January High Tide, Malibu Lagoon, 22 January 2023

[By Chuck Almdale]

The highest tide of winter was 21 Jan., the day before our visit, when it peaked at 6.84 feet. On 22 Jan., the highest point was a whole 1/3rd (0.03 ft.) inch lower. The channels were very full with no sand or mud visible.

Two-and-a-half hours later the tide had dropped a couple of feet. Mud and sand were plentiful.

What little sand showed was on the other side of the outlet channel, where it was so crowded with birds that not all the cormorants could comfortably fit.

There was sand on our side, but there were also people, too many for birds to feel safe. Amongst the numerous Brown Pelicans (343) and Double-crested Cormorants (36) there were a lot of gulls. I counted over 1450 gulls— not including the ones that earlier flew away — in six species; 92% of them were California Gull. Here’s three of the other species, all of them large 4-year gulls,

We’ll start with the most frequent and reliable species, Western Gull. Many of them nest on nearby offshore islands such as Anacapa, where predation of nests by rats is low or absent. Their nesting range runs from the southern tip of Baja California to NW Washington. Present at the lagoon every month, averaging 75 birds/visit, but least abundant March-May during breeding season. They average 25″ long, wingspan 58″. It has a darker back than the other two species, its primary difference, but north of Monterey Ca. they have paler backs and darker eyes than southern birds. The wingtips are black with a few white “mirrors.” Both forms appear at the lagoon.

Far less numerous and more infrequent is our next species, Glaucous-winged Gull. Their nesting range runs from NW Oregon to NW Alaska, thus beginning just about where the Western’s breeding range ends. They’re slightly larger, averaging 26″ long, wingspan 58″. The back is a much paler gray, with same-gray wingtips with a few white “mirrors.” Most of those at the lagoon are 1st-winter birds like the bird below, no black anywhere, with an off-white waxy-looking plumage. “Glaucous” means waxy. We see them 44% as often as the Western, mostly January-April, but their numbers are only 1.6% of the Western’s, averaging 2.6 birds/visit. Just to additionally confuse the issue, Westerns and Glaucous-winged hybridize. As their barely-overlapping breeding ranges, similar appearance and ability to hybridize suggests, one might assume they are close relatives, probably (I think) with the darker Westerns splitting off from a paler Glaucous-winged ancestral population.

The third species is the Herring Gull, an abundant world-wide species with many forms, very common on the east coast where they frequent garbage dumps, but are regular in small numbers in SoCal. Same size as the Western at 25″ long, 58″ wingspan. The mantle is intermediate between Glaucous-winged and Western in darkness, with black wingtips and white “mirrors.” They breed in inland Alaska and northern Canada and along the Atlantic coast to South Carolina. Of these three species they’re the least common at the lagoon, appearing 22% as often as the Western and 0.8% as abundant, averaging 3 birds/visit. Most sighting are November-April, and they’re absent in July-August.

Adults of all three species have large yellow bills with a single red spot on the lower mandible, pink legs at most ages and varying amounts of head/neck streaking in the winter. As 4-year gulls, they all go through 7 plumage stages, very roughly every six months, with a mind-bogglingly huge and depressing amount of variability in molting times and colors. The Western and Herring have pale eyes, but the Glaucous-winged eyes are dark.

There! That information and these photos, plus an additional couple of decades of study and looking at actual living birds will put you solidly on the first few steps of being able to distinguish one gull from another. I know one or two people who are fairly good at doing this.

There were lots of other birds at the lagoon, not just gulls.

If you missed our prior “Moon News” blog, you missed this tide prediction chart below. [I love it’s combination of symmetry and asymmetry.] Look closely and see that Jan 21 had the highest & lowest tides of the winter.
The chart is interactive here: Tide table for period: 30 Dec 2022 to 28 Jan 2023.
Full Moon: 6 Jan 2023 6:09 PM High tide: 5.78 feet on both 5 Jan 7:38am, 6 Jan 8:11am
New Moon: 21 Jan 2023 12:53 PM High tide: 6.84 feet 21 Jan 8:11am
The new moon high tide was 16 days farther from perihelion than was full moon high tide, yet was more than a foot higher. Thus perigee + new moon outweighed perihelion + full moon.

Birds new for the Season: Canada Goose, Common Goldeneye, Herring Gull, Red-throated Loon, Nuttall’s Woodpecker, Common Raven, Marsh Wren, European Starling.

Malibu Lagoon on eBird as of 1-27-23: 6566 lists, 317 species

Many thanks to photographers: Ray Juncosa, Grace Murayama, Chris Tosdevin

Upcoming SMBAS scheduled field trips:
Madrona Marsh, Sat. Feb 11, 8 am; Malibu Lagoon, Sun Feb. 26 8:30 am; Sepulveda Basin Sat. Mar. 11 8 am; Malibu Lagoon, Sun Mar 26 8:30 am. These and any other trips we announce for the foreseeable future will be dependent upon the expected status of the Covid/flu/etc. pandemic at trip time. Any trip announced may be canceled shortly before trip date if it seems necessary. By now any other comments should be superfluous. Link to Programs & Field Trip schedule.

The next SMBAS Zoom program: The migrating birds of Bear Divide, with Ryan Terrill. Tuesday, 7 March 2023, 7:30 p.m.

The SMBAS 10 a.m. Parent’s & Kids Birdwalk may begin in April, reservations necessary.

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

Prior checklists:
2021: Jan-July,  July-Dec 2022: Jan-June, July-Dec
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 Chris & Ruth Tosdevin, Ray Juncosa, Chris Lord and others for their contributions to this month’s checklist.

The species lists below is irregularly re-sequenced to agree with the California Bird Records Committee Official California Checklist, which was updated 4 Feb 2023. If part of the chart’s right side is hidden, there’s a slider button at the bottom.
[Chuck Almdale]

	Malibu Census 2022-23	8/28	9/25	10/23	11/27	12/25	1/22
	Temperature	72-79	72-79	61-73	54-62	65-72	49-57
	Tide Lo/Hi Height	H+4.49	H+5.01	H+5.33	H+6.04	H+6.59	H+6.81
	Tide Time	1102	0949	0839	1045	0950	0858
1	Canada Goose						4
1	Gadwall	22	26	18	8	16	26
1	American Wigeon				14	8
1	Mallard	65	28	12	16	6	20
1	Northern Pintail			1
1	Green-winged Teal			2	6	38	15
1	Lesser Scaup				1
1	Surf Scoter				12	3	1
1	Bufflehead				11	11	10
1	Common Goldeneye						2
1	Hooded Merganser					5	1
1	Red-breasted Merganser				25	7	6
1	Ruddy Duck		3	35	32	42
2	Pied-billed Grebe	4	6	8	4	5	2
2	Horned Grebe					1
2	Eared Grebe			2	8	5
2	Western Grebe			2	4	1	8
7	Feral Pigeon	10	6	15	4	6	16
7	Mourning Dove	5		4	2
8	Anna’s Hummingbird		1		1	2	1
8	Allen’s Hummingbird	3			2		2
2	Sora		1	1
2	American Coot	12	47	145	85	130	38
5	Black-bellied Plover	79	67	64	83	51	43
5	Killdeer	5	7	2	31	11	4
5	Semipalmated Plover	15	3	2
5	Snowy Plover	20	25	39	18		16
5	Whimbrel	37	15	5	35	9	7
5	Long-billed Curlew	1
5	Marbled Godwit	6	21	6	38	23	18
5	Ruddy Turnstone	4	3	4	4	2	6
5	Black Turnstone	2
5	Sanderling	25	14	33	45	27	35
5	Dunlin		1
5	Least Sandpiper	10	23	15	62	19	22
5	Western Sandpiper	25	8	4	8	4
5	Short-billed Dowitcher	2
5	Spotted Sandpiper	1	1
5	Willet	48	73	9	43	15	15
5	Red-necked Phalarope	1	2
6	Heermann’s Gull	2	9	8	16	85	27
6	Short-billed Gull				1
6	Ring-billed Gull		2	22	28	55	36
6	Western Gull	53	72	64	105	68	49
6	California Gull	21	57	155	390	450	1330
6	Herring Gull						2
6	Glaucous-winged Gull				3		7
6	Forster’s Tern			1
6	Royal Tern	6	1	12	3		2
6	Elegant Tern	255		15
6	Black Skimmer	3
2	Red-throated Loon						1
2	Common Loon				1
2	Black-vented Shearwater				100
2	Pelagic Cormorant	1		1	4	1	6
2	Double-crested Cormorant	68	56	51	45	62	36
2	Brown Pelican	112	64	65	220	158	343
3	Great Blue Heron	2	3	3	3	5	2
3	Great Egret	3	1	2	5	3	2
3	Snowy Egret	14	9	9	31	35	16
3	Green Heron			1
3	Black-crowned Night-Heron	2			1	1
4	Yellow-crowned Night-Heron	1
4	Turkey Vulture	1		1	1	1	1
4	Red-shouldered Hawk		1
4	Red-tailed Hawk					3
8	Belted Kingfisher		1		2		1
8	Nuttall’s Woodpecker						1
4	American Kestrel					1
4	Merlin					1
4	Peregrine Falcon		1
9	Cassin’s Kingbird		3		1	1
9	Black Phoebe	5	5	3	3	2	3
9	Say’s Phoebe		1
9	California Scrub-Jay	2	2	1	1	1	1
9	American Crow	17	3	8	12	3	11
9	Common Raven						2
9	Oak Titmouse			2
9	Violet-green Swallow	1
9	Northern Rough-winged Swallow	4
9	Barn Swallow	28
9	Cliff Swallow	1
9	Bushtit	15	8	10	2	15	14
9	Wrentit		1			2	1
9	Ruby-crowned Kinglet				2	1	2
9	Blue-gray Gnatcatcher				2		1
9	House Wren	1	2	1	2		1
9	Marsh Wren			1			1
9	Bewick’s Wren	1	1		2
9	Northern Mockingbird		1
9	European Starling		8				6
9	Hermit Thrush				3		1
9	House Finch	8	4	15	18	16	9
9	Lesser Goldfinch	3	6	1	6		4
9	White-crowned Sparrow			12	40	16	12
9	Song Sparrow	6	3	3	6		4
9	California Towhee	1		3	6	1	3
9	Spotted Towhee		1		1
9	Red-winged Blackbird	25		4	3	8	12
9	Great-tailed Grackle	4		5	1
9	Orange-crowned Warbler	1	2			1
9	Common Yellowthroat	4	5	3	2	1	2
9	Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon’s)			4	16	15	6
9	Townsend’s Warbler					1
	Totals by Type	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan
1	Waterfowl	87	57	68	125	136	85
2	Water Birds – Other	197	174	275	471	363	434
3	Herons, Egrets & Ibis	22	13	15	40	44	20
4	Quail & Raptors	1	2	1	1	6	1
5	Shorebirds	281	263	183	367	161	166
6	Gulls & Terns	340	141	277	546	658	1453
7	Doves	15	6	19	6	6	16
8	Other Non-Passerines	3	2	0	5	2	5
9	Passerines	127	56	76	129	84	96
	Totals Birds	1073	714	914	1690	1460	2276
	Total Species	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan
1	Waterfowl	2	3	5	9	9	9
2	Water Birds – Other	5	5	8	9	8	7
3	Herons, Egrets & Ibis	5	3	4	4	4	3
4	Quail & Raptors	1	2	1	1	4	1
5	Shorebirds	16	14	11	10	9	9
6	Gulls & Terns	6	5	7	7	4	7
7	Doves	2	1	2	2	1	1
8	Other Non-Passerines	1	2	0	3	1	4
9	Passerines	18	17	16	20	15	20
	Totals Species – 104	56	52	54	65	55	61