Geese, Ducks and Coots, Oh My! Malibu Lagoon, 27 October, 2019

And we walked ‘till we came to a great big pond,
With the geese and ducks and coots thereon,
‘Twas merry a sight to gaze upon,
And we all had a very fine day-o, day-o, day-o.

It seems that the foxes have given up coop-raiding, become vegetarians and taken up birding.

Canada Geese and Brant are by far the most common geese at the lagoon, with 54 and 51 appearances respectively (out of 358 visits). Snow Goose is a distant third with 22 visits, then Ross’s with 14. White-fronted Goose had appeared a mere 6 times and five of those visits (Oct’99 – Feb’00) were likely the same individual spending the winter.

So we were surprised and pleased to see these two young birds drifting around the lagoon and channel and resting on the shoreline. The “white front” refers to the forehead. You can see it on the right bird in the first picture, but not on either bird in the second photo, taken two days later. I have no explanation for this peculiarity beyond the usual tricks of light and angle, mussed feathers or the possibility that these birds are not exactly the same individuals.

A Snow Goose was there as well, although he/she (you can’t tell the sexes apart without a very personal examination) didn’t seem to be interested in the other geese. A few days later there were two Snow Geese, plus a Brant. This young bird’s white plumage is still a bit smudgy, but it has the diagnostic goth-style “black lips.”

Four Ring-necked Ducks were also present, either females or young males. (Young males look like females for at least several months.) This species much prefers fresh water to brackish or salt water. They can be completely absent from the lagoon all winter, yet be happily paddling around on the two small Pepperdine fresh water ponds less than a mile away. They often winter in small numbers on SoCal inland ponds and reservoirs. We’ve seen them at the lagoon only nine times, and today’s four birds is the record high count. You never see the narrow cinnamon ring around their neck unless they stretch their neck out in good light. Birders tend to call them “ring-billed” because of the easily seen white ring near the tip of the bill. The eyering with a “tear streak” behind is a good field mark for this plumage (i.e. not a male in bright colorful plumage). You can see the white bill-ring beginning to appear near the tip.

The last notable water bird was the American Coot. They’re common at the lagoon (325 out of 358 visits or 91% of the time) and they average 89 birds per visit, but the previous record coot count was 410 birds on 9-25-11. Today we had 870. It was hard to locate any of the ducks and geese among all the coots.

We often have Belted Kingfisher wintering at the lagoon, but today we had two, both males. A female with a deformed bill had been spotted earlier in the week. We didn’t see it but Chris Tosdevin got a photo.

Black Turnstones at the lagoon are outnumbered more than 4-to-1 by Ruddy Turnstones (AKA The Turnstone in England), partly because the Blacks vastly prefer rocky shorelines. They always winter on the Ballona jetties. So it’s a minor surprise to see them poking around the sandy and vegetated edges of the lagoon as we did, often accompanied by Ruddys.

Snowy Plovers were in abundance. We counted forty, mostly resting in dents in the sand. We didn’t see any bands, but then we didn’t make them all stand up so we could see their legs.

Here’s a quiz, submitted by Grace Murayama.

Birds new for the season: Snow Goose, Greater White-fronted Goose, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Green-winged Teal, Ring-necked Duck, Ruddy Duck, Horned Grebe, Eared Grebe, Black Turnstone, Ring-billed Gull, Herring Gull, Turkey Vulture, Common Raven, Rough-winged Swallow, Cedar Waxwing, Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Many thanks to our photographers: Chuck Bragg, Larry Loeher, Grace Murayama & Chris Tosdevin.

Our next three scheduled field trips: Ballona Fresh Water Marsh 8am, Sat 9 November; Malibu Lagoon 8:30 & 10am, Sun 24 November; Back Bay Newport 8am, Sat 14 December.

Our next program: Birding Great Britain, presented by Chrystal Klabunde. Tuesday, 3 December, 7:30 p.m., Chris Reed Park, 1133 7th St., NE corner of 7th and Wilshire Blvd. in Santa Monica.

NOTE: Our 10 a.m. Parent’s & Kids Birdwalk meets at the shaded viewpoint just south (towards the water) of the parking area. Watch for Willie the Weasel. He’ll be watching for you and your big floppy feet.

Links: Unusual birds at Malibu Lagoon recently updated with new photos
9/23/02 Aerial photo of Malibu Lagoon

Prior checklists:
2019: Jan-June
2017: Jan-June, July-Dec   2018: Jan-June, July-Dec
2016:Jan-June,July-Dec2015:Jan-May, July-Dec
2014:Jan-July,July-Dec2013:Jan-June, July-Dec
2012:Jan-June, July -Dec2011:Jan-June, July-Dec
2010:Jan-June, July-Dec2009:Jan-June, July-Dec.

The 10-year comparison summaries created during the Lagoon Reconfiguration Project period, despite numerous complaints, remain available on our Lagoon Project Bird Census Page. Very briefly summarized, the results unexpectedly indicate that avian species diversification and numbers improved slightly during the restoration period June’12-June’14.

Many thanks to Chuck Bragg, Femi Faminu, Larry Loeher, Grace Murayama & Chris Tosdevin for their contributions to this month’s checklist.  [Chuck Almdale]

**Wilson’s Snipe. Yes, non-birders, there really is an animal called a snipe. They’re very cryptically plumaged and hard to see when they don’t move.

Malibu Census 2019	5/26	6/23	7/28	8/28	9/22	10/27
Temperature	57-59	63-68	62-66	72-78	70-77	61-71
Tide Lo/Hi Height	L+0.66	L+0.55	H+3.46	H+3.39	L+3.21	H+6.41
Tide Time	1040	0835	0817	0725	0930	0907
Snow Goose						1
Gr. White-fronted Goose						2
Canada Goose	6	6	6
Gadwall	13	20	18			20
American Wigeon						6
Mallard	22	18	18	18	40	35
Green-winged Teal						2
Ring-necked Duck						4
Ruddy Duck						3
Pied-billed Grebe			1	2	8	6
Horned Grebe						1
Eared Grebe						4
Rock Pigeon	18	15	18	5	6	8
Eurasian Collared-Dove		4			2
Mourning Dove	2	4	8	2	1	2
Anna’s Hummingbird			1	1		2
Allen’s Hummingbird	3	6	9	1	5	4
American Coot		5	4	4	84	870
Black-bellied Plover			36	72	78	74
Snowy Plover			11	14	42	40
Semipalmated Plover			2	2	3
Killdeer	4	5	8	4	5	10
Whimbrel			85	15	20	3
Long-billed Curlew		1	2	1	1
Marbled Godwit			1	17	24	24
Ruddy Turnstone				2	4	8
Black Turnstone						2
Sanderling					57	35
Least Sandpiper				3	5	3
Pectoral Sandpiper					1
Western Sandpiper			1	17	1
Short-billed Dowitcher				3	1
Spotted Sandpiper			1	1	3	1
Willet			15	16	52	13
Red-necked Phalarope				5	8
Common Murre		2
Heermann’s Gull	2	2	15	2	14	16
Ring-billed Gull	15		8			45
Western Gull	125	70	80	18	29	85
California Gull		7		2	93	115
Herring Gull						2
Glaucous-winged Gull			1
Least Tern	12		2	5
Caspian Tern	13	5	3	12
Royal Tern	2	1	2	4	1	5
Elegant Tern	165			64
Brandt’s Cormorant	1				1	1
Double-crested Cormorant	27	24	22	20	39	35
Pelagic Cormorant	2
Brown Pelican	108	74	34	6	30	52
Great Blue Heron		1	4	3	3	7
Great Egret	2	6	2	4	4
Snowy Egret	8	6	19	11	18	8
Green Heron					1	1
Black-crowned Night-Heron	1	1	2	3	3
Turkey Vulture		2				2
Osprey					1
Cooper’s Hawk					1
Red-tailed Hawk		1		1
Belted Kingfisher					1	2
Nuttall’s Woodpecker		1	1
Nanday Parakeet	3	4
Black Phoebe	5	3	3	2	8	5
Say’s Phoebe					1	2
Cassin’s Kingbird					1
Western Kingbird					3
California Scrub-Jay					1
American Crow	6	5	5	4	6	8
Common Raven						1
Violet-green Swallow	1
Rough-winged Swallow		4				1
Cliff Swallow	6	8		11
Barn Swallow	14	30	21	7	2
Bushtit	1	5	30	20	5	8
House Wren					4	1
Marsh Wren					1	5
Bewick’s Wren				1	2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher					4	3
Wrentit		1	1	1	3
Western Bluebird					7
Northern Mockingbird	3	6	4	2	2	2
European Starling	12	8	25	8	23	50
Cedar Waxwing						18
House Finch	8	22	25	3	5	5
California Towhee		3	2	1	3
Song Sparrow	5	5	4	3	8	8
White-crowned Sparrow					2	10
Western Meadowlark					1
Hooded Oriole	2	2	4	2
Brown-headed Cowbird		2		15	1
Brewer’s Blackbird					34
Great-tailed Grackle		3	4	2	1	7
Orange-crowned Warbler				1	3
Common Yellowthroat			2	1	7	3
Yellow Warbler					5
Yellow-rumped (Aud) Warbler						15
Totals by Type	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct
Waterfowl	41	44	42	18	40	73
Water Birds – Other	138	103	61	32	162	969
Herons, Egrets & Ibis	11	14	27	21	29	16
Quail & Raptors	0	3	0	1	2	2
Shorebirds	4	6	162	172	305	213
Gulls & Terns	334	87	111	107	137	268
Doves	20	23	26	7	9	10
Other Non-Passerines	6	11	11	2	6	8
Passerines	63	107	130	84	143	152
Totals Birds	617	398	570	444	833	1711
Total Species	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct
Waterfowl	3	3	3	1	1	8
Water Birds – Other	4	3	4	4	5	7
Herons, Egrets & Ibis	3	4	4	4	5	3
Quail & Raptors	0	2	0	1	2	1
Shorebirds	1	2	10	14	16	11
Gulls & Terns	7	6	7	7	4	6
Doves	2	3	2	2	3	2
Other Non-Passerines	2	3	3	2	2	3
Passerines	11	15	13	17	27	18
Totals Species – 96	33	41	46	52	65	59