A Chilly Sepulveda Basin Trip: 12 December, 2015

Both male & female Belted Kingfishers were present (Ray Juncosa 12/12/15)

Some newcomers showed up for this hastily organized field trip, which replaced the Carrizo Plain trip canceled late yesterday: Austin – fairly new to birding but quickly catching on – is a chapter member, and Wayne, who is not a member, but is a blog reader, and who escapes the Halifax, Nova Scotia winters for five months every year by staying in L.A. and looking at birds.

Say’s Phoebe busily flycatching by the fence (Ray Juncosa 12/12/15)

While waiting for potential late arrivals, we checked the lawn & trees near the parking lot, turning up a variety of Sparrows – Chipping, Lark, Savannah, and White-crowned. Near the south fence bordering the nature reserve we happened on a large flock of Western Meadowlarks, most of them out in the field, who flushed and re-lit farther away. A Merlin then flew by in the distance. On our way to the reserve entrance we found

California Towhee (Ray Juncosa 12/12/15)

Spotted Towhee (Ray Juncosa 12/12/15)

California & Spotted Towhees, Black & Say’s Phoebes, a Song Sparrow, the first of many Ruby-crowned Kinglets, American Goldfinches, House Finches and some of the ever-present wintering Yellow-rumped Warblers hopping through the foliage and shagging flies from the canopy.

This Great Blue Heron almost picked our pockets
(Ray Juncosa 12/12/15)

We made it all of 20 ft. into the reserve before hitting a low wall of sparrows – more of the same as earlier – who worked the pathway before us, joined by a California Thrasher. I haven’t read of any problems in the thrasher population, but I don’t see nearly as many Cal Thrashers as I did decades ago. Anna’s and Allen’s hummers shot in to perch on twig ends above us. A Downy Woodpecker popped in and out of a Cottonwood tree.

The pond was populated by the usual suspects: various ducks, grebes, coots, pelicans, cormorants and egrets (see the list below for their exact names). The Black-crowned Night-Herons hid among the reeds, occasionally flying across the pond. An

American White Pelican & Black-crowned Night-Heron (Ray Juncosa 12/12/15)

Osprey flew past in the distance, and a small group of Turkey Vultures roused themselves on this chilly morning from the leafy dark of the island floor. It turned out, oddly enough, to be a very good day for both Turkey Vultures and California Towhees.

This juvenile Red-tailed Hawk is likely the same bird pictured below, sitting in the tree.
(Ray Juncosa 12/12/15)

A Red-tailed Hawk’s mottled back (Ray Juncosa 12/12/15)

As said, it was rather chilly, with temperatures  in the low 50’s (F) – my apologies to those of you currently suffering in cold climes, who would gladly snap off a frozen arm to be here now. Gloves felt good. I’ve read that in Norway this time of year the locals make great sport of catching scoters – called scoter-fanger, I believe – swimming through the ice-strewn fjord, wearing only swim fins, breath-holding for extraordinary lengths of time, rising under an unsuspecting scoter as it paddles past icy gray rock walls, catching the bird’s feet with their teeth and yanking them underwater. But we don’t do that here. The closest we come is downing an iced cola and hot dog drowned in chili sauce while reclining at the movies.

We spotted a very dark Red-tailed Hawk sitting in a tree, and later saw one soaring: dark brown head and belly with dark reddish brown chest. It was nearly a dead ringer of a bird photo’d two years ago at the same location. Unfortunately we did not see the immature Bald Eagle reported a few days ago.

This adult Dark Red-tail Hawk from two years ago was a dead ringer for one we saw today. (T. Hinnebusch 11/9/13)

We encountered many more kinglets, gnatcatchers, sparrows and finches south of Burbank Blvd. on our way to the Los Angeles River, along with a lovely Black-throated Gray Warbler. The vegetation, mostly willows and cottonwoods, is beginning to recover from the

Black-throated Gray Warbler seizes a vermiform (Ray Juncosa 12/12/15)

havoc wreaked several years ago by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers when they decided to remove most of the trees, failing to notify anyone of their intentions. (“We don’t have to,” they said, in a remarkable impersonation of Lily Tomlin’s telephone operator character, “we’re the Army Corp of Engineers.”)

Song Sparrow (Ray Juncosa 12/12/15)

More ducks, mostly American Wigeons, the ubiquitous Mallards, and a few Bufflehead. A pair of Greater Yellowlegs worked one stream edge, some Spotted Sandpipers the other, a few American Pipits the stony stream-islands between. A flock of Least Sandpipers then flew in and began eagerly foraging at the water’s edge. We searched the reeds and grasses for Orange Bishops, but saw none.

White-crowned Sparrows were common (Ray Juncosa 12/12/15)

On the way back to our cars we saw a few more Red-tailed Hawks and many Turkey Vultures soaring on the thermals. By the time we finished, it was nearly warm enough to support human life.

Many thanks to Ray Juncosa for his photographs. [Chuck Almdale]

Los Angeles River looking southeast towards Sepulveda flood control dam (L. Johnson 11/9/13)