Field Trips of Yore: Malibu Lagoon Pre-reconfiguration Trip Report: 27 May, 2012

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This is our last lagoon trip report before the scheduled start of the reconfiguration process, so we made a few changes to our usual trip report format.  We’ve put a bunch of scenery shots in, and the bird list compares the months of May across the past six years.  We’ll follow this format until after the project is

North channel view to west towards golf course (L. Johnson 5/27/12)

done; the data should be useful to compare during-project months to prior years.  I keep my count numbers as honest as I can; there’s never any attempt to jack any number up or down.  My obvious and mostly worthless prediction:  count totals and species diversification will drop during the project, then rebound.  No prediction how much the change will be.  This is like J.P. Morgan’s famous stock market prediction: “The market will fluctuate.”

The slideshow shows what the area looked like today, excepting Jim Kenney’s February scenic photo.  The lagoon outlet closed within the past 7 days; lagoon water level had risen so much that Snowy Plover enclosure fenceposts I’d stood next to 8 days earlier were now partially submerged.

Whimbrel on low tide rocks (J. Kenney 5/27/12)

The birds were pretty much what we’d expect for late May: a few migrant shorebirds (Whimbrel, Black-bellied Plover); some nesting birds (Mallard, Black Phoebe, Barn & Cliff Swallow, Northern Mockingbird, House Finch).  The egrets are developing a large heronry next to Starbuck’s in the shopping center: Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret and Black-crowned Night Heron are all nesting there.  15 Heermann’s Gulls had arrived from their breeding grounds on islands near the southern tip of Baja California; they were all 1st-year birds.  One Belted Kingfisher perched on dead branches in front of Adamson House.  We found a pair of Black Phoebes feeding 4 fledglings near the Adamson Boat House, as well as a female Mallard with 5 fluffy ducklings.  No project activity is scheduled for this side of the lagoon.  We didn’t see the young Killdeer spotted a month ago: it’ll be full-sized and flying by now, but it won’t yet have adult plumage.

View from beach across lagoon (L. Plauzoles 5/27/12)

Picnic:  The usual June chapter picnic is canceled.
Our 10 a.m. Parent’s & Kids Birdwalk is canceled until the lagoon project is completed and the parking lot is again available.

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

Comments on list below:  Of 75 total species appearing in May for 2007-12, no more than 62% of them have appeared on any one day, something to keep in mind if you wonder why what is there is much less than what could be there.  Species low of 39 in 2010 is 17% below the highs of 47 for 2007, 2008 & 2012, not a huge drop. The 2011 low in total birds of 413 is 66% (787 birds) below the high of 1200 in 2007.  Species making up most of this difference: Brown Pelicans – 549, Western Gulls – 109 and Heermann’s Gull  – 61 (total of 719 birds, 91% of total difference).
NOTE: Right column averages of less than 1 bird/month are shown in tenths; all other averages are rounded to nearest whole number.   [Chuck Almdale]