Another nippy, foggy summer day:  63° when we arrived, still only 68° by noon. Only a few beach-strollers and  die-hard surfers were around.

Speaking of surfers, someone started a trench at the west end to breach the beach and empty the lagoon, a location which – accidentally, no doubt – happens to be right where the surfers prefer it. They didn’t get far (see photo in slideshow) perhaps figuring that it would be a lot of sand to move.

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The young Mallards begin to resemble real birds rather than fuzzballs, and were floating around the lagoon and channel. Brown Pelican numbers rebounded: 195 birds, mostly young ones, well above the 30-bird monthly average for the past year.  Elegant Tern numbers were astronomical: from the west side of the channel we watched a flock of several thousand rise skittishly and repeatedly from the sand, but by the time we reached the beach, only 600 birds remained on the low-tide exposed rocks. Our all-time high count of Elegants was 700 birds on 4/26/09; if the bulk of today’s flock had remained, we’d have seen far more than that.

The channel’s mat of algae which we’d wondered about in last month’s blog was reduced. Photos and film taken during June and July and posted on website The Real Malibu 411 here and again here show that, as predicted and hoped, the afternoon winds blow the algae around. Now you see it, now you don’t!

Snowy Plovers are back: 30 birds on the beach, including one banded bird GG:AR (left leg green over green: right leg aqua over red).  This bird was one of three fledglings banded with this combination in 2011 at Oceano Dunes, just south of the cities of Pismo Beach & Oceano on the central California coast, and has been a member of the Malibu Lagoon wintering flock since then.

Well offshore was a huge flock of seabirds: pelicans, terns (probably all the missing Elegants), gulls, cormorants and at least two species of shearwater. Dolphins cut back and forth through the cloud of birds, and no doubt all were making significant inroads into the bay’s population of baitfish. We didn’t include any of these birds in our census. The Shearwaters were in the thousands, with more of a smaller species, Black-vented probably, and fewer of a larger, likely Pink-footed.

Other notable finds were 2 Brant and 4 Semipalmated Plovers on one of the channel sand islands, the latter mistaken by some for Killdeer which also seem to like these islands; 7 Black-bellied Plovers returning from Arctic breeding grounds; 34 Whimbrel also returning for the winter; at least 10 Allen’s Hummingbirds, mostly at Adamson House; at least a dozen Barn Swallows flycatching over the beach; an American Robin for the 2^nd month in a row; 2 Hooded Orioles – an adult near the picnic area and a juvenile at Adamson House; on a snag near Adamson House, a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk who’d probably recently fledged upstream; in the seeding grass and flowers at the beach end of the path was a mixed flock of Savannah Sparrows, House Finches, Lesser and American Goldfinches.

Our next three scheduled field trips:   Lower L.A. River, 24 Aug, 7:30am; Malibu Lagoon, 25 Aug, 8:30am. Malibu Lagoon, 22 Sept, 8:30am.
Our next program:  Tuesday, 1 Oct., 7:30 pm. To be announced, as usual, from the blog.

NOTE: Our 10 a.m. Parent’s & Kids Birdwalks have resumed, meeting at the shaded viewing area near the parking lot .

Links: Unusual birds at Malibu Lagoon
Aerial photo of Malibu Lagoon from 9/23/02.
Prior checklists: July-Dec’11, Jan-June’11, July-Dec ’10, Jan-June ’10, Jul-Dec ‘09, and Jan-June ‘09.

Comments on Bird Lists Below
Total Birds:   July total birds of 1427 are 83% above the 6-year average, an improvement from the previous 6 months; pelican numbers rebounded and Elegant Terns were abundant.
Summary of total birds from the 6-year average so far:  June +36%, July -9%, Aug. -9%, Sep. +12%, Oct. +3%, Nov -5%, Dec +30%, Jan -20%, Feb -29%, March -30%, April -34%, May -37%, June -24%, July +83%.
Species Diversity:  July 2013 with 48 species was fractionally below the 6-year average of 48.3.
Summary of species diversity from the 6-year average so far:  June -10%, July +10%, Aug. -6%, Sep. -20%, Oct. +5%, Nov +2%, Dec -4%, Jan +2%, Feb -8%, March +9%, April -2%, May +3%, June +13%, July 0%.
10-year comparison summaries are available on our Lagoon Project Bird Census Page.    [Chuck Almdale]

Malibu Census	2007	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
July 2007-13	7/22	7/26	7/25	7/24	7/22	7/28
Temperature		68-75	60-67	65-72	64-70	63-68
Tide Lo/Hi Height	L+2.2	L+0.4	H+4.05	L+2.61	H+2.34	L+1.27	Ave.
Tide Time	0848	0704	1036	0947	1121	0628	Birds
Brant			6			2	1.3
Gadwall	12				4		2.7
Mallard	50	25	49	54	42	45	44.2
White-winged Scoter					1		0.2
Red-brstd Merganser					2		0.3
Ruddy Duck		1	3	2			1.0
Pied-billed Grebe	12	6	5	4	4	3	5.7
Eared Grebe						1	0.2
Dble-crstd Cormorant	9	15	20	31	24	28	21.2
Pelagic Cormorant				1			0.2
Brown Pelican	78	40	187	407	17	195	154.0
Great Blue Heron	9	3	6	6	1	4	4.8
Great Egret	5	5	4	4	1	2	3.5
Snowy Egret	10	40	14	11	11	17	17.2
Green Heron	1						0.2
Blk-crwnd N-Heron	3	2	4	11		2	3.7
Osprey	1						0.2
Cooper’s Hawk					1		0.2
Red-shouldered Hawk						1	0.2
Red-tailed Hawk	1	1	1				0.5
Sora	1						0.2
American Coot	28	20	15	20	12	47	23.7
Blk-bellied Plover				4	45	7	9.3
Snowy Plover	4	1	26	13	22	30	16.0
Semipalmated Plover			6	2		4	2.0
Killdeer	2		3	2	3	3	2.2
Black Oystercatcher					1		0.2
Spotted Sandpiper					1	2	0.5
Greater Yellowlegs	1						0.2
Willet	3	1	7				1.8
Whimbrel	3	1	48		42	34	21.3
Ruddy Turnstone			3	7	5	7	3.7
Black Turnstone			8	1	2		1.8
Red Knot	2						0.3
Sanderling			4				0.7
Western Sandpiper	8	1	20	2	2		5.5
Least Sandpiper			2	1	3	1	1.2
Short-billd Dowitcher					2		0.3
Boneparte’s Gull	2						0.3
Heermann’s Gull	12	12	125	41	12	26	38.0
Ring-billed Gull	4		4	1			1.5
Western Gull	109	30	80	107	95	190	101.8
California Gull		2	1		2	1	1.0
Least Tern	8		36	13	3		10.0
Caspian Tern	5		13	3		2	3.8
Common Tern				1			0.2
Royal Tern			2		3	3	1.3
Elegant Tern			10	8	45	600	110.5
Black Skimmer			35	1	1	1	6.3
Rock Pigeon	6	1	6	6	2	8	4.8
Eur. Collared-Dove		1					0.2
Mourning Dove	2	1	4	3	2	3	2.5
Anna’s Hummingbird	3	1	1	3	1	2	1.8
Allen’s Hummingbird	4	3	6	3	9	10	5.8
Belted Kingfisher		1					0.2
Black Phoebe	4	6	2	8	5	6	5.2
Western Kingbird	5			1			1.0
Western Scrub-Jay					1	1	0.3
American Crow	6	1	6	4	6	6	4.8
Rough-wingd Swallow	6	2	5	20	5		6.3
Barn Swallow	30	12	20	18	20	12	18.7
Cliff Swallow	25	24	10	25	15		16.5
Oak Titmouse					1	2	0.5
Bushtit	8	6	6	8	8	2	6.3
Bewick’s Wren				1			0.2
American Robin						1	0.2
Wrentit		1		1			0.3
Northern Mockingbird	2	3	2	2	5	4	3.0
European Starling	8	6	80	38	17	42	31.8
Common Yellowthroat	3	2	4	1	1	1	2.0
California Towhee	1	2	2	3	1	1	1.7
Savannah Sparrow						5	0.8
Song Sparrow	4	1	3	1	4	12	4.2
Lincoln’s Sparrow					1		0.2
Western Tanager	1						0.2
Red-winged Blackbird	6	2	1	17			4.3
Great-tailed Grackle	1			3	5		1.5
Brwn-headed Cowbird	1	1	3	6			1.8
Hooded Oriole		2	4	6	2	2	2.7
Bullock’s Oriole					1		0.2
House Finch	6	24	2	4	35	8	13.2
Lesser Goldfinch			2			35	6.2
American Goldfinch						6	1.0
House Sparrow	4						0.7
Totals by Type	7/22	7/26	7/25	7/24	7/22	7/28	Ave.
Waterfowl	62	26	58	56	49	47	50
Water Birds-Other	128	81	227	463	57	274	205
Herons, Egrets	28	50	28	32	13	25	29
Raptors	2	1	1	0	1	1	1
Shorebirds	23	4	127	32	128	88	67
Gulls & Terns	140	44	306	175	161	823	275
Doves	8	3	10	9	4	11	8
Other Non-Pass.	7	5	7	6	10	12	8
Passerines	121	95	152	167	133	146	136
Totals Birds	519	309	916	940	556	1427	778
Total Species	7/22	7/26	7/25	7/24	7/22	7/28	Ave.
Waterfowl	2	2	3	2	4	2	2.5
Water Birds-Other	5	4	4	5	4	5	4.5
Herons, Egrets	5	4	4	4	3	4	4.0
Raptors	2	1	1	0	1	1	1.0
Shorebirds	7	4	10	8	11	8	8.0
Gulls & Terns	6	3	9	8	7	7	6.7
Doves	2	3	2	2	2	2	2.2
Other Non-Pass.	2	3	2	2	2	2	2.2
Passerines	18	16	16	19	18	17	17.3
Totals Species	49	40	51	50	52	48	48.3