Back Bay Newport: 10 December 2022

[By Chuck Almdale]

We couldn’t get the highest tide of the year as it didn’t fall on a weekend, but we got one about 6″ lower, enough to get some rails up and out of the reeds. The sky was clear and the temperatures were mid-50’s to mid-60’s.

We started at the Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve on Irving Ave. & University Dr., located on the west side of the bay. This spot has its advantages: a large parking lot, the Muth Interpretive Center has open and spotless bathrooms, a resident population of endemic California Gnatcatchers, a long walk/bicycle/horse trail alongside the marsh, reliable locations for the rails to appear.

This location also has some disadvantages: that bike trail I mentioned with whizzing bikes and riders shouting unhelpful things, a high wall/fence that some vertically challenged birders will have difficulty seeing over, unreliable California Gnatcatchers, and middle-distance Ridgeway Rails located right into the morning sun.

Nevertheless, we found about a dozen rails within about 100 yds. of each other. The largest gathering was four birds. But we were looking into the sun and the wall was too high for easy viewing for some of us. We had Virginia’s Rail on our last visit here, but not this time.

Most of the rails were out by the “S-bend” channel in the photo below. We later found a few a bit closer. Of course we looked and looked, but we couldn’t turn any of the rails into Virginia’s Rail.

Our 2019 trip to Back Bay Newport had a nice little chart of Virginia’s vs. Ridgley’s Rail’s head and bill sizes, with some discussion, created by moi. Here it is again!

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Just to be obsessively safe, I did the same measurements using the Handbook of Birds of the World (HBW, 1996) and Sibley’s Field Guide to Birds of Western North America (2003). Unfortunately, while the Ridgley’s bill was consistently longer than the Virginia bill, the relative bill-lengths and relative species difference varied. See the chart below.

	NGS	HBW	Sibley	Average
	% Length	% Length	% Length	% Length
	Bill > Head	Bill > Head	Bill > Head	Bill > Head
Virginia Rail	33%	14%	31%	26%
Ridgway’s Rail	43%	48%	54%	48%
Difference	10%	33%	23%	22%

Figure 1. Comparison of bill-length vs. head-length in Virginia and Ridgley’s Rails.

The Virginia relative bill-length varied from 14-33% and the Ridgway’s from 43-54%, with the species difference varying from 10-33%. If you take the average difference of 22% (Ridgway’s relatively bill-length exceeding Virginia bill-length), this might be visible to a good birder with good eyesight and good binoculars in good light with good angle at a reasonable distance. We didn’t have all those conditions, and I’m not sure I see well enough to discern this difference anyway except at a very close distance.

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We did see some shorebirds, but not a lot of them. Most of the “peeps” were too far away to differentiate well. On the east side of the bay we passed a pickleweed/grass field full of Whimbrel, Marbled Godwit, Willet and this Long-billed Dowitcher.

Also on the east side near the permanent porta-potty parking lot was the usual small group of Long-billed Curlews, resting from their labors of the day.

We had quite a few hummingbirds, all of them either Anna’s* or Allan’s (no relation; they’re not even in the same genus). Lynzie caught this male Anna’s doing wing-tricks.

*Anna’s Hummingbird was named for Anna, Duchess of Rivoli. John James Audubon was much “impressed by her beauty and charm” when he met her in Paris in 1828, where he was probably trying to hawk some of his paintings. The type specimen was acquired in 1846 by the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Rivoli’s Hummingbird is named for her husband. (Dict. of Am. Bird Names, Ernest A. Choate, 1985)

Among the seven raptors seen was this Northern Harrier, close enough to photo if you have a steady hand.

The inevitable Osprey was also present. We watched it dive feet-first on a fish, but came up empty-handed, so to speak. There was also – much to our surprise – a Bald Eagle, determined (by others) to likely be three years old, thus not yet in adult plumage with full white head and tail. We did see it fly low over the bay, scaring the coots and ducks, but too far away for a good photograph.

Most numerous and noticeable were the many species of ducks – fifteen of them! In addition to the six pictured below, we had: Canada Goose (OK, it’s an honorary duck), Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, Mallard, Lesser Scaup, Surf Scoter, Bufflehead, Red-breasted Merganser and Ruddy Duck.

Pintail used to be common at Malibu Lagoon decades back, but have become less frequently seen and in fewer numbers. Blue-winged Teal are uncommon on the west coast, but are amazingly abundant in the east. We were astonished to see the numbers of Redhead at the upper portion of the bay just south of Jamboree Road – somewhere about 500. The Canvasback female was the sole representative of her species, hiding among some drowned bushes near the flotillas of Redhead and Lesser Scaup.

Passerines were well represented with sixteen species, but not abundant in numbers. A dozen or two of Savannah Sparrows were nice to see, but the oddest passerine was a Black Phoebe flitting and perching in the marsh below the bike/walk way.

Black Phoebes normally have white on the belly and vent, but not on the rump and wings.

If I lead this trip again, I think I’ll start on the southeast end where the water comes in much closer. The odds aren’t as good for actually seeing rails, but if they’re there, they’re closer and the sun isn’t in your eyes. I have seen Ridgley’s, Virginia’s and Sora along the east side many times in the past, and the Mountains-to-the-Sea Trailway is very pleasant to drive and bird from the road, with many good stopping locations. There are cyclers zooming along but they have more room to maneuver and rarely shout distracting insults.

Check this map, which leads you to the Muth Interpretive Center on the northwest side of the bay. Back Bay Newport – NW meeting area
The starting place I’m referring to is on the SE corner of the bay where Back Bay Drive meets Mountains-to-the-Sea Trail & Bikeway, near the Back Bay Science Center. Here the high tides come up almost to your feet.

The drive home was horrible, as always, stop and go all the way, taking about twice as long as did the morning drive.

Many thanks to our photographers Lynzie Flynn, Lillian Johnson & Chris Tosdevin.

Trip List – Back Bay Newport	12/10/22	12/14/19	12/8/18	11/4/17
Canada Goose	X	X	X	X
Gadwall	X	X	X
American Wigeon	X	X	X	X
Mallard	X	X	X	X
Blue-winged Teal	X		X
Cinnamon Teal		X	X
Northern Shoveler	X		X
Northern Pintail	X	X	X	X
Green-winged Teal	X	X	X	X
Canvasback	X		X
Redhead	X	X	X
Greater Scaup				X
Lesser Scaup	X	X	X
Surf Scoter	X
Bufflehead	X	X	X	X
Hooded Merganser				X
Red-Breasted Merganser	X
Ruddy Duck	X	X	X	X
Pied-billed Grebe	X	X	X	X
Eared Grebe	X			X
Western Grebe	X		X	X
Clark’s Grebe			X	X
Rock Pigeon	X	X		X
Mourning Dove	X	X	X	X
Anna’s Hummingbird	X	X	X	X
Allen’s Hummingbird	X	X	X
White-throated Swift	X
Virginia’s Rail		10
Ridgway’s Rail	12	1	15
Sora			1	X
American Coot	X	X	X	X
American Avocet	X	X	X
Black-bellied Plover				X
Killdeer	X
Whimbrel	X			X
Long-billed Curlew	X	X		X
Marbled Godwit	X	X	X	X
Sanderling			X
Least Sandpiper	X	X		X
Western Sandpiper	X
Long-billed Dowitcher	X
Spotted Sandpiper	X			X
Lesser Yellowlegs			X
Willet	X	X	X	X
Greater Yellowlegs	X	X	X
Ring-billed Gull	X	X	X	X
Western Gull	X	X	X	X
California Gull	X	X
Double-crested Cormorant	X	X	X	X
American White Pelican			X
Brown Pelican	X	X		X
Great Blue Heron	X	X	X	X
Great Egret	X	X	X	X
Snowy Egret	X	X	X	X
Little Blue Heron		X
Tricolored Heron		X
Green Heron			X
Turkey Vulture	X	X	X	X
Osprey	X	X		X
Northern Harrier	X	X	X	X
Cooper’s Hawk		X	X
Bald Eagle	X
Red-shouldered Hawk	X
Red-tailed Hawk	X	X	X	X
Belted Kingfisher	X	X	X	X
Northern Flicker			X
American Kestrel	X	X	X	X
Peregrine Falcon				X
Black Phoebe	X	X	X	X
Say’s Phoebe	X	X	X	X
Cassin’s Kingbird	X	X	X
California Scrub-Jay		X
American Crow	X	X	X	X
Common Raven			X
Northern Rough-winged Swallow			X
Bushtit	X
House Wren			X
Marsh Wren		H	X	X
Bewick’s Wren	X	X
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	X		X	X
California Gnatcatcher		H	X
Ruby-crowned Kinglet			X
Wrentit	H
California Thrasher		X	H
Northern Mockingbird	X	X	X	X
House Finch	X	X	X	X
California Towhee	X	X		X
Savannah Sparrow	X	X	X	X
Song Sparrow	X	X	X	X
Lincoln’s Sparrow				X
White-crowned Sparrow	X	X	X	X
Orange-crowned Warbler			X
Common Yellowthroat	X	X		X
Yellow-rumped Warbler	X		X
Western Meadowlark			X
Lesser Goldfinch		X	X
Total Species – 80	68	59	65	52
X – Seen
H – Heard only
1, 15 – Number seen