Malibu Lagoon morning, 28 November 2021

[Posted by Chuck Almdale]

The Pacific Ocean lived up to its name — flat as a pancake. No surfer cars clogging up the PCH shoulders and only two surfers on the ocean, sitting on their boards. But with cool temperatures and no wind, it was a fine day for birding.

On eBird, Malibu Lagoon is what’s called a Hotspot, along with probably a million other hotspots scattered around the planet. As of this writing there are 5,438 checklists filed for “our” hotspot, totaling to 315 species. 376 of these checklists are mine, but I’m lazy and don’t file these things right away. [Link to eBird Malibu Lagoon hotspot]

I’ve recorded these Malibu Lagoon trips for a bit over 40 years, dating back to October 1979. During the first four years I sometimes did two or three counts per month, but since then they’ve been one per month. My cumulative species count is 241 birds, which is 77% of the total eBird species count of 315 species. This seems like a reasonable portion of the totals, seeing as my lists are only 6.9% of total lists submitted.

When I’ve done monthly comparisons — say 10 years of Decembers — the species count for each month is close to 2/3rds of the total for the 10 months. In other words, on any particular trip to the lagoon you’re likely to see about 2/3rds of the species that typically are present during that particular month. Many species show up only once or a few times, and stay for a few minutes to a few weeks. It’s easy to miss these species on a fourth-Sunday-of-the-month-only trip. So spotting 77% of the species reported by everyone for the lagoon seems reasonable.

All of the above is preamble to mentioning that we had a new species this trip. It was a Hairy Woodpecker, spotted in the bare top of one of the sycamores near the northern, Pacific Coast Highway edge of the park. Femi Faminu spotted it, and she snapped a quick photo. She and the now-gathered others yelled at me to look, but I was deep in conversation, didn’t hear them, and missed the bird. [Drat!] When Femi plunked her sightings into eBird, along with the photo, it was spotted by eBird eyeballer Kimball Garrett who sent a message to Femi saying it was not a Downy (an irregular semi-resident at the lagoon) but a Hairy Woodpecker, a much less common bird at the lagoon or along the coastline. We usually see it in riparian areas in the local hills (aka mountains), or up in the higher San Gabriel Mountains in the summer.

If you go to this eBird page and scroll down, you’ll see Femi’s Hairy Woodpecker above photo, enshrined for posterity, and the (currently) grand total of two whole reported sightings at Malibu Lagoon of Hairy Woodpecker, one on 10 Mar 2021 by Naresh Satyan, and Femi’s on 28 Nov 2021.

By the way, a recent taxonomic split caused a genus name change for Downy, Nuttall’s, Ladder-backed, Hairy and White-headed Woodpeckers. It used to be Picoides, now it’s Dryobates.

They are now worldwide 25 species in Dryobates, ranging from Crimson-breasted Woodpecker Dryobates cathpharius of China-Vietnam, to Lesser Spotted D. minor of Eurasia & Northern Africa, to Red-cockaded D. borealis of SE U.S., to White-headed D. albovaratus of California-British Colombia mountains, to Yellow-eared D. maculifrons of SE Brazil. Still remaining in the Picoides genus are three species: Eurasian Three-toed P. tridactylus, American three-toed P. dorsalis, and Black-backed P. arcticus. I found a brief explanation of the genus name change:

A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2015 found that these genera did not form monophyletic groups. In the revised generic classification, the downy woodpecker was placed with four other species in the resurrected genus Dryobates, that had been erected in 1826 by the German naturalist Friedrich Boie with the Downy Woodpecker as the type species. Within the genus, the Downy Woodpecker is sister to a clade containing Nuttall’s woodpecker (Dryobates nuttalli) and the Ladder-backed Woodpecker (Dryobates scalaris).

Wikipedia

In other lagoon news: Bizarrely, the American Coots again totaled to 240, scattered over all the lagoon and channels. They weren’t the most numerous species, as we had 515 California Gulls, most of them on the exposed offshore rock reef. Among them were other gulls and shorebirds, 92 Western Gulls, plus 53 Heermann’s Gulls, a respectable count for this species. We studied for a long time a pale-mantled gull on the sand, finally deciding it was a Herring Gull; they are a common bird on the east coast, not so much on the west coast. There was not a single tern of any species.

Third most numerous species again was Black-bellied Plover, totaling 166 birds. This is their fifth-highest count, well behind the (admittedly approximate) count of 700 birds on 23 Oct 2011. Most of them were also on the exposed offshore rocks.

The ten Brandt’s Cormorants were on the large offshore rocks in front of the east end of Malibu Colony, mixed in with the usual Double-crested Cormorants. The four Pelagic Cormorants were swimming and diving within and just outside the surf zone.

The Snowy Plover count was up a bit, with at least 40 birds. I counted only 25 birds, who were running all over the beach and around the lagoon, probably getting ready for their just-past-high-tide-at-11:04am feeding time. Chris Lord arrived at their location a bit earlier, when they were slightly more sedate, and counted 40 birds.

Birds new for the season: Canada Goose, Northern Pintail, Bufflehead, Red-breasted Merganser, Anna’s Hummingbird, Herring Gull, Cooper’s Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Hairy Woodpecker, Bushtit.

Many thanks to photographers: Lillian Johnson, Ray Juncosa, Larry Loeher & Grace Murayama.

The next SMBAS scheduled field trips: Maybe January 2022. Wear your masks, get your shots, and maybe someday we can have organized trips again.

The next SMBAS program: Whatever it will be, it’ll probably be on Feb 1, 2022 at 7:30 p.m.

The SMBAS 10 a.m. Parent’s & Kids Birdwalk remains 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:
2021: Jan-July
2020: Jan-July, July-Dec  2019: Jan-June, July-Dec  
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, remain available—despite numerous complaints—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 Femi Famina, Lillian Johnson, Ray Juncosa, and others for their contributions to this month’s checklist.

The appearance of the list below has changed slightly. I’ve added a column on the left side with numbers 1-9, keyed to the nine categories of birds at the bottom.
[Chuck Almdale]

	Malibu Census 2021	6/20	7/25	8/22	9/26	10/24	11/28
	Temperature	63-69	66-74	68-73	63-70	54-63	57-70
	Tide Lo/Hi Height	H+4.89	H+4.20	H+4.55	L+2.52	H+5.23	L+2.35
	Tide Time	0627	1148	1034	0556	1105	1104
1	Canada Goose	10					10
1	Northern Shoveler					2
1	Gadwall	65	48	12		4	2
1	American Wigeon				7	4	2
1	Mallard	40	37	9	18	3	2
1	Northern Pintail						2
1	Green-winged Teal				1	5	5
1	Bufflehead						1
1	Red-breasted Merganser	1	1	1			17
1	Ruddy Duck			2	1	5	8
2	Pied-billed Grebe		2	1	3	5	3
2	Eared Grebe					1	1
2	Western Grebe					12
7	Feral Pigeon	9	15	6	8	6	52
7	Mourning Dove	2	4	3		5	1
8	Anna’s Hummingbird	1	1	1			1
8	Allen’s Hummingbird	1		3	1	3	1
2	American Coot	9	8	2	130	240	245
5	Black-bellied Plover	13	43	90	103	87	166
5	Snowy Plover		9	29	34	34	40
5	Semipalmated Plover		1	4	3	2
5	Killdeer	4	9	20	10	23	20
5	Whimbrel	9	51	17	8	4	12
5	Long-billed Curlew				1
5	Marbled Godwit			4	30	34	9
5	Ruddy Turnstone	2	2	8	3	6
5	Red-necked Stint			1
5	Sanderling			12	20	104	22
5	Dunlin			2		2
5	Baird’s Sandpiper			5
5	Least Sandpiper		8	35	12	9	3
5	Western Sandpiper		12	65	2	2	1
5	Short-billed Dowitcher			3
5	Long-billed Dowitcher				1
5	Spotted Sandpiper			2	1
5	Willet			40	14	25	34
5	Red-necked Phalarope		1	4
6	Heermann’s Gull		2	1	1	2	53
6	Ring-billed Gull				1	2	28
6	Western Gull	45	52	55	10	63	92
6	California Gull	4	1	4		9	515
6	Herring Gull						1
6	Glaucous-winged Gull			1		1
6	Least Tern			1
6	Caspian Tern	3		2
6	Royal Tern	2	5		13	2
6	Elegant Tern	1	240	1
2	Brandt’s Cormorant					2	10
2	Double-crested Cormorant	26	52	27	35	67	52
2	Pelagic Cormorant			1	2	1	4
2	Brown Pelican	27	58	30	11	21	99
3	Great Blue Heron	2	5	4	3	3	3
3	Great Egret	4	11	4	1	3	1
3	Snowy Egret	6	22	24	14	11	4
3	Black-crowned Night-Heron		9	3	3	1
4	Osprey				2		1
4	Cooper’s Hawk		1	1			1
4	Red-shouldered Hawk			1
4	Red-tailed Hawk						1
8	Belted Kingfisher			1
8	Hairy Woodpecker						1
4	Merlin				1
4	Peregrine Falcon				1
9	Black Phoebe		3	4	5	5	4
9	Say’s Phoebe				1	1
9	California Scrub-Jay		1	1		1
9	American Crow	3	4	4	4	6	1
9	No. Rough-winged Swallow			2
9	Cliff Swallow	4		4
9	Barn Swallow	18	40	25	3
9	Oak Titmouse		1	2
9	Bushtit	4	1	20			48
9	House Wren				1	2	1
9	Marsh Wren					2
9	Bewick’s Wren					1
9	Blue-gray Gnatcatcher					4	4
9	Ruby-crowned Kinglet					1	1
9	Wrentit			1
9	Northern Mockingbird	2	1	1		2
9	European Starling	8		30	40		31
9	American Pipit				1
9	House Finch	6	6	18	7	4	18
9	Lesser Goldfinch			2		1	2
9	Spotted Towhee			1
9	California Towhee			1		2	2
9	Song Sparrow	4	5	3	5	4	7
9	White-crowned Sparrow					5	15
9	Western Meadowlark				1	1
9	Red-winged Blackbird		25
9	Brown-headed Cowbird	1
9	Great-tailed Grackle	8	20	5	1	4	3
9	Orange-crowned Warbler				1		2
9	Common Yellowthroat	4		2	5	4	5
9	Yellow-rumped Warbler					6	19
	Totals by Type	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov
1	Waterfowl	116	86	24	27	23	49
2	Water Birds – Other	62	120	61	181	349	414
3	Herons, Egrets & Ibis	12	47	35	21	18	8
4	Quail & Raptors	0	1	2	4	0	3
5	Shorebirds	28	136	341	242	332	307
6	Gulls & Terns	55	300	65	25	79	689
7	Doves	11	19	9	8	11	53
8	Other Non-Passerines	2	1	5	1	3	3
9	Passerines	62	107	126	75	56	163
	Totals Birds	348	817	668	584	871	1689
	Total Species	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov
1	Waterfowl	4	3	4	4	6	9
2	Water Birds – Other	3	4	5	5	8	7
3	Herons, Egrets & Ibis	3	4	4	4	4	3
4	Quail & Raptors	0	1	2	3	0	3
5	Shorebirds	4	9	17	14	12	9
6	Gulls & Terns	5	5	7	4	6	5
7	Doves	2	2	2	1	2	2
8	Other Non-Passerines	2	1	3	1	1	3
9	Passerines	11	11	18	13	19	16
	Totals Species – 94	34	40	62	49	58	57