A quiet pre-Christmas: Malibu Lagoon, 22 December 2020

[Posted by Chuck Almdale]

For no good reason that I know of, the Mockingbirds have been hard to find at the lagoon the past few months. For Jan’10 – Aug’20, they were present 90% of the time (114 out of 127 visits). For Sep – Dec’20, they’ve been missing two out of four months. There’s nearly always one on the top of the telephone pole at the east end of the colony, often singing away. If you see a bird up there and it’s not a crow, it’s probably the mocker. Say hi.

The breech had opened up during the Dec 13-15 king tide, and the lagoon was mostly empty. Despite that, there was a good selection of ducks ( and one Snow Goose) and a heckova* lot of coots – I counted (roughly) exactly 445.
*Heckova: An obscure and now archaic mathematical term meaning “more than many.”

Only five of us made it to the lagoon today. Everyone is feeling quite wary of being out and about as Covid-19 is resurging after people enjoyed Thanksgiving with wild abandon. According to the various Covid-19 statistical sites I follow, we had the following Covid-19 new cases and deaths for 22 December:
Los Angeles County: 16,412 new cases, 137 deaths
California: 39,069 new cases, 361 deaths
U.S. A.: 195,860 new cases, 3,165 deaths,
World (rounded): 650,000 new cases, 20,000 deaths
I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving. The case and death rates have risen since then.

We don’t get many Dark-eyed Juncos at the lagoon as they generally prefer trees and park lawns where they can find insects. We’ve had only 8 birds over forty years, all within the past three years. This one was on the back wall of the Malibu Colony.

When we got down to the beach, the tide was getting towards its 10:52 AM low point. Chris got a photo of a line of Surf Scoters heading west.

The low tide had exposed many offshore rocks where all of the pelicans and most of the cormorants and gulls were resting. We also found three of the rock-loving Black Oystercatchers. Two of them are pictured below.

Although the tide was quite low, water was still flowing out of the water. It was very cold, as I discovered when I waded across to find the roosting flock of Snowy Plovers, who prefer the southeast corner of the lagoon.

The outlet makes a large S-bend (L. Johnson 12/22/20)

The S-bend you see above is absolutely typical for the lagoon. When rainstorms send a lot of water down the creek, it blows straight through the beach. But because of the eastward flow of the long-shore current, the outlet mouth begins moving east almost immediately. Over the course of 2 – 4 months, the entire outlet will move to the east, as if the outlet “body” was being dragged by the mouth. By springtime, the outlet is usually as far east as it can go and abuts the Adamson House property so closely that it often undermines the fence. Large rocks in a “rip-rap” wall keep it from moving any farther towards the house.

I did manage to find 22 Snowy Plovers on the other side, some resting in their little pockets in the sand, some poking around by the lagoon edge.

We saw the Red-tailed Hawk soaring overhead, but we certainly didn’t see it as well as did Larry and Grace on 12/31/20.

All together, we had eight species of sandpipers, including a group of 13 Least Sandpipers such as this one below.

Birds new for the season: Snow Goose, Mallard, Northern Pintail, Sora, Black Oystercatcher, Semipalmated Plover, Greater Yellowlegs, Royal Tern, Downy Woodpecker, Dark-eyed Junco.

Many thanks to photographers: Lillian Johnson, Larry Loeher, Grace Murayama and Chris Tosdevin

The next three SMBAS scheduled field trips: Who knows? Not I.
The next SMBAS program: February 2, Mono Lake: A simple ecosystem with a complex history; with Nora Livingston, on ZOOM, 7:30 PM.
The SMBAS 10 a.m. Parent’s & Kids Birdwalk is canceled until further notice due to the near-impossibility of maintained proper masked social distancing with parents and small children.

Links: Unusual birds at Malibu Lagoon
9/23/02 Aerial photo of Malibu Lagoon

Prior checklists:
2019: Jan-June, July-Dec  2020: Jan-July,    
2018: Jan-June, July-Dec  2017: Jan-June, July-Dec
2016: Jan-June, July-Dec  2015: Jan-May, July-Dec
2014: Jan-July,  July-Dec  2013: Jan-June, July-Dec
2012: Jan-June, July -Dec 2011: Jan-June, July-Dec
2010: Jan-June, July-Dec  2009: 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.
[Chuck Almdale]

Malibu Census 2020	7/22	8/26	9/24	10/21	11/23	12/22
Temperature	60-66	70-77	66-77	64-68	52-64	57-64
Tide Lo/Hi Height	L+0.71	L+2.52	L+3.05	L+2.70	L+2.17	L+2.15
Tide Time	0819	0958	1004	0634	1135	1052
Snow Goose						2
(Black) Brant					1
Canada Goose	8
Gadwall	40	5	2	2	28	6
American Wigeon				3	30	26
Mallard	27	16	14			14
Northern Pintail			2			1
Green-winged Teal		1			12	8
Surf Scoter				3		13
Bufflehead					10	5
Red-breasted Merganser					9	12
Ruddy Duck				9	35	19
Pied-billed Grebe	3	3	2	2	3	3
Eared Grebe				1	1	5
Western Grebe					6	2
Rock Pigeon	10	4	6	10	9	14
Mourning Dove	3	5	4	2	9	2
Vaux’s Swift			8
Anna’s Hummingbird	1			1		2
Allen’s Hummingbird	3		1	1	2	2
Sora						1
American Coot	2		48	118	287	445
Black Oystercatcher						4
Black-bellied Plover	15	66	102	91	30	10
Snowy Plover	8	26	27	42	28	22
Semipalmated Plover		4	8			4
Killdeer	2	7	12	1	8	14
Whimbrel	15	14	1	3	5	8
Marbled Godwit			3	5	4	8
Ruddy Turnstone	2	2	1	6	2	6
Sanderling			39	75	78	25
Least Sandpiper	2	21	12		4	13
Western Sandpiper	1	8	1
Short-billed Dowitcher		2
Long-billed Dowitcher	4
Spotted Sandpiper			2	1	2	2
Wandering Tattler	1
Willet	8	47	40	5	14	10
Greater Yellowlegs						1
Heermann’s Gull	65	10	14		85	43
Mew Gull					2
Ring-billed Gull					10	65
Western Gull	90	98	90	21	53	34
California Gull	4	17	12	1	535	485
Herring Gull					1	1
Glaucous-winged Gull					1	3
Least Tern		2
Caspian Tern	4	1
Forster’s Tern		4			1
Royal Tern		11	12			3
Elegant Tern	195	221	1
Red-throated Loon				1
Pacific Loon					1	1
Brandt’s Cormorant					1
Double-crested Cormorant	16	18	43	16	108	28
Pelagic Cormorant		1	1	3	4	1
Brown Pelican	19	8	5	5	206	32
Great Blue Heron	2	4	3	3	3	3
Great Egret	3	4	20	1		1
Snowy Egret	8	4	2	5	4	23
Black-crowned Night-Heron		2
Turkey Vulture					2	2
Osprey		1		1	1	1
Cooper’s Hawk					1
Red-tailed Hawk					1
Belted Kingfisher		1	2		1	1
Downy Woodpecker						1
Black Phoebe	5	5	4	5	4	6
Say’s Phoebe			1	2	2	5
Vermilion Flycatcher				1
Loggerhead Shrike			1
California Scrub-Jay	1	1	2
American Crow	4	3	3	4	11	14
Tree Swallow					3
Rough-winged Swallow		1
Barn Swallow	22	20
Bushtit	16	50	16	75		30
House Wren		1		2	1
Marsh Wren			5		3
Bewick’s Wren					2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher			5	2	2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet					2
Wrentit	1		1
Western Bluebird		4
Northern Mockingbird	2	1		2		1
European Starling	12	27	2	5	85	30
House Finch	5	4	8	4	4	6
Lesser Goldfinch			2	2	2	5
Lawrence’s Goldfinch			15
California Towhee			1	1	1
Song Sparrow	3	4	3	7	12	3
White-crowned Sparrow				4	12
Dark-eyed Junco						1
Western Meadowlark		25
Hooded Oriole	7
Red-winged Blackbird	1
Great-tailed Grackle	20	2		2	8	3
Orange-crowned Warbler			4	2		1
Common Yellowthroat		4	4	5	8	5
Yellow Warbler			2
Yellow-rumped(Aud) Warbler				10	8	16
Totals by Type	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Waterfowl	75	22	18	17	125	106
Water Birds – Other	40	30	99	146	617	518
Herons, Egrets & Ibis	13	14	25	9	7	27
Quail & Raptors	0	1	0	1	5	3
Shorebirds	58	197	248	229	175	127
Gulls & Terns	358	364	129	22	688	634
Doves	13	9	10	12	18	16
Other Non-Passerines	4	1	11	2	3	6
Passerines	99	152	79	135	170	126
Totals Birds	660	790	619	573	1808	1563
Total Species	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Waterfowl	3	3	3	4	7	10
Water Birds – Other	4	4	5	7	9	9
Herons, Egrets & Ibis	3	4	3	3	2	3
Quail & Raptors	0	1	0	1	4	2
Shorebirds	10	10	12	9	10	13
Gulls & Terns	5	8	5	2	8	7
Doves	2	2	2	2	2	2
Other Non-Passerines	2	1	3	2	2	4
Passerines	13	15	18	18	18	14
Totals Species – 101	42	48	51	48	62	64