exercise extreme caution in respecting stop signs on the park road. Intersections are camera-controlled and since this is National Park Service land, photo-enforcement is serious and enforceable. (Like, $300-worth!) Do not expect cellphone reception in this narrow canyon.
We expect to walk down the length of the canyon and come back to the parking structure via the same route. Total approximately 1.75 miles walking. Approximately 2 hours with good looks at lingering warblers and wrens in classic southern California riparian/chaparral habitat, as well as the occasional waterfowl in the reservoir. Let’s see if the Common rAvens still own the real estate. The prize bird if we can spot one is the Hutton’s Vireo!
Call me or better, text me for details and questions: 310.779.0966
Lu Plauzoles
Link to Franklin Canyon Park MRCA website
Link to Franklin Canyon Park Map (or see below)
A Recent Plea for Pigeons (population control)
[By Lu Plauzoles]
I read this on The Guardian. A rational solution to the pollution of the water near Santa Monica Pier? It certainly doesn’t sound very expensive.
Lasers, hawks and even guns haven’t solved the UK’s pigeon problem. There is a better way
The Guardian: by Sydney Lobe, 4 May, 2026
The author has been spending time with the National Pigeon Advocacy Association (NPAA) and its president, Sue Joyce (AKA Sue the Pigeon Lady). Joyce has a vision of an avian utopia where the pigeon “problem” is solved for good.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/04/uk-pigeon-problem-humane-solution-councils
SANTA MONICA BAY AUDUBON SOCIETY BLOG 