Hot Day at Sepulveda Wildlife Area

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I think nearly everyone in SoCal will agree that someone else is getting our El Niño, and we’d like it back, thank you very much. Our total rainfall so far is lower than last year’s, which hardly seems possible, and record high temperatures were set all over SoCal this past week. Van Nuys Airport, a few blocks north of our field trip site, hit 82° today – not as bad as last year’s 88° for this date, but still far above the mean high of 63°. Enough! Time for rain and cooler weather. Bring it on!

Lesser Goldfinch comin’ right at’cha (R. Ehler 2-13-16)

That said, it was a nice day and there were some lovely birds on hand for the throng of birders on hand. Considering the predicted temperatures, we should have started a half-hour earlier, but such foresight, unlike birders, failed to appear.

The elegant Lark Sparrow wearing his stickpin (J. Waterman 2-13-16)

We wandered around for a while, slowly wending our way over to the nesting Great Horned Owls, spotting various sparrows – Savannah, White-crowned, Lark, Song, Chipping and California Towhees – feeding on the grass. Every now and then a juvenile

Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk (R. Ehler 2-13-16)

Red-tailed Hawk with a large ring on his right leg (black band with a yellow “07-50” visible) would come zooming by. It didn’t take long for

Closeup of #07-50 on hawk’s legband (R. Ehler 2-13-16)

the many Turkey Vultures to soar high on the thermals, waiting for something or someone to drop dead. After a few hours, I thought it might be me.

Lesser and American Goldfinches worked the seed-heads, Western Bluebirds, Cassin’s Kingbirds, Black Phoebes and an Ash-throated Flycatcher snagged flies, a

Ash-throated Flycatcher (R. Ehler 2-13-16)

half-dozen Yellow-chevroned Parakeets dropped into a treetop, the occasional woodpecker and sapsucker flailed away at tree trunks – no wonder it took us quite a while to get over to the owls.

Great Horned Owl mate stands guard (R. Ehler 2-13-16)

More than a few park users wandered over to see what some 30 birders were looking at up in that tree, and they were usually blown away by the view in the scope: one on the nest and one in a nearby tree, no visible owlets as yet. We found a few smashed up fur and bone- containing regurgitated owl pellets on the ground, but no one needed them for soup stock.

Great Horned Owl on the nest (R. Ehler 2-13-16)

Mallards and Pied-billed Grebes dominated the pond, sparking a discussion as to whether Pied-bills actually eat pies, about which we could not agree. Two Hooded Mergansers briefly swam, then ducked into the island bushes among the Canada Geese, Double-crested Cormorants, Black-crowned Night-Herons and three Egyptian Geese who had somehow slipped into the country past our Border Patrol. Around the reedy edges we found the usual suspects, including at least five Green Heron, a species we don’t always see there.

Green Heron, one of many (J. Waterman 2-13-16)

Warbler species were few: all we saw were a load of wintering Yellow-rumped in the grass and trees, and a handful of Common Yellowthroats around the pond and river.

Male Selasphorus – Allen’s or Rufous
(J. Waterman 2-13-16)

Anna’s and Allen’s Hummingbirds, plus one possible Rufous Hummingbird were perched on every bare twig. We examined them all. Most

Very few green flecks on the back of this Selasporus hummer (R. Ehler 2-13-16)

were males, gorgets afire, apparently feeling their oats and ready to display to any female that passed by. They weren’t the only ones: California Thrashers, usually  skulky shrub-hiders, were boldly singing their burbly songs with just a hint of mockery. Won’t they be surprised when the hot spell evaporates and winter returns.

Hooded Merganser pair displaying (R. Ehler 2-13-16)

It was 11:30 am by the time we reached the south end of the pond. I, for one, was tired and overly-hot, so the festivities were halted and we birded our way back to the cars. Chris and

Female Belted Kingfisher – look for the cinnamon (J. Waterman 2-13-16)

Liz – perhaps others – ambitiously continued to the Los Angeles River. There they found a few more ducks (see list annotations below) and a complete dearth of reeds. Apparently the Army Corp of Engineers, or some other bulldozer-wielding outfit, thought they ought to remove the reed beds between Balboa Blvd. and the retaining dam before the mighty rains of El Niño washed them all out, clogging up the the dam and backing up flood waters over half the San Fernando Valley. That’s my guess, anyway. So the usual reed-birds had moved to parts unknown, probably further upstream.

Many thanks to Randy Ehler & Joyce Waterman for all the great photos. A second thanks to Randy for sharing his trip list with me, as I was too busy talking to take decent notes. Thanks to Chris Lord for his input on the L.A. River.

I’m including sighting information for our last three Sepulveda Wildlife Area birdwalks below, just for the sake of comparison.

Previous Sepulveda Area trips:  Dec. 2015   Oct 2013

Note: For 2/13/16, R = L.A. River; this count is included in the total count for each species.
Thus: Mallard 40  10R = total 40 Mallards includes 10 seen at the L.A. River