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Fog and cool temperatures of 59° – 64° didn’t keep the surfers or the birders away. You could tell that that birding movie was now playing in the theaters as several passersby asked if we were working on a “Big Year.” No one was.

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Birds always look a bit strange in the gray light which fog brings, and this had something to do with our difficulty with one duck. It started as a Cinnamon Teal, morphed into an American Wigeon, then morphed again into a Eurasian Wigeon, a rarity at the lagoon. It looked like a rufous morph female to me, according to my handy NGS Field Guide.  A few minutes later, someone said that it had been reported on the web (LACoBirds@yahoogroups.com), and sure enough when I got home, there it was, a female EuWi reported 10/22 as having been seen on 10/21 by Cal Yorke & Guy McCaskie.  My records show 3 previous EuWi at the lagoon, all singletons: a bird that stayed from  1/18/81 to at least 3/8/81, one on 11/24/91 and one on 4/24/94. So far this current bird has been there at least 3 days and chances are (based on this extremely small sample of 3 birds) 33% that it’ll stay around for a while.  [Link to Cal Yorke’s 10/21 report, with pictures.]

We had a few more new faces: Ken, Dawn, Grace & Daniel, and Femi. Clara, new last month, returned, busily recording her sightings onto a thin rectangular electronic device, which I’ve been told is some sort of telephone.  News to me.  What’s next? Recorded bird calls you can dial up?

Notable among the many birds were the flocks of Black-bellied Plover which kept coming in and flying out. I guesstimated 700 total but it could easily have been well over 1000.  Down on the mud, hiding among the ‘Black-bellies’ were 3 Black Turnstone, which show up just about ½ as often as do Ruddy Turnstone, 10 of which were also present. If you go birding in England, our Ruddy Turnstone is known as “The Turnstone”.  I don’t know who Mr. The was, but there are an awful lot of British birds named after him.  And yes, as we are often asked, Turnstones are aptly named, as they often do flip over pebbles to see if anyone edible hides underneath.  Two Dunlin also showed up, wandering among the plovers and Killdeer.

The recent rain (with perhaps some help from the Surfers’ Midnight Shovel Brigade) opened up a channel through the west end of the beach. The water level was very low and dropping with the tide, so a great deal of mud was exposed throughout the lagoon and channels.  We did manage to find a couple of Virginia Rail and at least one Sora, who was very vocal, calling all morning at regular intervals.  The beach channel prevented us from reaching the Snowy Plover winter roost site and doing a census, but I did manage to find 5 of them at great distance through the telescope.

Also notable were raptors: 2 Red-tailed Hawk perched in a dead tree across the road from the Adamson House, 1 Osprey which flew up-canyon, then back down-canyon about ½ hour later, and one each of Peregrine Falcon and Merlin, both of which – at different times – did very fast flybys of the lagoon.  Lagoon birds usually panic into flight when a Peregrine comes by, but they didn’t seem to notice this one.

Our next three field trips: Butterbredt Spring Campout – 29/30 October; Malibu Creek State Park – 12 November, Malibu Lagoon 27 November.
Our next program: Tuesday, 1 November – A Century of Change in Bird Life in Los Angeles, presented by Kimball Garrett.
Reminders will be emailed from the blog.

As a reminder to those coming to our 10 a.m. Parent’s & Kids Birdwalk, it meets at the beach trail footbridge closest to the parking lot.

Links: Unusual birds at Malibu Lagoon
Aerial photo of Malibu Lagoon from 9/23/02.
Prior checklists: Jan-June’11, July-Dec ’10, Jan-June ’10, Jul-Dec ‘09, and Jan-June ‘09.
[Chuck Almdale]

Malibu Census 2011	24-Jul	28-Aug	25-Sep	23-Oct
Temperature	65-72	72 – 81	61-69	59-64
Tide Height	+2.61	+5.03	+5.33	+5.40
Low/High &Time	L:0947	H:0942	H:0830	H:0178
Gadwall			10	6
Eurasian Wigeon				1
American Wigeon			3
Mallard	54	60	48	25
Blue-winged Teal				2
Northern Shoveler			10	12
Green-winged Teal				2
Ruddy Duck	2	5	8
Pacific Loon				1
Common Loon				1
Pied-billed Grebe	4	15	13	4
Eared Grebe			5	3
Western Grebe				10
Brandt’s Cormorant		3	1	3
Dble-crstd Cormorant	31	48	47	32
Pelagic Cormorant	1	3	2	1
Brown Pelican	407	77	60	12
Great Blue Heron	6	3	2	3
Great Egret	4	2	2	2
Snowy Egret	11	15	23	26
Green Heron			1
Blk-crwnd N-Heron	11	4	12
Osprey		1		1
Red-tailed Hawk		2		2
Merlin				1
Peregrine Falcon			1	1
Virginia Rail			1	2
Sora			3	1
American Coot	20	75	410	370
Blk-bellied Plover	4	46	40	700
Snowy Plover	13	36	62	5
Semipalmated Plover	2	4
Killdeer	2	8	6	15
Black Oystercatcher				2
Black-necked Stilt			1
Spotted Sandpiper		2	2	3
Wandering Tattler		1
Willet		4	7	10
Whimbrel		41	26	28
Marbled Godwit		2	2
Ruddy Turnstone	7	4	7	10
Black Turnstone	1			3
Sanderling		15	3
Western Sandpiper	2	11		1
Least Sandpiper	1	6	3	16
Dunlin				2
Long-billed Dowitcher			2	2
Red-necked Phalarope		7
Heermann’s Gull	41	24	15	14
Ring-billed Gull	1		7	18
Western Gull	107	146	66	80
California Gull		8	16	120
Herring Gull			1
Least Tern	13
Caspian Tern	3	12
Common Tern	1
Forster’s Tern		3
Royal Tern		18	15	1
Elegant Tern	8	36	4
Black Skimmer	1	1
Rock Pigeon	6	5	5	4
Mourning Dove	3	2	2	2
Vaux’s Swift			100
Anna’s Hummingbird	3	4	3	2
Allen’s Hummingbird	3		2	2
Belted Kingfisher		2	1	2
Nuttall’s Woodpecker		1
Western Wood-Pewee			1
Black Phoebe	8	10	6	10
Say’s Phoebe			1	2
Cassin’s Kingbird			1
Western Kingbird	1	4
Western Scrub-Jay				2
American Crow	4	3	2	4
Rough-wingd Swallow	20	22	1
Barn Swallow	18	45	30
Cliff Swallow	25	2
Oak Titmouse		2
Bushtit	8	6	6	20
Bewick’s Wren	1	1	1	1
House Wren			1	1
Wrentit	1
Northern Mockingbird	2	3	2	2
European Starling	38	20	23	60
Ornge-crwnd Warbler			1
Yellow-rumpd Warbler				8
Common Yellowthroat	1	8	5	9
Wilson’s Warbler		1	2
California Towhee	3		1
Savannah Sparrow			1
Song Sparrow	1	5	3	4
White-crwnd Sparrow				18
Bobolink			1
Red-winged Blackbird	17	32	18
Brewer’s Blackbird				2
Great-tailed Grackle	3	5	12	8
Brwn-headed Cowbird	6
Hooded Oriole	6
House Finch	4	8	12	5
Lesser Goldfinch		4	2	1
Totals by Type	July	Aug	Sep	Oct
Waterfowl	56	65	79	48
Water Birds-Other	463	221	542	440
Herons, Egrets	32	24	40	31
Quail & Raptors	0	3	1	5
Shorebirds	32	187	161	797
Gulls & Terns	175	248	124	233
Doves	9	7	7	6
Other Non-Pass.	6	7	106	6
Passerines	167	181	133	157
Totals Birds	940	943	1193	1723
Total Species	July	Aug	Sep	Oct
Waterfowl	2	2	5	6
Water Birds-Other	5	6	9	12
Herons, Egrets	4	4	5	3
Quail & Raptors	0	2	1	4
Shorebirds	8	14	12	13
Gulls & Terns	8	8	7	5
Doves	2	2	2	2
Other Non-Pass.	2	3	4	3
Passerines	19	18	23	17
Totals Species – 100	50	59	68	65