27 December ’09 – Malibu Lagoon Trip Report & July – December 2009 Results
Cool and cloudy weather greeted those who ventured out, but the birding was great and the weather warmed up to be quite pleasant. Loads of gulls, shorebirds and ducks. Surfers were out in force as the waves were great (storm warning issued for 3 p.m.) but the water was very cold. I found this out when I waded across the outlet stream to count Snowy Plovers – 59 birds, including the banded bird “brown, orange : white, white” now spending his/her 3rd month at the lagoon. The tide was far out with more rocks showing than I can previously recall.
They were mostly covered with California Gulls but 4 Black Oystercatchers were among them, only the 8th time we’ve had them at the lagoon. (They’ve been there since Christmas Day, apparently.) One Glaucous-winged Gull among the Western Gulls. Those who stayed to the end got scope views of the distant Long-tailed Duck (aka Oldsquaw) hanging out with a small flotilla of Surf Scoters over by the Malibu Pier. This was a life bird for some and a new bird for the lagoon area. After counting plovers, I headed towards the pier to photo it, but it headed out to sea. Altogether we had 2,638 birds in 63 species. See the chart below for the details.
Here is a record of the period July-December for the lagoon. Six visits, 105 species total with 6,791 individual birds counted. Not too shabby! Link to January-June 2009 sightings.
Malibu Bird Census | 2009 | 2009 | 2009 | 2009 | 2009 | 2009 |
For 2009 | Jul 26 |
Aug 23 |
Sep 27 |
Oct 25 |
Nov 22 |
Dec 27 |
Temperature | 68-75 | 65-75 | 72-80 | 60-74 | 60-72 | 50-60 |
Tide Height | +0.4 | +5.7 | +3.9 | +3.5 | +4.6 | +0.2 |
Low/High & Time | L:0704 | H:1201 | H:0731 | L:0941 | H:1137 | L:1241 |
Wood Duck | 1 | |||||
Gadwall | 4 | 11 | 4 | 7 | 23 | |
American Wigeon | 8 | 10 | 6 | 26 | ||
Mallard | 25 | 35 | 22 | 24 | 15 | 16 |
Northern Shoveler | 8 | 25 | 5 | 15 | ||
Northern Pintail | 1 | 1 | ||||
Green-winged Teal | 4 | 6 | 8 | |||
Greater Scaup | 1 | |||||
Surf Scoter | 50 | |||||
Long-tailed Duck | 1 | |||||
Bufflehead | 5 | 25 | ||||
Red-brstd Merganser | 1 | 3 | ||||
Ruddy Duck | 1 | 18 | 20 | 25 | ||
Red-throated Loon | 3 | |||||
Pacific Loon | 5 | |||||
Common Loon | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
Pied-billed Grebe | 6 | 7 | 4 | 10 | 5 | 5 |
Eared Grebe | 6 | 1 | ||||
Western Grebe | 2 | 20 | 15 | 4 | ||
Brown Pelican | 40 | 185 | 12 | 8 | 12 | 56 |
Brandt’s Cormorant | 1 | 2 | ||||
Dble-crstd Cormorant | 15 | 12 | 14 | 25 | 29 | 35 |
Pelagic Cormorant | 3 | 1 | 3 | |||
Great Blue Heron | 3 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
Great Egret | 5 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |
Snowy Egret | 40 | 17 | 14 | 15 | 8 | 20 |
Green Heron | 1 | |||||
Blk-crwnd N-Heron | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | ||
Cooper’s Hawk | 1 | |||||
Red-shouldered Hawk | 1 | |||||
Red-tailed Hawk | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
Merlin | 1 | |||||
Peregrine Falcon | 1 | |||||
Sora | 2 | 4 | 6 | 2 | ||
Virginia Rail | 1 | 1 | ||||
American Coot | 20 | 147 | 266 | 295 | 403 | |
Blk-bellied Plover | 71 | 102 | 114 | 89 | 45 | |
Snowy Plover | 1 | 36 | 33 | 61 | 48 | 59 |
Semipalmated Plover | 10 | 2 | ||||
Killdeer | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | |
Black Oystercatcher | 4 | |||||
Black-necked Stilt | 2 | |||||
Lesser Yellowlegs | 1 | |||||
Willet | 1 | 16 | 33 | 40 | 18 | 12 |
Spotted Sandpiper | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | |
Whimbrel | 1 | 29 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 4 |
Marbled Godwit | 2 | 4 | 25 | 14 | 14 | |
Ruddy Turnstone | 11 | 4 | 12 | 13 | 18 | |
Black Turnstone | 1 | 2 | ||||
Sanderling | 105 | 41 | 145 | 155 | 115 | |
Western Sandpiper | 1 | 8 | 5 | |||
Least Sandpiper | 3 | 3 | 12 | 35 | ||
Pectoral Sandpiper | 2 | |||||
Dunlin | 2 | 4 | ||||
Short-billd Dowitcher | 3 | 6 | 20 | |||
Wilson’s Snipe | 1 | |||||
Heermann’s Gull | 12 | 21 | 14 | 12 | 13 | 24 |
Ring-billed Gull | 2 | 2 | 14 | 50 | 360 | |
California Gull | 2 | 1 | 15 | 123 | 58 | 1060 |
Herring Gull | 1 | 1 | ||||
Western Gull | 30 | 132 | 84 | 82 | 67 | 68 |
Glaucous-wingd Gull | 1 | |||||
Caspian Tern | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
Royal Tern | 3 | |||||
Elegant Tern | 1 | 5 | 11 | 1 | ||
Forster’s Tern | 1 | |||||
Least Tern | 1 | |||||
Rock Pigeon | 1 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 4 |
Eur. Collared-Dove | 1 | |||||
Mourning Dove | 1 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 3 | 2 |
Anna’s Hummingbird | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 3 |
Allen’s Hummingbird | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Belted Kingfisher | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
Black Phoebe | 6 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 5 |
Say’s Phoebe | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
Western Kingbird | 2 | |||||
American Crow | 1 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 2 |
Tree Swallow | 1 | |||||
Rough-wingd Swallow | 2 | 3 | ||||
Cliff Swallow | 24 | 2 | ||||
Barn Swallow | 12 | 25 | 2 | |||
Oak Titmouse | 1 | |||||
Bushtit | 6 | 7 | 40 | |||
Bewick’s Wren | 5 | 1 | ||||
House Wren | 3 | 1 | ||||
Marsh Wren | 2 | 1 | 2 | |||
Wrentit | 1 | |||||
Northern Mockingbird | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
European Starling | 6 | 8 | 8 | 12 | 6 | 10 |
Ornge-crwnd Warbler | 1 | |||||
Yellow-rumpd Warbler | 2 | 3 | 6 | 12 | ||
Common Yellowthroat | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 |
Spotted Towhee | 1 | |||||
California Towhee | 2 | 2 | 2 | |||
Savannah Sparrow | 2 | 8 | 3 | |||
Song Sparrow | 1 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 4 |
White-crwnd Sparrow | 4 | 4 | 1 | |||
Red-winged Blackbird | 2 | 1 | ||||
Western Meadowlark | 4 | 1 | ||||
Brewer’s Blackbird | 1 | |||||
Great-tailed Grackle | 2 | 3 | ||||
Brwn-headed Cowbird | 1 | 1 | ||||
Hooded Oriole | 2 | |||||
House Finch | 24 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 6 |
Lesser Goldfinch | 1 | 7 | ||||
Totals by Type | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
Waterfowl | 26 | 39 | 51 | 86 | 65 | 193 |
Water Birds – Other | 81 | 204 | 185 | 341 | 367 | 519 |
Herons, Egrets & Ibis | 50 | 32 | 27 | 20 | 13 | 24 |
Quail & Raptors | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
Shorebirds | 4 | 303 | 243 | 455 | 347 | 313 |
Gulls & Terns | 44 | 162 | 120 | 244 | 190 | 1515 |
Doves | 3 | 10 | 6 | 16 | 9 | 6 |
Other Non-Passerines | 5 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 6 |
Passerines | 95 | 64 | 61 | 66 | 92 | 61 |
Total Birds | 309 | 818 | 700 | 1233 | 1093 | 2638 |
Total Species | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
Waterfowl | 2 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 11 |
Water Birds – Other | 4 | 3 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
Herons, Egrets & Ibis | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
Quail & Raptors | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
Shorebirds | 4 | 16 | 14 | 14 | 9 | 12 |
Gulls & Terns | 3 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 7 |
Doves | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Other Non-Passerines | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
Passerines | 16 | 13 | 18 | 17 | 15 | 14 |
Totals – Species | 40 | 51 | 62 | 63 | 59 | 63 |
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