Just a little rain – Sepulveda Basin, 11 Mar 2023

[By Chuck Almdale]

Despite the NOAA prediction that the rain would stop by 4 AM, we had fair-to-middlin’ mist until about 10am. The sun never broke through and temperatures were in the 50’s. With little-to-no wind, it was quite pleasant and a welcome respite from the endless sun sun sun that constitutes SoCal weather nine months of the year.

The binoculars and telescope lenses got a bit damp and had to be wiped from time to time. But it wasn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things, said grand scheme including a morning of birding once in a while.

The clouds and rain suppressed air traffic at nearby Van Nuys airport which can get disconcertingly noisily frequent on clear days, and for most of the morning the only planes we heard or saw were the radio-controlled jobbies over at the model airplane field on the west side of Woodley Ave. Some of them have sound effects that are quite ferocious, or at least reminiscent of dog fighters and dive bombers from WW II movies. The Angry Gnats Squadron, defending freedom against the Bosch.

It’s pretty easy to find five species of heron/egret at the nature reserve. Here’s three of them. Black-crowned Night-Herons are — for them — almost abundant with both adults and immature plumages present, due to the reed beds surrounding the lake. They were also sitting in the trees on the central island. I was recently advised that this body of water is now officially a “lake” as it covers 10 acres or more, and no longer merely a pond. I forgot the name of this new lake. Green Herons are nearly as abundant here. We had four. Some looked as if they were sporting fresh plumage as their backs were actually green, even in the clouded indirect lighting, and were quite pretty.

Two-bluebird days are pretty uncommon and I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen two bluebird species at the same time & place before. Western Bluebirds like parks and riparian areas; Mountain Bluebirds like wide-open spaces in the winter. In the winter we usually find the latter in the grasslands of the Carrizo Plain, Antelope Valley, San Joaquin Valley or south of the Salton Sea. Not in the Los Angeles Basin or San Fernando Valley. Both species are cavity-nesters. In olden days they sought out old woodpecker holes to nest in, but now they both readily nest in human-built bird houses.

The Mountain Bluebirds were all out in the big field at the corner of Burbank Blvd. and Woodley Ave. So were a number of sparrows and lots of Turkey Vultures.

There had been a lot of rain coming down Woodley Creek, judging by all the trash on its banks or caught in the brush. We found fish washed up by the side of the path in several locations. This one was fresh-looking, didn’t smell (as dead fish quickly do) and looked alive, but it didn’t move when I poked it with my foot. It looked as if it were made of rubber.

The bird below was taking a bath in one of the pools left when the creek overflowed it’s banks. Nuthatches are almost always seen in trees, clambering up and down the trunk and limbs, looking for insects. One out in the open, on the ground, taking a bath, is…unusual.

There weren’t a lot of ducks on the pond; mostly coots, cormorants, a pair of Hooded Mergansers, a few White Pelicans (most of them were on the island) and some Pied-billed Grebes, like this one.

Around the edges of the lagoon and on the island there were quite a number of birds including Osprey, several hawks, a Merlin, sparrows, warblers, finches, goldfinches and others species.

We continued down the west side path until we came to this sight below. The tree must have been there for a while because a well-trodden path, invisible until you got right up to it, circumvented it on the left side. We continued down the path to the south end of the lake where we saw oodles of swallows, four (perhaps more) species in all, mostly Tree, followed by Rough-winged.

I saved what may be the best for last. Although it’s very tough to beat a field full of Mountain Birds — probably about 50 of them and more than I’ve ever seen in one place before — dozens of Lawrence’s Goldfinches hopping, flitting and poking on a dewy green lawn can do it, at least for me. I find this species of Goldfinch the most admirable, partially because they’re the least abundant in SoCal, and so when you happen upon them, it’s always a special treat.

The dark black face nicely contrasts what I think is one of the loveliest colors on a bird, this greenish-yellow on the bird’s belly and wings. Is it chartreuse? I commented to the group that I thought it was, and someone said no, chartreuse is a different shade of yellow, more of a greenish-yellow. OK. Here’s what I got when I googled “chartreuse.” Pretty close, I think, but color is in the eye (and the brain) of the beholder.

Anyway, great birding on a lovely day.

Before the trip began I stopped by the Burbank Blvd. bridge over the Los Angeles River, just to make absolutely sure that it was full of raging foamy water and unbirdable. It was, overflowing the concrete wall in one low spot and forming a shallow pool by which two Canada Geese kept watch.

As you can see from the list below, we hadn’t had a trip here in five years. We scheduled one for March 14, 2020, just after you-know-what hit America, and we had to cancel it. No, not because of COVID-19, but because the wildlife area was flooded with water and Woodley Ave. was closed. It had rained.

Abundance Code Key: X – present, A – 1-5, B – 6-10, C – 11-20,
D – 20-50, E – over 50

Sepulveda Basin Field Trips
Common Name	3/11/23	3/10/18	2/11/17	2/13/16
Canada Goose	E	X	X	X
Egyptian Goose	A	X	X	X
Muscovy Duck		X
Mallard	B	X	X	X
Hooded Merganser	A	X		X
Pied-billed Grebe	B	X	X	X
Neotropic Cormorant	1
Double-crested Cormorant	D	X	X	X
American White Pelican	C	X	X
Great Blue Heron	A	X	X	X
Great Egret	B	X	X	X
Snowy Egret	A		X	X
Green Heron	A	X	X	X
Black-crowned Night-Heron	B	X	X	X
Turkey Vulture	C	X	X	X
Osprey	A	X	X	X
Cooper’s Hawk	A		X	X
Red-shouldered Hawk	A
Red-tailed Hawk	A		X	X
American Coot	D	X	X	X
Killdeer			X
Western Gull				X
Rock Pigeon	D		X
Eurasian Collared-Dove	1
Mourning Dove	C	X	X	X
Great Horned Owl				X
White-throated Swift				X
Anna’s Hummingbird	A	X	X	X
Rufous Hummingbird		X
Allen’s Hummingbird	B	X	X	X
Belted Kingfisher	1	X	X	X
Acorn Woodpecker	A
Red-breasted Sapsucker				X
Nuttall’s Woodpecker	A	X	X	X
Downy Woodpecker		X	X
Northern Flicker	A		X	X
Merlin	1
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet			X	X
Black Phoebe	A	X	X	X
Ash-throated Flycatcher				X
Cassin’s Kingbird	A	X		X
Western Scrub-Jay			X	X
American Crow		X	X
Common Raven	B
Tree Swallow	D	X
Violet-green Swallow	A	X
No. Rough-winged Swallow	C	X	X
Cliff Swallow	B
Bushtit	C	X	X
White-breasted Nuthatch	A
House Wren		X
Bewick’s Wren			X	X
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher		X	X
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	A		X	X
Western Bluebird	B	X	X	X
Mountain Bluebird	D
Hermit Thrush				X
American Robin	A
California Thrasher				X
Northern Mockingbird	A		X	X
European Starling	C		X	X
Orange-crowned Warbler		X	X
Common Yellowthroat	B	X	X	X
Yellow-rumped Warbler	D	X	X	X
Spotted Towhee		X	X	X
California Towhee	B	X	X	X
Chipping Sparrow	B		X	X
Lark Sparrow		X		X
Savannah Sparrow			X	X
Song Sparrow	C	X	X	X
White-crowned Sparrow	D	X	X	X
Dark-eyed Junco			X
Red-winged Blackbird	D	X	X	X
Western Meadowlark	A
Great-tailed Grackle	C	X	X
House Finch	D	X	X	X
Lesser Goldfinch	D	X	X	X
Lawrence’s Goldfinch	D
American Goldfinch				X
Total Species – 79	56	44	51	51