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Bette Davis Park & Glendale Narrows Riverwalk, 18 Jan. 2025
[Chuck Almdale; photos by Chris Tosdevin, Ray Juncosa, Ann Flower and Marquette Mutchler]
It was a cool morning, somewhat gray, with temperature at 49°F, rising to 59° by about 11 am. The breeze was light and occasional, and the air was clear and didn’t smell like smoke or burnt rubble, unlike other parts of Los Angeles. Species variety was not tremendous (47 species plus “peeps”) but there was always something worth looking at.
We had no photographers present, so the photos in this posting are from previous postings, most by Chris Tosdevin at our prior Bette Davis & Riverwalk field trip on 13 Jan. 2024.
Nearly the first bird of the morning – after we sorted out a flock of Red-winged and Brewer’s Blackbirds mixed with Starlings – was a Merlin perched at the top of a tall sycamore near Rancho Drive, eating something small. After that it began calling with a series of high chirps, and for those with good hearing, he received a reply from off to the east.
Several times we heard or saw (or both) Lilac-crowned Amazons (formerly Lilac-crowned Parrots in genus Amazona). Last year they were investigating potential nest-holes, but today they were mostly flying around and loudly calling, as parrots nearly always do. They share with the rest of the Amazona genus the behavior of flying with rapid shallow wingbeats, unlike the other parrots in our area, so it’s easy to ID them as Amazonas, which leaves you with the remaining problem of seeing what colors are or aren’t on their head and body in order to nail down the species.
This portion of the L.A. River channel does not have a cement bottom and a lot of birds appreciate the dirt bottom; the channel islands are well rooted, making it much birdier than most other sections of the river channel which are entirely cement. Black-necked Stilts are quite reliable here and are scattered up and down the channel, although about 75% were downstream of the long brushy sand island at the Glendale Narrows Riverwalk section which goes under the #5 freeway.
Using the satellite photo below, we walked along the upper (north) riverbank from the east end of a narrow strip of mid-channel concrete to the east end of the long thin island that passes under the #5 freeway. Birds in the channel tended to stay close to these two long islands, and the east (downstream) ends of these islands were particularly good for birds. The two yellowlegs species were at the east end of the island running under Riverside Drive while some of the ducks (Cinnamon Teal, Bufflehead and Ring-necked Duck) were only at the east end of the island under the #5 freeway. The three Wilson’s Snipe were near the west end of the Riverside Drive island, poking about in the floating vegetation.
The freeways provide a constant background of traffic, a rushing roar with few discernible individual sounds, just a rushing “wall of sound” such as Phil Spector used for the records he produced. Imagine that you’re birding next to a major waterfall – Niagara or Iguazú for example – and the sound just becomes part of the background. You can still hear plenty of birds. One tree with a lot of holes had become an apartment house for House Sparrows who were all busily chirping away. The blackbirds and starlings were constantly whistling and croaking, ravens and crows croaked [could the crow be the origin of the word ‘croaked’?, or vice-versa?], the Amazons constantly call as they fly, and the ducks in the river whistled and quacked. The birds were quite vocal.
We studied a hawk perched in a river treetop for quite a while as I let (or perhaps forced) the group, using my NGS field guide (6th Ed.) to narrow it down to a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk. It had a lot of reddish color over it’s head, neck and shoulders, and the white feather-tips that provide the scaling effect on the back had not yet fully grown in, so it looked only somewhat like the pictures in the field guide.
We walked down to the eastern tip of the island under the #5 freeway, largely to see if any Neotropic Cormorants might be there, which there weren’t. A few hundred yards more would bring us to a large flock of “peeps” and several hundred Black-necked Stilts, but it was getting late and some of us were tired. So “peeps, spuh” they remained.
We could actually see a hint, a tinge, of the neck-ring, a near-impossible feat in the field.
This is a good birding spot for a place surrounded by city and “freeway-close.” I suspect that in the spring it functions as a small oasis for passerines, and the L.A. River channel provides a migration route for waterbirds in both fall and spring.
Very distinctive back stripes and long thick straight bill.
eBird – when you bother to enter the sightings and email them to yourself – cranks out a nice little report. I wonder if you can do one with multiple years? Does anyone know?
Bette Davis Picnic Area, Los Angeles, California, US
Jan 18, 2025 8:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Protocol: Traveling; 1.5 miles
Checklist Comments: Bird walk of Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society. Temp 49 to 59°F. First gray, then sunny, little breeze. Birded parkland and along LA River from W end of park to middle of Glendale Narrows (S end of long brushy island) & adjacent park.
47 species (+1 other taxa)
Canada Goose 2
Egyptian Goose 4 Fly-by in river channel.
Blue-winged Teal 3
Cinnamon Teal 3 S. end of Riverwalk brushy island.
American Wigeon 200
Mallard 30
Green-winged Teal (American) 2
Ring-necked Duck 1 S. end of Riverwalk brushy island.
Bufflehead 6 S. end of Riverwalk brushy island.
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 30
Eurasian Collared-Dove 20
Mourning Dove 6
White-throated Swift 10
Anna’s Hummingbird 2
American Coot 70
Black-necked Stilt 400 Huge flock by Glendale Riverwalk S of long brushy island, about 100 elsewhere.
Killdeer 4
Wilson’s Snipe 3 Fairly close to each other among river channel plants mid-Bette Davis park
Spotted Sandpiper 5
Lesser Yellowlegs 1 Both Yellowlegs species near N end of Glendale Riverwalk, always close together.
Greater Yellowlegs 1
peep sp. 100 With huge flock of Black-necked Stilts, too far away to identify.
Western Gull 1
Pied-billed Grebe 6
Double-crested Cormorant 7 No Neotropic Corm. which are occasionally reported from here.
Black-crowned Night Heron 16 Eleven in one tree on trail to Riverwalk.
Snowy Egret 1
Great Egret 1
Great Blue Heron 6
Turkey Vulture 2
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Acorn Woodpecker 8
Nuttall’s Woodpecker 1
Merlin 2 1 seen calling at treetop in Bette Davis Park, 2nd bird heard replying but not seen.
Lilac-crowned Amazon 3 Not searching for nest holes as they were last year.
Black Phoebe 10
Say’s Phoebe 1 Exceptionally yellowish-ochre breast/belly
American Crow 6
Common Raven 4 One had a large hook at tip of upper bill.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 8
European Starling 40
House Sparrow 10
Song Sparrow 3 Heard only
California Towhee 1 Heard only
Red-winged Blackbird 80 Several large mixed flocks with Brewer’s B.
Brewer’s Blackbird 40
Common Yellowthroat 5
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon’s) 40
Two Oddities
[Chuck Almdale]
If you’ve never heard of Bill Oddie…well…you’re either new to birding or have led a very sheltered, protected life. If you’ve ever played the video game Gone Birding, he’s the short, chubby, hairy weird one who is always dropping things and banging into/tripping over other things. However, as he’s also a Brit and many American birders are utterly unaware of the Brits’ contributions to birding, you might have missed his name. But no longer! Now you’ve heard it and we can now move on.
Move on to his books, that is, of which he has written many, mostly about birds and birders and birding. He’s avid, a real birdo and twitcher. I currently have two of his books at hand. A third book – which among other things contained a narration about that bird tour leader in India who wandered away from his elephant, was attacked by a tiger and the tour participants had to carry on for the rest of the tour without him – went missing somewhere, probably to a sticky-fingered birder friend. Look for it. Good story, that, plus other good stories. Onward.
Bill Oddie’s Little Black Bird Book
Published in 1980, this book contains all the information you need to survive in the cutthroat, back-stabbing, prevaricating and otherwise dirty rotten scoundrelish world of birding…British Birding anyway. American birders are far kinder, helpful, less likely to steal your car, bins or brimmed hat or send you down the wrong canyon or waaaay across the marsh, probably due to the fact that our school teachers aren’t allowed – let alone encouraged – to beat us with bamboo canes.
Among the book’s many features is a Glossary of Twitching Terms, such as:
Twitcher: Someone who races around the countryside chasing ticks and uses all the weird words below. There are various stories concerning the origin of “twitcher” and they all refer to uncontrollable spasmodic bodily twitching, from either the cold or excitement at the prospect of having a megatick.
Tick: The little check mark you put next to the name of a bird on a list which you’ve just seen, and by extension the bird itself.
Megatick: A very good tick; a rare bird.
Lifer: A bird you’ve never before seen. It can be a world, country, state, county, city, backyard or any other geographical area lifer.
Countable: Unless you’re a Kiwi, the bird better not be dead. Introduced birds can be present for decades before they’re considered countable. Need to know what’s countable in California? Go here: https://www.californiabirds.org/checklist.asp.
To Have a Bird: “Get over here right now. I have a megatick.” Birdos are possessive of bird sightings.
Flog: To really work over an area, beat the bushes looking for a bird, usually a particular bird.
Dip (out): Failure to see the desired bird. Particularly annoying when you’ve flogged the bush for hours for a megatick.
Gripped Off: Someone else saw the megatick you dipped on, probably easily and just before you arrived. Perhaps they then intentionally drove it off.
Duff Gen: Bad information (sometimes intentionally bad) about a location or identification.
String: As in “stringing me along,” i.e. intentional deceit. A report can be “stringy.” Report too many megaticks and grip off too many birders with duff gen, and you’ll become known as a stringer; unreliable.
Cock-up: Completely blowing an identification.
Birdwatcher: Bill doesn’t say this, but “birdwatcher” is what non-birders call birders. Birders call themselves birders. Birdwatchers tend to say things like: “What an admirable dickey-bird that is, twittering his little heart out” when a birder might say “Whoa, megatick,” or “Trashbird, move on.”
Bill includes tips on clothing and equipment. Besides the mandatory bins and scope, anoraks, hats and wellies are basic British birding gear, preferably sufficiently filthy to connote your seriousness. Never use the hood of your anorak (which need not be an actual anorak) for anything other than stowing your lunch. The hat can be almost anything but must be covered with badges and never removed from your head.
Both this and the next book are filled with delightful and informative ink drawings both large and small.
There are plenty of tips on other matters of import, such as how to mislead others or otherwise obscure your ignorance. For example:
Sound honest and modest while implying you know more than you do: “Couldn’t see the bill (or legs, etc.)” implies that you know it is an Important Field Mark but just couldn’t make it out. Saying “It had the jizz [the completely misspelled acronym for General Impression of Size and Shape] of a Least Sandpiper” implies that it wasn’t actually a Least when in fact you know very well it was a Least Sandpiper.
Covering your Cock-Up with the Two-bird Theory: They tell you: “I looked for the Red-throated Stint exactly where you said, but all I saw was a Western Sandpiper,” thereby implying that you made a mistake. You reply, “Yes, of course, there was a Western there too in an intermediate plumage, but the stint was a few yards farther off west. Unmistakably different. I guess you missed it.”
The Aberrant Bird: You admit that perhaps it was a Western Sandpiper after all, but it was an aberrant one. That you even know this word is usually sufficient to get off the hook.
There is much much more on field guide books, birding etiquette, finding birds, listening to birds, calling birds, songs for birders on the march and wonderful birding locations. You may have birded at the reeking Lancaster sewage farm or on the beach under the flight path at LAX (and if you haven’t you don’t know what you’re missing) and seen great birds but can you imagine the wondrous birds you’d see if you could combine both spots into one? The Brits do this daily by going to the odiferous Perry Oaks poop farm in Middlesex located under the Heathrow Airport main flight path.
And if someone comes up to you on the beach or in a bar and says, “So you’re a bird watcher, eh? I’m a bit of a bird-watcher myself, know what I mean?, know what I mean?” [Nudge nudge, wink wink, knowing look], you’ll know exactly what to say. But if you don’t read this book, you won’t.
The Bid Bird Race
Bill Oddie & David Tomlinson
Forward by Roger Tory Peterson [yes, that Roger Tory Peterson]
Published in 1983, being the account of the fourth Country Life Record Birdwatch, held on 14 May 1983, as narrated blow by blow and bird by bird by the leaders of both teams. With Land Rovers and Range Rovers, Saabs, helicopters, armies of scouts, awash in sponsor’s money and loaned equipment, Bill and David lead their teams (respectively Flora & Fauna and Country Life) around the East Anglian countryside of Norfolk and Suffolk counties.
If you’ve ever done a big day, or raced around either with or against a friend trying to outwit and outsee the other, you’ll have a vague idea of what’s going on here. But as the Brits invented (as far as I’m concerned) the hobby/sport/science/exercise/amusement of birding, it seems inevitable that they’d be the weirdest and the best at it.
“Superbly fit, their reflexes honed to a knife-edge of paranoia, the eight birders conquer hunger, thirst, exhaustion and duff information to reach the finishing line on the Suffolk coast.”
It’s quite a ride.
The region covered is roughly that between Norfolk in the north, Ipswitch in the southeast and a tad east of Cambridge in the southwest. Fine birding country.
CalFire info | Palisades Fire 1/8/25
[Chuck Almdale]
CalFire (California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection) is a good source for information.
Main Web page: https://www.fire.ca.gov/
[NOTE: Some people prefer Watch Duty: https://app.watchduty.org/i/40335
It uses many map colors and fire division units, but I think their color keys and explanation insufficient. (lick any map unit to get additional information.]
Go to this page and scroll down for Currently Active Incidents:
CalFire Incidents: https://www.fire.ca.gov/Incidents
Current fires in L.A. Area:
Each fire also has it’s own page on which you can toggle on/off: recent perimeters, evacuation orders and warnings, active air assists, 5-year history.
Palisades Fire (start 1/7/25): https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2025/1/7/palisades-fire
Eaton Fire (start 1/7/25): https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2025/1/7/eaton-fire
Hurst Fire (start 1/7/25): https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2025/1/7/hurst-fire
Olivas Fire (start 1/8/25): https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2025/1/8/olivas-fire
Woodley Fire (start 1/8/25): https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2025/1/8/woodley-fire
The Palisades fire page, wide area. Different colors have meaning:
Palisades fire, zoomed in below:
Really zoomed in below on the J.P. Getty villa museum; museum, amphitheater & dining area saved, parking garage potentially 75% lost, approach road gardens lost:
Farther down the Incidents page are prior years’ fires, by year back to 2016.
https://www.fire.ca.gov/Incidents
The CalFire overall 2024 map below: https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2024
There. Cal Fires. Your one stop shopping page for California fire info.
Chills & Thrills at Malibu Lagoon, 22 Dec. 2024
[Text by Chuck Almdale; photos by Femi Faminu & Chris Lord. Trip list at the end.]
The Sea Rocket was in bluish bloom, brightening the beach, and the lagoon was loaded with black American Coots. I counted over 700, but I’m sure that there were several hundred more in the channel, lurking on the other side of the sandy islands.
Because it was a mid-level tide with minimal fluctuation (a low of 2.47 ft. at 9:39am, rising all the way to +3.31 ft. at 2:20pm, or ten whole inches) with only 3-6 mph of breeze, I thought waves suitable for surfing would be nil. But both sides of Pacific Coast Hwy. were filled with parked cars, signifying the opposite. No doubt the surge from some distant storm was responsible. And waves were big and covered with surfers. The offshore rocks were well-exposed between waves, possibly tempting passing shorebirds to land and rest, then pancaked by the next wave. Birds on the water were few, a single Western Grebe the exception, accompanied by crab trap floats.
The waves continued to grow over this week, reaching 14-17 feet locally. In Santa Cruz a bit south of San Francisco the city wharf was ripped apart by surf, leaving pieces to wash up around Monterey Bay, killing at least one man ( video KSBW & WHAS). Waves of up to 40 ft are predicted, although Fox News claimed 60 footers were coming.
Our group today had a higher proportion of newbies than usual, and they kept me busy pointing out birds, explaining things and answering questions, and I neglected the actual counting of birds. Fortunately chapter members Femi Faminu and Chris Lord were there to fill in the numerous gaps, and most of the data in the trip list below came from them.
The day started chilly at 56°F and climbed only to 62° by 11am. The Snowy Egret above appears to be keeping warm by being extra fluffy. The Whimbrel and Marbled Godwit below are making their differences in plumage and bill apparent.
Ruddy Turnstones are extremely bright and beautiful when in breeding plumage but lose most of that for the winter, sometimes so much so that one wonders if they are Ruddy or Black. This confusion several years ago led us to the fact that Ruddy Turnstones breeding on the north slope of Alaska are so dark that they are easily confused with Black Turnstones (see below).
These dark plumages are much darker than those below, and the pale areas within their black “semicircles” on the breast are almost as dark as the semicircles themselves. Turnstones (unlike oystercatchers) actually live up to their names, and the slight beveling of their lower bill lends strength for their stone-flipping behavior (delicious snacks found below).
Spotted Sandpipers appear in low numbers in the lagoon and channels where they poke around along the water’s edge. The breeding plumage breast spots are lost by late summer and we rarely see them. The first one I ever saw was at a lake at 8,700 ft. altitude in the Sierras and had no spots at all. Fortunately it was bobbing its tail and this behavior uncommon among shorebirds gave it away.
As noted above, the Sea Rocket was blooming all around the lagoon. This bee closely inspected the blossoms and was duly rewarded, as you can tell by the bulging food sacs on its hind legs.
Black Phoebes like flying insects of all sorts, and they also like being near water, but they care little for bees. For that you need Bee-eaters, which actually do eat bees as well as other worthwhile insects, and the closest ones are in Africa.
Is the Black-crowned Night Heron below aware that a Great Egret is trailing him? Thievery is not confined to humans.
A study in Sanderlings
They look like they’re sleeping and some probably are, but others are keeping their eye on you.
Sanderlings are to many the archetypal sandpiper. They are the ones most often seen running back and forth with the waves, avoiding the foaming water while following it back to the sea as they snag the unwary invertebrate.
Sanderlings and Snowy Plovers often roost together in adjacent sand-dimples but feed differently: Sanderlings most often at the water’s edge, Snowy Plovers most often in the wrack at the high tide line; thus no competition between the two species, except for roosting dimples. While sleeping they can look much the same, confusing the census count for the unwary peep/plover counter.
Members of the Icteridae, a new-world family of passerines (8 genera, 23 species) often have sharp pointy bills and can look fierce. Great-tailed Grackles have been in SoCal for 60 years since moving northward from western Mexico, first sighted along the Colorado River in 1964, with their first nesting record five years later. They spread across the SoCal desert from waterhole to waterhole, then began invading golf-courses and cities, much to the detriment (I believe) of the Yellow-headed Blackbird which nested in the same reedy habitat. My first record of them at Malibu Lagoon was four birds on 26 Aug 2001. Since then they have appeared at the lagoon 194 out of 268 census dates, or 72% of the time. Even when you don’t see them there, they’re nearby at the shopping center snagging crumbs from diners or at Legacy Park nearby. They were almost the first bird we saw today, with 22 occupying a sycamore tree bordering PCH. Their record is 25 birds on 26 Aug 2006.
The last new birds for the day were two Black Oystercatchers flying by over the sea as we left the beach. I thought they might perch upon the exposed offshore rocks but they passed them by and continued west, never veering an inch. I suspect they knew what would happen should they land there.
The Oystercatcher family Haematopodidae (blood-foot) with 12 species in one genus has an interesting distribution:
- Seven Species:
- North America: Black & American
- No. South America: American
- So. South America: Magellanic & Blackish
- Canary Islands: Canary Island (extinct)
- South Africa: African
- Eurasia & North Africa: Eurasian
- Five Species:
- Australia: Pied & Sooty
- New Zealand: South Island, Variable, Chatham Islands
They certainly concentrate in the Australia and New Zealand region.
Malibu Lagoon on eBird as of 12-23-24: 8342 lists, 2661 eBirders, 320 species.
Most recent species added: Nelson’s Sparrow, 11/29/24 by Femi Faminu (SMBAS member).
Birds new for the season: Surf Scoter, Spotted Sandpiper, Nanday Parakeet, Barn Swallow, Western Meadowlark. “New for the season” means it has been three or more months since last recorded on our trips.
Many, many thanks to photographers: Femi Faminu & Chris Lord.
Upcoming SMBAS scheduled field trips; no reservations or Covid card necessary unless specifically mentioned:
- Antelope Valley Raptor Search Sat. Jan 11, 2025 meet at 7:00 am. Reservation necessary. May be canceled.
- Malibu Lagoon, Sun. Jan 26, 8:30 (adults) & 10 am (parents & kids)
- Madrona Marsh Sat Feb 8, 8:30 am.
- Malibu Lagoon, Sun. Feb 23, 8:30 (adults) & 10 am (parents & kids)
- These and any other trips we announce for the foreseeable future will depend upon 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: TBA, Evening Meeting, Tuesday, February 4, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
The SMBAS 10 a.m. Parent’s & Kids Birdwalk is again running. Reservations not necessary for families, but for groups (scouts, etc.), call Jean (213-522-0062).
Links: Unusual birds at Malibu Lagoon
9/23/02 Aerial photo of Malibu Lagoon
More recent aerial photo
Prior checklists:
2023: Jan-June, July-Dec 2024: Jan-June
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 Femi Faminu & Chris Lord who contributed the majority of the counts on this month’s checklist.
The species lists below is intermittently re-sequenced to agree with the California Bird Records Committee Official California Checklist. If part of the right side of the chart below is hidden, there’s a slider button inconveniently located at the bottom end of the list. The numbers 1-9 left of the species names are keyed to the nine categories of birds at the bottom.
[Chuck Almdale]
| Malibu Census 2023-24 | 7/28 | 8/25 | 9/22 | 10/27 | 11/24 | 12/22 | |
| Temperature | 63-72 | 64-78 | 67-75 | 64-68 | 54-59 | 56-62 | |
| Tide Lo/Hi Height | L+1.81 | L+2.00 | L+2.09 | H+4.75 | L+2.06 | L+2.47 | |
| Tide Time | 0916 | 0735 | 0611 | 0742 | 1139 | 0939 | |
| 1 | Canada Goose | 4 | |||||
| 1 | Gadwall | 27 | 12 | 30 | 38 | 26 | 32 |
| 1 | American Wigeon | 1 | 13 | 12 | 35 | ||
| 1 | Mallard | 6 | 2 | 8 | 28 | 10 | 20 |
| 1 | Green-winged Teal | 4 | 1 | 10 | |||
| 1 | Ring-necked Duck | 4 | 3 | ||||
| 1 | Surf Scoter | 2 | |||||
| 1 | Bufflehead | 9 | 10 | ||||
| 1 | Hooded Merganser | 1 | |||||
| 1 | Red-breasted Merganser | 10 | 13 | ||||
| 1 | Ruddy Duck | 28 | 22 | 35 | |||
| 2 | Pied-billed Grebe | 1 | 1 | 5 | 10 | 8 | 5 |
| 2 | Eared Grebe | 4 | 1 | ||||
| 2 | Western Grebe | 28 | 1 | ||||
| 7 | Feral Pigeon | 6 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 4 | |
| 7 | Mourning Dove | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 8 | Anna’s Hummingbird | 2 | 2 | 1 | |||
| 8 | Allen’s Hummingbird | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 2 | Sora | 2 | |||||
| 2 | American Coot | 2 | 72 | 340 | 560 | 705 | |
| 5 | Black Oystercatcher | 2 | 2 | ||||
| 5 | Black-bellied Plover | 51 | 70 | 67 | 136 | 75 | 50 |
| 5 | Killdeer | 12 | 4 | 12 | 20 | 1 | 30 |
| 5 | Semipalmated Plover | 13 | 3 | ||||
| 5 | Snowy Plover | 6 | 22 | 42 | 18 | 34 | 27 |
| 5 | Whimbrel | 52 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 15 | 4 |
| 5 | Long-billed Curlew | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 5 | Marbled Godwit | 12 | 25 | ||||
| 5 | Spotted Sandpiper | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 5 | Willet | 9 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 51 | 20 |
| 5 | Greater Yellowlegs | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 5 | Ruddy Turnstone | 1 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 4 | |
| 5 | Sanderling | 2 | 1 | 5 | 200 | 100 | |
| 5 | Least Sandpiper | 23 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 27 | |
| 5 | Western Sandpiper | 6 | 13 | 2 | |||
| 6 | Heermann’s Gull | 42 | 5 | 24 | 79 | 29 | 2 |
| 6 | Ring-billed Gull | 2 | 2 | 12 | 15 | 19 | |
| 6 | Western Gull | 220 | 113 | 55 | 27 | 65 | 35 |
| 6 | Herring Gull | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 6 | California Gull | 10 | 23 | 75 | 440 | 525 | 60 |
| 6 | Glaucous-winged Gull | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 6 | Caspian Tern | 14 | 4 | 1 | |||
| 6 | Forster’s Tern | 2 | |||||
| 6 | Elegant Tern | 240 | 10 | ||||
| 6 | Royal Tern | 5 | 5 | 6 | 2 | ||
| 2 | Common Loon | 2 | |||||
| 2 | Brandt’s Cormorant | 2 | 5 | ||||
| 2 | Pelagic Cormorant | 1 | 2 | 2 | |||
| 2 | Double-crested Cormorant | 28 | 37 | 54 | 51 | 44 | 23 |
| 2 | Brown Pelican | 163 | 27 | 24 | 30 | 260 | 35 |
| 3 | Black-crowned Night-Heron | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 3 | Snowy Egret | 4 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 5 | 5 |
| 3 | Green Heron | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| 3 | Great Egret | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| 3 | Great Blue Heron | 3 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| 3 | White-faced Ibis | 3 | |||||
| 4 | Turkey Vulture | 4 | 1 | 7 | 1 | ||
| 4 | Osprey | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 4 | Red-shouldered Hawk | 1 | |||||
| 4 | Red-tailed Hawk | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 8 | Belted Kingfisher | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 8 | Nuttall’s Woodpecker | 1 | |||||
| 8 | Hairy Woodpecker | 1 | |||||
| 4 | American Kestrel | 1 | |||||
| 8 | Nanday Parakeet | 25 | 4 | ||||
| 9 | Black Phoebe | 6 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 1 |
| 9 | Say’s Phoebe | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 9 | Ash-throated Flycatcher | 1 | |||||
| 9 | Cassin’s Kingbird | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 9 | Western Kingbird | 8 | |||||
| 9 | Loggerhead Shrike | 1 | |||||
| 9 | California Scrub-Jay | 2 | |||||
| 9 | American Crow | 4 | 4 | 8 | 6 | 22 | 8 |
| 9 | Common Raven | 4 | 1 | ||||
| 9 | Oak Titmouse | 1 | |||||
| 9 | Tree Swallow | 1 | 12 | ||||
| 9 | No. Rough-winged Swallow | 2 | |||||
| 9 | Barn Swallow | 20 | 20 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 9 | Cliff Swallow | 4 | |||||
| 9 | Bushtit | 19 | 5 | 20 | 30 | 12 | 50 |
| 9 | Wrentit | 4 | 1 | 2 | |||
| 9 | Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||
| 9 | Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | 1 | 4 | 1 | |||
| 9 | House Wren | 2 | 3 | 6 | 1 | ||
| 9 | Marsh Wren | 2 | 1 | ||||
| 9 | Bewick’s Wren | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||
| 9 | European Starling | 1 | 10 | 12 | 7 | ||
| 9 | Northern Mockingbird | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 9 | Western Bluebird | 5 | |||||
| 9 | Hermit Thrush | 1 | |||||
| 9 | House Finch | 12 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 6 |
| 9 | Lesser Goldfinch | 3 | 6 | 2 | |||
| 9 | Lark Sparrow | 1 | |||||
| 9 | Dark-eyed Junco | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 9 | White-crowned Sparrow | 16 | 15 | 20 | |||
| 9 | Savannah Sparrow | 1 | |||||
| 9 | Song Sparrow | 4 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 8 | 6 |
| 9 | California Towhee | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | ||
| 9 | Spotted Towhee | 1 | |||||
| 9 | Western Meadowlark | 15 | 1 | ||||
| 9 | Hooded Oriole | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 9 | Red-winged Blackbird | 11 | 1 | 2 | |||
| 9 | Brown-headed Cowbird | 18 | |||||
| 9 | Great-tailed Grackle | 3 | 1 | 4 | 15 | 22 | |
| 9 | Orange-crowned Warbler | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 9 | Common Yellowthroat | 1 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 6 | |
| 9 | Yellow Warbler | 1 | |||||
| 9 | Yellow-rumped Warbler (Aud) | 15 | 15 | 14 | |||
| 9 | Townsend’s Warbler | 2 | |||||
| Totals by Type | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
| 1 | Waterfowl | 37 | 14 | 43 | 112 | 93 | 157 |
| 2 | Water Birds – Other | 192 | 68 | 155 | 469 | 882 | 769 |
| 3 | Herons, Egrets & Ibis | 12 | 12 | 14 | 20 | 14 | 12 |
| 4 | Quail & Raptors | 4 | 1 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| 5 | Shorebirds | 139 | 157 | 142 | 197 | 404 | 290 |
| 6 | Gulls & Terns | 527 | 165 | 162 | 564 | 635 | 119 |
| 7 | Doves | 8 | 12 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 0 |
| 8 | Other Non-Passerines | 2 | 7 | 31 | 5 | 3 | 8 |
| 9 | Passerines | 70 | 92 | 119 | 136 | 142 | 150 |
| Totals Birds | 991 | 528 | 678 | 1511 | 2179 | 1507 | |
| Total Species | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
| 1 | Waterfowl | 3 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 8 |
| 2 | Water Birds – Other | 3 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 8 | 5 |
| 3 | Herons, Egrets & Ibis | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
| 4 | Quail & Raptors | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| 5 | Shorebirds | 8 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 10 | 11 |
| 6 | Gulls & Terns | 6 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 6 |
| 7 | Doves | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 8 | Other Non-Passerines | 1 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 9 | Passerines | 9 | 22 | 27 | 24 | 24 | 17 |
| Totals Species – 109 | 38 | 62 | 68 | 65 | 66 | 56 |
Back Bay Newport & San Joaquin Marsh field trip: Dec 15, 2024
[By Chuck Almdale; photos by Chuck Bragg, Elyse Jankowski & Ray Juncosa]
Somehow we all made it to the southeast corner of Back Bay Newport (aka Upper Newport Bay) at the crack of 8 am. High tide at the Newport Bay entrance was 6.91 ft. at 8:10 am, and I doubt that I’ve ever seen the water so high. Most reed beds were completely submerged – vanished without a trace – and we were confronted with large expanses of water dotted with ducks trying to figure out what to do. If you’re a “dabbling” duck who feeds by tipping at the surface rather than diving, there’s not much you can do beyond waiting for the water to retreat.
The birder’s theory is that the various rails – Virginia’s, Ridgeway’s and the Sora, and of course the Black and the Yellow (as if!) – will be forced into view when their hiding places are submerged, and we’ll be able to easily see these reed-skulkers walking around on whatever reedtops remain. The rails have perhaps figured this out, though, and we managed to travel the length of the bay and not see one single bleeping rail, not even a Sora!, which at Malibu Lagoon come out and tromp around the mud flats for all to see (well…sometimes). We did see loads of Coots – honorary rails by ancestry – plus two young American Gallinule for a bit of a surprise.
Wondering what the rail situation was, I called the Sea & Sage office to see if they did rail censuses at the bay. [I think they used to, long ago.] The short answer is no. They do rent a boat and tool around the bay, once a month I think, but it’s not a census per se. The volunteer I spoke to said she’d seen no rails at all on her last two boat trips in November’24 and May’24. It occurs to me that perhaps the only spot they are reliable is close to the nature preserve office/museum on the north side, exactly where you can’t see anything from the path from because the wooden wall is too confangled high. Why did they build that wall so high?
We did see plenty of egrets and herons: Great Blue, Great, Snowy and Black-crowned Night Heron, plus a surprise coming up later.
We also saw plenty of shorebirds, aka members of the sandpiper order Charadriiformes of various sizes. Best represented were the larger ones: Long-billed Curlew, Marbled Godwit, Whimbrel, Willet, even a few Greater Yellowlegs.
And, of course, ducks.
There were not hordes of gulls and terns. Ring-billed Gulls were well represented. The only terns were scattered singletons and small groups of Forster’s.
Raptors were also few. We didn’t see any of the dark Red-tailed Hawks usually present, nor Harriers, nor the Bald Eagle, resident over the past two winters and reported earlier in December at the bay.
In addition to the Osprey were several White-tailed Kite. This one below, living up to its name and hovering like a pro, reminded me of that tale about Roman Emperor Constantine and his sign in the sky. “In hoc signo vinces” indeed. It’s thought-provoking to know that the Black-shouldered Kite Elanus caeruleus which ranges from Spain to New Guinea, looks and behaves so much like our White-tailed Kite Elanus leucurus that the two were lumped (along with the Australian Kite Elanus axillaris) into a single species in the late 20th century, then later re-split. Put any one of these birds kiting in the sky with the sunlight streaming behind it and who knows what people lacking binoculars might think they’re seeing. One takes their favorable omens where they can.
An one point all of the shorebirds in our vicinity stood up on high alert. It might have been because of a raptor, but we saw none around. Perhaps we were the cause?
Some flew off only to soon return and settle back down to important matters.
In the extreme distance we spotted a single Black Skimmer coming from farther up-bay. It graciously flew over almost to our feet to settle in among the Willets.
We stopped at a spot with a small pool under some low trees which in the past has often yielded passerines in the trees and rails in the grass. A Great Blue Heron which we mostly ignored was in the high grass out near the water’s edge. When someone paying closer attention that the rest commented that the heron “looked a little odd,” we all took a look, this time with our binoculars. Sure enough, not a GBH at all!
While Yellow-crowned Night Herons (who – along with the other six species of Night Heron – recently lost a hyphen) continue to very slowly spread through SoCal, I’d never seen one at Back Bay. This was a very nice adult, not one of those pesky streaky juveniles or even worse, a hybrid Black-crowned X Yellow-crowned.
We stopped at the top of the bay near the Jamboree Road bridge, found some more ducks, plus Western & Clark’s Grebes, but sorry to say, not a single small sandpiper. Amazingly we had traveled the length of the bay and the only shorebird smaller than a Killdeer was one Spotted Sandpiper. No Dunlin, Western’s or Least. No nothin’.
We then went to San Joachin Marsh, home of Sea & Sage Audubon, where we had lunch and again found no peeps. There were ducks, though, including quite a few Teal: Cinnamon, Blue-winged and Green-winged.
We also were visually treated to the little-appreciated fact that all three of these teal species – whatever claim their name may make – have iridescent green in their wings.
Note the baby blue color in the Cinnamon Teal’s wing above and below. This color is located in the upper secondary lesser coverts of the forewing.
However, the iridescent green is the speculum, located in the upper secondary hindwing (trailing edge). Here’s a diagram.
The same thing goes for the Blue-winged Teal below.
The Northern Shoveler also has this pattern of blue & green. Plus they all have varying amounts of white in the middle and greater coverts, just to keep you on your toes. Knowing something, even a little, about these secondary wing feather patterns can help when you’re trying to tell the females apart, especially female Mallard and Gadwall, and the three teals. Plus they’re lovely to look at.
There were quite a few Black-necked Stilts at the marsh, as well as White Pelicans.
One kestrel we saw was eating something too small to be identified, but which looked lizardish.
We had our lunch at the picnic spot near the Sea & Sage bookstore. At one point three small birds flew into a nearby Toyon bush and began checking out the red berries for ripeness. They turned out to be Swinhoe’s White-eye (formerly Japanese White-eye). When I asked at the bookstore if they should be added to their posted sightings list, they seemed a bit surprised at the sighting, so perhaps this introduced-and-spreading species isn’t all that common there. Yet.
We managed to squeak out a trip list of 79 birds, 63 at Back Bay Newport and and additional 16 (out of 50 species) at San Joaquin Marsh. And that was without any rails or peeps! I think next year we’ll go during a dropping or low tide, or a rising-from-low tide. With any luck at all we’ll get hordes of peeps and perhaps a rail or two out wandering around.
| Back Bay Newport / San Joaquin Marsh | 12/09/24 Back Bay | 12/15/24 San Joaquin | 12/09/23 Back Bay | 12/09/23 San Joaquin | 12/10/22 Back Bay |
| Egyptian Goose | 1 | ||||
| Canada Goose | 50 | X | X | X | |
| Gadwall | 20 | X | |||
| American Wigeon | 400 | 70 | X | X | X |
| Mallard | 50 | 20 | X | X | X |
| Blue-winged Teal | 4 | 10 | X | X | |
| Cinnamon Teal | 15 | X | |||
| Northern Shoveler | 50 | X | X | ||
| Northern Pintail | 20 | X | X | X | |
| Green-winged Teal | 30 | 30 | X | X | X |
| Canvasback | X | ||||
| Redhead | 5 | X | X | ||
| Greater Scaup | 1 | X | |||
| Lesser Scaup | 5 | X | X | ||
| Scaup sp | 25 | ||||
| Surf Scoter | X | X | X | ||
| Bufflehead | 30 | 20 | X | X | X |
| Red-Breasted Merganser | X | ||||
| Ruddy Duck | 20 | 20 | X | X | |
| Pied-billed Grebe | 70 | 6 | X | X | X |
| Eared Grebe | 2 | X | X | X | |
| Western Grebe | 10 | 10 | X | X | X |
| Clark’s Grebe | 4 | 10 | X | ||
| Rock Pigeon | 10 | X | X | X | |
| Mourning Dove | 2 | X | X | X | |
| Anna’s Hummingbird | 2 | 2 | X | ||
| Allen’s Hummingbird | 1 | X | |||
| White-throated Swift | 20 | X | |||
| Ridgway’s Rail | 12 | ||||
| Common Gallinule | 1 | 1 | |||
| American Coot | 200 | 50 | X | X | X |
| Black-necked Stilt | 20 | X | |||
| American Avocet | 6 | X | |||
| Black-bellied Plover | X | X | |||
| Killdeer | 30 | X | |||
| Whimbrel | 20 | 10 | X | X | X |
| Long-billed Curlew | 15 | X | X | ||
| Marbled Godwit | 80 | 30 | X | X | X |
| Dunlin | X | ||||
| Least Sandpiper | X | X | |||
| Western Sandpiper | X | X | |||
| Long-billed Dowitcher | 6 | X | X | ||
| Spotted Sandpiper | 1 | X | |||
| Willet | 100 | 50 | X | X | X |
| Greater Yellowlegs | 2 | X | X | ||
| Ring-billed Gull | 100 | 30 | X | X | X |
| Western Gull | 20 | X | X | X | |
| California Gull | 100 | 50 | X | X | X |
| Black Skimmer | 1 | ||||
| Forster’s Tern | 20 | 6 | X | ||
| Double-crested Cormorant | 30 | 20 | X | X | X |
| American White Pelican | 2 | 20 | X | ||
| Brown Pelican | X | X | |||
| Great Blue Heron | 10 | 2 | X | X | X |
| Great Egret | 6 | 2 | X | X | X |
| Snowy Egret | 20 | 10 | X | X | X |
| Yellow-crowned Night Heron | 1 | ||||
| Black-crowned Night Heron | 3 | ||||
| Reddish Egret | X | ||||
| Turkey Vulture | 2 | 3 | X | X | X |
| Osprey | 2 | X | X | X | |
| White-tailed Kite | 2 | ||||
| Northern Harrier | X | ||||
| Cooper’s Hawk | 1 | 1 | X | ||
| Bald Eagle | X | X | |||
| Red-shouldered Hawk | X | ||||
| Red-tailed Hawk | X | X | X | ||
| Belted Kingfisher | 2 | 1 | X | ||
| Nuttall’s Woodpecker | X | ||||
| American Kestrel | 1 | 1 | X | X | |
| Peregrine Falcon | 1 | ||||
| Black Phoebe | 6 | 3 | X | X | X |
| Say’s Phoebe | 5 | 2 | X | X | X |
| Cassin’s Kingbird | 1 | X | X | ||
| California Scrub-Jay | 2 | X | |||
| American Crow | 4 | X | X | X | |
| Tree Swallow | X | ||||
| Barn Swallow | 1 | ||||
| Bushtit | 2 | 6 | X | X | |
| Marsh Wren | H | X | X | ||
| Bewick’s Wren | 1 | X | |||
| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | 1 | 2 | X | ||
| California Gnatcatcher | 1 | ||||
| Swinhoe’s White-eye | 3 | ||||
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 1 | ||||
| Wrentit | H | ||||
| No. Mockingbird | X | X | X | ||
| House Finch | 6 | 10 | X | X | X |
| Lark Sparrow | 1 | ||||
| California Towhee | 1 | X | |||
| Savannah Sparrow | 4 | X | |||
| Song Sparrow | 8 | 20 | X | X | X |
| White-crowned Sparrow | 3 | 15 | X | X | X |
| Common Yellowthroat | 20 | 6 | X | X | X |
| Yello-rumped Warbler | 2 | X | X | X | |
| Western Meadowlark | 1 | ||||
| Red-winged Blackbird | 1 | ||||
| Lesser Goldfinch | X | ||||
| Total Species – 97 | 63 | 50 | 54 | 49 | 68 |
| Total Day BB & SJ | 79 | 65 | |||
| X – Seen | |||||
| H – Heard only | |||||
| 1, 15 – Number seen |
SANTA MONICA BAY AUDUBON SOCIETY BLOG 