Boxing Day at Malibu Lagoon, 26 December 2021

[Posted by Chuck Almdale]

We stood at the viewpoint near the Pacific Coast Highway bridge, scanning the lagoon, sun in our eyes, searching for ducks among hundreds of black coots. All the birds were equally coal-dark and similarly sized! Slowly Gadwall, Mallard, Ruddy, Bufflehead, American Wigeon, Green-winged Teal, one Pintail and a few Red-breasted Mergansers emerged from dark waters and bright glare. Someone said there were 3, 4, maybe 5 Hooded Mergansers up past the bridge. Brush and wide bridge supports blocked our view, but one-by-one we glimpsed poorly one or more of these uncommonly beautiful birds. At least one was a strikingly-marked male. I decided we must clomp to and under the bridge for better views, risky these days due to the people living in the bushes and under the bridge. There turned out to be three people under the bridge, staying out of the rain of the prior two days. We startled one relaxing creekside as our group of ten birders came tromping by, and he quickly disappeared.

Sure enough, with bushes and cement out of the way, we saw a lot. A dozen Ruddy Duck, one Red-breasted Merganser, Double-crested Cormorants diving for fish in the deeper water below the north of the PCH bridge, and eight Hooded Mergansers—six females and two males. Over the next 20 minutes, they grew to 13 in number, now including 3 males. I suppose they came floating down the creek. They prefer fresh water and are occasionally found upstream in a few locations. I’ve never seen them in salt water, and they don’t seem to much care for brackish water either. However, with all the rain we’ve had in recent days, I suspect the lagoon is primarily fresh water throughout.

I checked my records later and since October 1979 SMBAS has recorded Hooded Merganser 23 times for a total of (at least 65) birds. Six of those sightings only their presence was noted, but not the count. The previous sighting was 2 birds on 1-26-20. Before that we had 1-5 birds from 11-27-16 to 2-26-17. Not terrifically common.

A Double-crested Cormorant caught a large fish, which looked like a catfish because it seemed to have thickish “whiskers” sticking out from around it’s very wide mouth. It was quite fat side-to-side, and the cormorant was having an terrible time trying to get it oriented head first and “down the hatch.” A helpful Great Blue Heron came over for a closer look at this struggle, and decided to assist his brother bird by stealing the fish altogether and driving the cormorant away. The heron now engaged in a 10-minute struggle with the fish which—as I said—was quite fat. It was also still alive, despite being out-of-water for the last five minutes, and was still struggling madly. The heron repeatedly dipped the bird in the water as if trying to make it slippery, or perhaps getting it oriented properly (head first!, always head first!) without losing it into the creek. Finally, the fish no longer struggling—I think, as I was finding this hard to watch—the heron swallowed the fish, where it made a heck of a bulge in its gullet. We were all chilly from standing in the shade, so we went back to the viewing platform and the sun. Unfortunately, these events were so fascinating that no one took a photo.

The other big event of the day was one Osprey catching two fish, or was it two Osprey catching one fish each? The catches were maybe 1 hour apart.

I couldn’t believe that an Osprey would want to eat two large fish only an hour apart, but none of us saw two birds at the same time, so I have to assume it was a single bird. And they were big fish!

The Osprey(s) struggled to get aloft.

The Western Gulls became quite interested and chased the Osprey all around the lagoon for many circles as the Osprey—hanging onto the fish with only one foot, perhaps only one talon!—tried to gain sufficient altitude to land in a tree.

The first bird eventually flew east past Adamson House and disappeared behind the property’s tall trees, perhaps landing in one.

The second Osprey landed with his/her fish on top of the “Mockingbird Pole” at the northeast corner of Malibu Colony, where it slowly pulled the fish—still twitching spasmodically—apart.

Chris Lord later emailed me the following:

Birds of prey have roughened pads on the undersides of their toes to help them to readily grasp prey. The fish-eating Osprey also has spines on the pads on the soles of its toes for holding on to slippery fishes.  These are very helpful when sequentially and sometimes simultaneously holding onto a slippery fish while evading gulls, a crow, a great egret, a snowy egret and a great blue heron.

The Birders Handbook, Ehrlich et al., page 241

These photos give a better view of the fish and this one at least is not a catfish. No whiskers, to start with. Looks like a Jumping Mullet to me.

I counted 34 Snowy Plovers but there were probably more. As usual, storm water rushing down the creek from the over-100-square-mile Malibu Creek watershed blew straight through the beach, very close to the permanent hillock near the foot of the path. All the lagoon water flowed out, leaving a wide channel full of icy cold rushing water which I was not going to attempt wading across, as I’d likely be swept out to sea and never heard of again, ruining my binoculars and telescope in the process. When I waded the channel last winter the water was so cold that the pain up to my shins was quite intense after about 20 seconds.

East of this channel the beach dropped off four feet almost straight down to the water, and the Snowy Plovers were scattered along this steep slope, which seemed a peculiar, atypical location to roost. Perhaps, for them, it was out of the undetectable wind. There were undoubted some plovers on the flat sand just above this drop off, but I couldn’t see them from across the channel.

Despite today being Boxing Day, no fisticuffians were present.

Malibu Lagoon on eBird: 12-30-21 5474 lists, 312 species.
Oddly enough, a month ago the eBird totals were 5438 lists and 315 species, so 36 lists were added yet three species disappeared. I didn’t know that not seeing a bird would remove it from the “seen” list. (Joking.) I checked to see if Femi’s November Hairy Woodpecker was one one of the “disappeared,” but it was still there.

Birds new for the season: Hooded Merganser, Horned Grebe, Bonaparte’s Gull, Red-throated Loon, Green Heron, Turkey Vulture, Red-shouldered Hawk, Nuttall’s Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Barn Swallow, Wrentit, Hermit Thrush, Savannah Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco.

Many thanks to photographers: Marsha Collins, Femi Faminu & Grace Murayama.

The next three SMBAS scheduled field trips?: Good Question.

The next SMBAS program: Someone discussing something interesting, most likely on Tuesday, Feb 1, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. Keep your eyes on the blog.

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 Adrian Douglas, Esme Douglas, Femi Faminu, Lillian Johnson, Chris Lord 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	7/25	8/22	9/26	10/24	11/28	12/26
	Temperature	66-74	68-73	63-70	54-63	57-70	54-62
	Tide Lo/Hi Height	H+4.20	H+4.55	L+2.52	H+5.23	L+2.35	L+2.58
	Tide Time	1148	1034	0556	1105	1104	0900
1	Canada Goose					10	4
1	Northern Shoveler				2
1	Gadwall	48	12		4	2	20
1	American Wigeon			7	4	2	10
1	Mallard	37	9	18	3	2	12
1	Northern Pintail					2	1
1	Green-winged Teal			1	5	5	15
1	Bufflehead					1	10
1	Hooded Merganser						13
1	Red-breasted Merganser	1	1			17	15
1	Ruddy Duck		2	1	5	8	13
2	Pied-billed Grebe	2	1	3	5	3	5
2	Horned Grebe						1
2	Eared Grebe				1	1
2	Western Grebe				12
7	Feral Pigeon	15	6	8	6	52	3
7	Mourning Dove	4	3		5	1	1
8	Anna’s Hummingbird	1	1			1	2
8	Allen’s Hummingbird		3	1	3	1	4
2	American Coot	8	2	130	240	245	360
5	Black-bellied Plover	43	90	103	87	166	104
5	Snowy Plover	9	29	34	34	40	34
5	Semipalmated Plover	1	4	3	2
5	Killdeer	9	20	10	23	20	10
5	Whimbrel	51	17	8	4	12	9
5	Long-billed Curlew			1
5	Marbled Godwit		4	30	34	9	71
5	Ruddy Turnstone	2	8	3	6		1
5	Red-necked Stint		1
5	Sanderling		12	20	104	22	22
5	Dunlin		2		2
5	Baird’s Sandpiper		5
5	Least Sandpiper	8	35	12	9	3	35
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	13
5	Red-necked Phalarope	4	4
6	Bonaparte’s Gull						2
6	Heermann’s Gull	2	1	1	2	53	26
6	Ring-billed Gull			1	2	28	170
6	Western Gull	52	55	10	63	92	85
6	California Gull	1	4		9	515	370
6	Herring Gull					1
6	Glaucous-winged Gull		1		1		2
6	Least Tern		1
6	Caspian Tern		2
6	Royal Tern	5		13	2
6	Elegant Tern	240	1
2	Red-throated Loon						1
2	Brandt’s Cormorant				2	10	1
2	Double-crested Cormorant	52	27	35	67	52	39
2	Pelagic Cormorant		1	2	1	4	1
2	Brown Pelican	58	30	11	21	99	44
3	Great Blue Heron	5	4	3	3	3	4
3	Great Egret	11	4	1	3	1	7
3	Snowy Egret	22	24	14	11	4	24
3	Green Heron						2
3	Black-crowned Night-Heron	9	3	3	1		1
4	Turkey Vulture						1
4	Osprey			2		1	1
4	Cooper’s Hawk	1	1			1	2
4	Red-shouldered Hawk		1				1
4	Red-tailed Hawk					1	1
8	Belted Kingfisher		1
8	Nuttall’s Woodpecker						1
8	Downy Woodpecker						1
8	Hairy Woodpecker					1
4	Merlin			1
4	Peregrine Falcon			1
9	Black Phoebe	3	4	5	5	4	4
9	Say’s Phoebe			1	1
9	California Scrub-Jay	1	1		1		2
9	American Crow	4	4	4	6	1	7
9	No. Rough-winged Swallow		2
9	Cliff Swallow		4
9	Barn Swallow	40	25	3			2
9	Oak Titmouse	1	2
9	Bushtit	1	20			48
9	House Wren			1	2	1
9	Marsh Wren				2
9	Bewick’s Wren				1		4
9	Blue-gray Gnatcatcher				4	4	1
9	Ruby-crowned Kinglet				1	1
9	Wrentit		1				1
9	Hermit Thrush						1
9	Northern Mockingbird	1	1		2		1
9	European Starling		30	40		31	9
9	American Pipit			1
9	House Finch	6	18	7	4	18	8
9	Lesser Goldfinch		2		1	2	2
9	Spotted Towhee		1
9	California Towhee		1		2	2	4
9	Savannah Sparrow						1
9	Song Sparrow	5	3	5	4	7	8
9	White-crowned Sparrow				5	15	17
9	Dark-eyed Junco						2
9	Western Meadowlark			1	1
9	Red-winged Blackbird	25
9	Great-tailed Grackle	20	5	1	4	3	7
9	Orange-crowned Warbler			1		2
9	Common Yellowthroat		2	5	4	5	6
9	Yellow-rumped Warbler				6	19	20
	Totals by Type	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1	Waterfowl	86	24	27	23	49	113
2	Water Birds – Other	120	61	181	349	414	452
3	Herons, Egrets & Ibis	47	35	21	18	8	38
4	Quail & Raptors	1	2	4	0	3	6
5	Shorebirds	139	341	242	332	307	299
6	Gulls & Terns	300	65	25	79	689	655
7	Doves	19	9	8	11	53	4
8	Other Non-Passerines	1	5	1	3	3	8
9	Passerines	107	126	75	56	163	107
	Totals Birds	820	668	584	871	1689	1682
	Total Species	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1	Waterfowl	3	4	4	6	9	10
2	Water Birds – Other	4	5	5	8	7	8
3	Herons, Egrets & Ibis	4	4	4	4	3	5
4	Quail & Raptors	1	2	3	0	3	5
5	Shorebirds	9	17	14	12	9	9
6	Gulls & Terns	5	7	4	6	5	6
7	Doves	2	2	1	2	2	2
8	Other Non-Passerines	1	3	1	1	3	4
9	Passerines	11	18	13	19	16	20
	Totals Species – 104	40	62	49	58	57	69