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A Few Malibu Lagoon Plovers
[Posted by Chuck Almdale]
There is not a month in the year when you’re unlikely to see a plover at Malibu Lagoon, and there are eight species from which to choose. That said, there are months with many plovers and months with few; species abundant and species rare. Here’s a quick sort out of them, ranging from most to least in abundance and rarity. All numbers are from my records for period 1979-2022 except Piping, Pacific Golden-Plover and American Golden-Plover.
| Malibu Lagoon | Total | Total | 1st Mo. | 2nd Mo. | Least |
| Plover Species | Birds | Sightings | Abundant | Abundant | Abundant |
| Black-bellied Plover | 11,885 | 255 | Oct | Nov | Jun |
| Snowy Plover | 5,271 | 202 | Sep | Dec | May |
| Killdeer | 1,592 | 269 | Nov | Dec | Jun |
| Semipalmated Plover | 471 | 78 | Apr | Aug | Jun |
| Piping Plover * | 12 | ? | Nov | Dec | —- |
| Pacific Golden-Plover * | 5 | ? | Nov | —- | —- |
| Mountain Plover | 1 | 1 | Oct’16 | —- | —- |
| American Golden-Plover * | 1 | 1 | Nov’22 | —- | —- |
| * eBird data for total birds is inconsistent |
The above chart gives you an idea of plover relative abundance at the lagoon. The rest of this article focuses on the two most abundant and the three least abundant plovers. The Black-bellied Plover is the “default” large plover for the lagoon; the two Golden-Plovers can be easily confused with it.
We’ll start off with a good photo of our most abundant plover at Malibu Lagoon, the Black-bellied Plover, the largest plover at the lagoon at 11.5″ long.
Photo: Grace Murayama, 30 November 2021, Malibu Lagoon
Golden-Plovers in Southern California are far more frequently seen on grassy sod fields than on beaches or by lagoons.
The five following photos are by Chris Tosdevin, 11 November 2022, Malibu Lagoon. They are all of the same single American Golden-Plover recorded for the lagoon, the 3nd largest plover at 10.25″ long.
eBird on American Golden-Plover identification:
Slender, long-winged plover usually found in relatively dry habitats. Breeding plumage shows black belly and face, white neck sides, and dark back and crown spangled with gold. Note sides and undertail coverts entirely black, but beware females and molting birds can be mottled with some white. Nonbreeding plumage is much drabber; grayish overall with distinct white eyebrow and dark cap. Juveniles are crisp and neatly spangled above, washed with gold on the upperparts. At all seasons, note slender shape and narrow bill to separate from Black-bellied Plover, along with grayish underwing in flight. Extremely similar to Pacific Golden-Plover; American is slightly longer-winged, shorter-legged, and smaller-billed, but these features are difficult to judge. Juvenile American is usually duller than Pacific, especially on the face and neck. Average habitat preferences are important (Pacific Golden and Black-bellied more regular on beaches and mudflats), but much overlap. Range is also important. Breeds on Arctic tundra. Fairly common migrant through central North America, uncommon on East Coast, rare on Pacific Coast. During migration, prefers sod fields, dry mudflats, and pastures; often in small flocks, sometimes mixed with Black-bellied Plover. Winters in South America. Note voice: a plaintive “pleedoo” call.
eBird American Golden-Plover
eBird on Pacific-Golden Plover identification:
Slender plover spangled with gold. Breeding plumage shows black belly and face with mottled white sides and undertail coverts and a white stripe down the side of the neck that continues onto the sides of the chest and flanks. Nonbreeding plumage is duller grayish-brown overall with a variable golden wash, often quite bright. Juveniles are crisp and neatly spangled above, washed with gold on the upperparts. At all seasons, note more slender shape, slightly smaller bill, and brighter golden tones than Black-bellied Plover, along with grayish underwing in flight. Extremely similar to American Golden-Plover; Pacific is slightly shorter-winged, longer-legged, and larger-billed, but these features are difficult to judge. Juvenile Pacific is usually brighter than American, especially on the face and neck. Pacific found more regularly on beaches and mudflats than American, but much overlap; also note range. Breeds on Arctic tundra from Alaska to Russia. Winters extensively across Southeast Asia, the South Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand; small numbers found in fall on west coast of U.S. Note voice: a quick “pip” note followed by a rising “plooEEP!”, first note shorter and more clipped than Black-bellied. Also makes shorter, more plaintive calls similar to American but lower-pitched.
eBird Pacific Golden-Plover
The following five photos of Pacific Golden-Plover are by different photographers. We have no photos of this species from Malibu Lagoon; all of these – obtained from eBird – are from Ballona Creek or adjacent Dockweiler State Beach, located about 15 miles down the shoreline of Santa Monica Bay from Malibu Lagoon. If I read eBird correctly, there have been five sightings of Pacific Golden-Plover at Malibu Lagoon, all in November, but if sighting dates are available in eBird, and they ought to be as a date must be entered for every sighting, I don’t know how to extract them.
Pacific Golden-Plovers are the 4th largest plover at at 9.75″ long.
Photo: Michael Long, 19 November 2017, Dockweiler State Beach
https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/75623821
Photo: Derek Hameister, 7 January 2021, Ballona Creek/Playa del Rey
https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/295635021
Photo: Grigory Heaton, 6 October 2022, Ballona Creek/Playa del Rey
https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/490938341
Photo: Darren Dowell, 30 November 2018, Ballona Creek/Playa del Rey
https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/126650311
Photo below: Monte Neate-Clegg, 10 September 2021, Ballona Creek/Playa del Rey
https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/368262611
The Mountain Plover below doesn’t really look much like the others, but it’s rare at the lagoon so I’m including it. It’s the 5th largest plover at the lagoon at 9″ long.
Photo: Joyce Waterman, 23 Octoberber 2016, Malibu Lagoon
Photo: John Olsen, 23 October 2016, Malibu Lagoon
And to finish off the large plovers, here’s our most commonly sighted plover, the Killdeer, nearly impossible to confuse with the previous birds. 2nd largest at 10.5″ long; chicks are shorter, of course.
Photo: Adult Killdeer by Grace Murayama, 26 May 2017, Malibu Lagoon
Adult Killdeer distraction display.
Photo: Grace Murayama, 26 May 2017, Malibu Lagoon
Killdeer nest regularly at the lagoon. Their chicks have a single black stripe on the neck/breast and — as with most toddlers — unsteady on their feet.
Photo: Killdeer chick by Joyce Waterman, 21 April 2012, Malibu Lagoon
Back Bay Newport Trip is a go: Sat. 10 December, 8:00 AM
The trip is on.
Sufficient people signed up to run the trip,
but there’s room for more.
Send me an email if you want to come.
That way I’ll know to expect you.
Email Chuck before Friday 3 PM 9 Dec.: misclists [AT] verizon [DOT] net
Despite what you may have read elsewhere, start time is 8 am.
Lesser (L) & Greater (R) Yellowlegs on the pickleweed
(R. Juncosa, Upper Newport Bay 12-8-18)
Back Bay Newport (Upper Newport Bay) can provide great birding when the tides are right. It’s a bit of a drive for us (see below) and the difficulty of finding a Saturday with a high tide often keeps us from going. This year, the full moon falls on Dec. 7, and the monthly high tide(s) are 6.6 ft. on both Dec. 6th & 7th. Our Saturday trip three days later has a good high tide of +5.74 feet at 9:22 AM, giving us a good 90 minutes of rising tide. The rising tide will (we hope) bring shorebirds close to shore and flush the rails up out of the inundated reeds.
We hope to see Sora, Virginia Rail and Ridgway’s Rail, but we will of course keep our eyes open for Black Rail, which some of our chapter members swear on a stack of bibles (an as-yet-unverified claim) they have seen there. There should be plenty of ducks, grebes, waders, sandpipers, gulls, terns and skimmers on the bay and shore, raptors overhead and things in the brush. I saw my life Short-eared Owl here, decades ago, standing on a post among the reeds, so you never know what will be around. We will also search for the endangered California Gnatcatcher at one or two particular locations along the route.
Ridgway’s Rail, stepping lightly (Kirsten Wahlquist 10/11/14)
We’ll have lunch (so bring one!) probably at nearby & birdy San Joaquin freshwater marsh, and those who wish can do some more birding there. In 2017 we saw a Red-throated Pipit here, a Very Good Bird, and a Virginia Rail showed up recently. However, we also make sure to look for anything around; they usually keep a nice stock of interesting birds on hand, scattered around the many birder-sized ponds. They keep a list of sightings outside the bookshop door, AND if you’re looking for a particular bird book (say…Field Guide to Galapagos Birds) they might have it. You could call them: 949-378-6501.
Sora (C. Almdale 11/09)
Family guide: We begin with a half-mile round-trip stroll on a bay-side bike path. After that we drive to a few more spots near Jamboree Rd., then to lunch. Morning temps. start cool. Dress in layers, weather may be cool.
For future reference: Link to tide chart.
Link to December 2019 report.
Driving Time: 50-60 minutes – 48 miles. While there are gas stations in the area (especially right where you get off the freeway) you could get hung up there while everyone else drives on the the next birding spot to find that uber-rariety. Don’t let this happen to you! Gas up in advance.
Carpooling Drivers & Riders: If you’re willing to drive others or ride with others, send me a reply including your contact info and approx. location and I’ll circulate it to any others similarly interested. If you’re riding, the polite thing is to get yourself to the driver’s starting location rather than try to get them to drive to your house to pick you up. They’re already in for a 2-4 hour drive time for the trip – don’t add to it. And riders should inquire of drivers about their masking requirements, if any.
Meeting time: 8 am, 10 December, 2022. Get there early and find California Gnatcatchers!
Sign-up Requested: No fee, but the leader wants to know who is coming. The drive is long: no signups, no trip.
Contact: Chuck, no later than Thursday 8 PM 8 December. email misclists [AT] verizon [DOT] net
Food: Bring munchies & liquids and/or lunch. No services next to the bay.
Directions: From the Santa Monica Fwy (I-10)Take San Diego Fwy (I-405) 46 miles south to CA-73. CA-73 south for 2.5 miles [Do not get onto I-55 Costa Mesa Fwy] and exit at CAMPUS DR / IRVINE AVE. Right on IRVINE AVE., drive southwest 1.1 miles, turn left onto not-terrifically-well-marked UNIVERSITY DRIVE (NOT Campus Drive or University Drive alongside the UC-Irvine campus, NOT, NOT!!!), and then turn right at the first driveway into the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve parking lot. Write down these directions and look at the map linked to below!!! There are certain people who get themselves lost every year! You know who you are!
If you’re late, walk downhill from the parking lot onto the bike/walk path until you see us. We’re the ones with the binoculars.
If you get there early, there’s good birding around the parking lot where you can walk around or use the bathroom in the nature center (accessible from outside on the bay side bottom floor). It doesn’t hurt to get there early and find all the birds for the rest of us.
Link to December 2019 report.
For coffee or snacks: There are several fast food places along one-way Bristol St. just past Irvine Ave. To get back to IRVINE AVE. go right on Birch or Cypress St, south to Orchard Dr., right on Orchard and back to Irvine Ave. where you turn left and drive about 1 mile southwest as described above Meet there. Allow at least 60 minutes travel time from Santa Monica.
Bathrooms in the interpretive Center open at 6am (entrance from outside, bayside, bottom floor).
Meet at 8:00 a.m. in the parking lot. Leaders: Chuck & Lillian Almdale.
Map to Meeting Place: Back Bay Newport – NW meeting area
Use + and – to zoom in or out, left click and mouse drag to reposition the map.
Directions to lunch @ San Joaquin Marsh
We’ll finish birding Back Bay near the corner of the Mountains-to-the-Trail and Eastbluff Drive. East on Eastbluff Dr. across Jamboree Rd. and under Fwy. #73 and about 1 mile more to Campus Dr. Turn left on Campus Dr. & cross the creek to the first right, Riparian Drive. Turn right & continue north about 1/2 mile to the entrance of San Joachin. Turn left and down the little hill to the parking lot. You’ll pass the bookstore on your right and the picnic tables are just beyond the bathroom block.
[Chuck Almdale]
Black Skimmer with the giant schnozzola. (Grace Murayama)
You are all invited to the next ZOOM meeting
of Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society
|
How has a remote Amazonian bird community changed after three decades? with Dr. Ari Martinez.
Zoom Evening Meeting, Tuesday, 6 December, 7:30 p.m.
Zoom waiting room opens 7:15 p.m.
Dr. Martinez and a royal friend.
Dr. Ari Martinez is an ecologist whose research interest lies at the intersection of behavioral and community ecology. For example, how does inter-species sociality influence the organization of animal communities? To answer this and other research questions he has spent over 10 years living and working in Latin America, using birds of the Amazon rainforest as a study system. In order to do so, he slept anywhere available — bed, tent, hammock, village sidewalk — and traveled on oxcarts, dugout canoes, motorcycles and logging trucks. In 2018, with funding from National Geographic Society, he organized a research team to re-census an entire Amazonian bird community 35 years after the initial census, and included three of the original team members. He will tell us about the challenges of surveying Amazonian bird communities and the results of this particular re-census. He is currently an Assistant Professor at California State Long Beach, where his research program focuses on the influence of social information on animal communities, using Amazonian mixed-species flocks as a model system.
|
(If this button isn’t working for you, see detailed zoom invitation below.)
Meeting ID: 861 8486 3384
Passcode: 214836
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Almost Winter, Malibu Lagoon, 27 November 2022
[Chuck Almdale]
A month ago the beach was quite wide. Then the first winter king tide came along and washed over the beach into the lagoon and left an outlet at its west end. The outflow channel was quite deep and swift and really cold. After watching two people in wet suits struggle through it, I advised the next couple in pants and shirts to forget it unless they wanted to be washed out to sea.
We had nine species of ducks of which four were new for the season, including the Bufflehead above. Someone once thought this head looked blocky like the head of a buffalo.
As usual, the late autumn sun was in our eyes at the start, busily washing out bird colors and leaving them in shades of gray, as with the pelicans above.
I keep getting reports of a Hairy Woodpecker hanging out in the trees around the parking lot and paralleling PCH, and I keep missing the bird. Femi Faminu has some sort of weird affinity to woodpeckers and was always hearing and seeing them at the lagoon, so most of their appearances in my list for the last two years are due to her. However, Chris & Ruth Tosdevin were here a few days earlier spotting the American Golden Plover (see report), a new bird for the lagoon, and got a photo of the woodpecker.
We could see from the meeting place and the viewing platform near the PCH bridge that the high tides and/or rain had caused the lagoon water to break through the beach. The channel was also full of logs and bark and the ubiquitous “whatnot.” That usually signifies lots of rain bringing timber down the creek. But the coots and ducks didn’t seem to mind.
For a while a channel sandy island west end hosted most of the egrets and herons.
The easternmost home in Malibu Colony has a camera on the edge of the roof. A Pelagic Cormorant has been hanging out next to it off and on for months, so I call it the “cormorant-cam.” I suppose the bird likes this lofty perch and good view, and it’s a safe (from dogs and annoying humans) spot when the offshore rocks are wave-smashed. For all I know, the camera is actually live with a permanent presence on the web and you can watch this bird 24/7, should you so desire, although it doesn’t do much other than stand there. However, this time it was joined by two friends whom I suppose know a good thing when they see it. The camera and one friend are a millimeter to the left of this view.
Grace and Larry did their Western Snowy Plover census a few days later, and photo’d many of the same birds we saw. Here’s a small portfolio of them, beginning with this very chunky-looking fluffed up Western Snowy Plover.
I think (but could be wrong) this is a different individual, standing up, giving us a view of his leg-rings, which we record as ga:gy, translated as (L)green over aqua:(R)green over yellow.
This winter Ruddy Turnstone (The Turnstone, in Europe) seems to be distracted by that photographer slowly creeping up.
The turnstones are named for what they do, which oddly enough is turning over stones. Sometimes something edible is hiding under there; you never know until you look. They have an unusual bill, stout at the base, medium length, slightly upturned with a thicker lower bill. A good solid lever with which to…turn stones. Natural selection strikes again!
And here’s two full-frontal portraits one rarely sees. This Willet definitely has binocular vision.
I’d say the gull above also has binocular vision, but just barely. That steely gaze shows that he means business.
The outlet channel was about 5 ft. deep and moving swiftly an hour after high tide. Between the distance and a high-enough sand berm between us and the main flock, it was tough to see what’s what.
Sometimes you just have to climb to see who’s hiding behind the berm.
Birds new for the season: American Wigeon, Lesser Scaup, Surf Scoter, Bufflehead, Red-breasted Merganser, Allen’s Hummingbird, Short-billed (aka Mew) Gull, Common Loon, Black-vented Shearwater, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Hermit Thrush.
Malibu Lagoon on eBird as of 10-30-22: 6340 lists, 316 species
Many thanks to photographers: Lillian Johnson, Ray Juncosa, Larry Loeher, Grace Murayama, Chris Tosdevin.
Upcoming SMBAS scheduled field trips: Malibu Lagoon, Sun Dec. 25 8:30 am; Antelope Valley Raptor Search, Sat. Jan 14, 7 am departure time; Malibu Lagoon, Sun Jan. 22 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.
The next SMBAS program: To-be-announced, Evening Meeting, Tuesday, 7 February 2023, 7:30 p.m.. This program will probably be on Zoom.
The SMBAS 10 a.m. Parent’s & Kids Birdwalk is currently under discussion concerning its resumption.
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
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 Lillian Johnson, Chris Lord, Chris & Ruth Tosdevin, Ray Juncosa and others for their contributions to this month’s checklist.
The species are re-sequenced to agree with the California Bird Records Committee Official California Checklist, updated 15 Jan 2022. I generally do this sequence update at the start of each year.
[Chuck Almdale]
| Malibu Census 2022 | 6/26 | 7/24 | 8/28 | 9/25 | 10/23 | 11/27 | |
| Temperature | 65-70 | 70-73 | 72-79 | 72-79 | 61-73 | 54-62 | |
| Tide Lo/Hi Height | H+3.33 | H+3.35 | H+4.49 | H+5.01 | H+5.33 | H+6.04 | |
| Tide Time | 0943 | 0909 | 1102 | 0949 | 0839 | 1045 | |
| 1 | Gadwall | 15 | 25 | 22 | 26 | 18 | 8 |
| 1 | American Wigeon | 14 | |||||
| 1 | Mallard | 35 | 80 | 65 | 28 | 12 | 16 |
| 1 | Northern Pintail | 1 | |||||
| 1 | Green-winged Teal | 2 | 6 | ||||
| 1 | Lesser Scaup | 1 | |||||
| 1 | Surf Scoter | 12 | |||||
| 1 | Bufflehead | 11 | |||||
| 1 | Red-breasted Merganser | 25 | |||||
| 1 | Ruddy Duck | 3 | 35 | 32 | |||
| 2 | Pied-billed Grebe | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 4 |
| 2 | Eared Grebe | 2 | 8 | ||||
| 2 | Western Grebe | 2 | 4 | ||||
| 7 | Feral Pigeon | 8 | 17 | 10 | 6 | 15 | 4 |
| 7 | Band-tailed Pigeon | 1 | |||||
| 7 | Mourning Dove | 2 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 2 | |
| 8 | Anna’s Hummingbird | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 8 | Allen’s Hummingbird | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | ||
| 2 | Sora | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 2 | American Coot | 4 | 8 | 12 | 47 | 145 | 85 |
| 5 | Black-bellied Plover | 17 | 79 | 67 | 64 | 83 | |
| 5 | Killdeer | 3 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 31 |
| 5 | Semipalmated Plover | 1 | 15 | 3 | 2 | ||
| 5 | Snowy Plover | 13 | 20 | 25 | 39 | 18 | |
| 5 | Whimbrel | 3 | 88 | 37 | 15 | 5 | 35 |
| 5 | Long-billed Curlew | 1 | |||||
| 5 | Marbled Godwit | 1 | 6 | 21 | 6 | 38 | |
| 5 | Ruddy Turnstone | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | |
| 5 | Black Turnstone | 2 | |||||
| 5 | Sanderling | 25 | 14 | 33 | 45 | ||
| 5 | Dunlin | 1 | |||||
| 5 | Least Sandpiper | 8 | 10 | 23 | 15 | 62 | |
| 5 | Western Sandpiper | 1 | 25 | 8 | 4 | 8 | |
| 5 | Short-billed Dowitcher | 2 | |||||
| 5 | Long-billed Dowitcher | 1 | |||||
| 5 | Spotted Sandpiper | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 5 | Willet | 7 | 48 | 73 | 9 | 43 | |
| 5 | Red-necked Phalarope | 1 | 2 | ||||
| 6 | Heermann’s Gull | 27 | 5 | 2 | 9 | 8 | 16 |
| 6 | Short-billed Gull | 1 | |||||
| 6 | Ring-billed Gull | 2 | 22 | 28 | |||
| 6 | Western Gull | 55 | 145 | 53 | 72 | 64 | 105 |
| 6 | California Gull | 3 | 3 | 21 | 57 | 155 | 390 |
| 6 | Glaucous-winged Gull | 1 | 3 | ||||
| 6 | Caspian Tern | 22 | 18 | ||||
| 6 | Forster’s Tern | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 6 | Royal Tern | 3 | 25 | 6 | 1 | 12 | 3 |
| 6 | Elegant Tern | 475 | 255 | 15 | |||
| 6 | Black Skimmer | 3 | |||||
| 2 | Common Loon | 1 | |||||
| 2 | Black-vented Shearwater | 100 | |||||
| 2 | Pelagic Cormorant | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||
| 2 | Double-crested Cormorant | 46 | 62 | 68 | 56 | 51 | 45 |
| 2 | Brown Pelican | 126 | 85 | 112 | 64 | 65 | 220 |
| 3 | Great Blue Heron | 3 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 3 | Great Egret | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| 3 | Snowy Egret | 2 | 12 | 14 | 9 | 9 | 31 |
| 3 | Reddish Egret | 1 | |||||
| 3 | Green Heron | 1 | |||||
| 3 | Black-crowned Night-Heron | 4 | 8 | 2 | 1 | ||
| 4 | Yellow-crowned Night-Heron | 1 | |||||
| 4 | Turkey Vulture | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 4 | Osprey | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 4 | Red-shouldered Hawk | 1 | |||||
| 8 | Belted Kingfisher | 1 | 2 | ||||
| 4 | Peregrine Falcon | 1 | |||||
| 9 | Cassin’s Kingbird | 3 | 1 | ||||
| 9 | Black Phoebe | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| 9 | Say’s Phoebe | 1 | |||||
| 9 | California Scrub-Jay | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | American Crow | 5 | 1 | 17 | 3 | 8 | 12 |
| 9 | Oak Titmouse | 2 | 2 | ||||
| 9 | Violet-green Swallow | 1 | |||||
| 9 | Northern Rough-winged Swallow | 1 | 4 | ||||
| 9 | Barn Swallow | 20 | 30 | 28 | |||
| 9 | Cliff Swallow | 3 | 1 | ||||
| 9 | Bushtit | 8 | 10 | 15 | 8 | 10 | 2 |
| 9 | Wrentit | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 9 | Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 2 | |||||
| 9 | Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | 2 | |||||
| 9 | House Wren | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| 9 | Marsh Wren | 1 | |||||
| 9 | Bewick’s Wren | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| 9 | Northern Mockingbird | 1 | 3 | 1 | |||
| 9 | European Starling | 8 | |||||
| 9 | Hermit Thrush | 3 | |||||
| 9 | House Finch | 10 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 15 | 18 |
| 9 | Lesser Goldfinch | 1 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 6 | |
| 9 | White-crowned Sparrow | 12 | 40 | ||||
| 9 | Song Sparrow | 4 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| 9 | California Towhee | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | ||
| 9 | Spotted Towhee | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 9 | Red-winged Blackbird | 6 | 25 | 4 | 3 | ||
| 9 | Great-tailed Grackle | 6 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 1 | |
| 9 | Orange-crowned Warbler | 1 | 2 | ||||
| 9 | Common Yellowthroat | 2 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 | |
| 9 | Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon’s) | 4 | 16 | ||||
| Totals by Type | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | |
| 1 | Waterfowl | 50 | 105 | 87 | 57 | 68 | 125 |
| 2 | Water Birds – Other | 177 | 159 | 197 | 174 | 275 | 471 |
| 3 | Herons, Egrets & Ibis | 13 | 29 | 22 | 13 | 15 | 40 |
| 4 | Quail & Raptors | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 5 | Shorebirds | 6 | 146 | 281 | 263 | 183 | 367 |
| 6 | Gulls & Terns | 110 | 673 | 340 | 141 | 277 | 546 |
| 7 | Doves | 11 | 19 | 15 | 6 | 19 | 6 |
| 8 | Other Non-Passerines | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| 9 | Passerines | 63 | 87 | 127 | 56 | 76 | 129 |
| Totals Birds | 437 | 1222 | 1073 | 714 | 914 | 1690 | |
| Total Species | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | |
| 1 | Waterfowl | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 9 |
| 2 | Water Birds – Other | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 9 |
| 3 | Herons, Egrets & Ibis | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| 4 | Quail & Raptors | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 5 | Shorebirds | 2 | 11 | 16 | 14 | 11 | 10 |
| 6 | Gulls & Terns | 5 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 7 |
| 7 | Doves | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 8 | Other Non-Passerines | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 9 | Passerines | 12 | 16 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 20 |
| Totals Species – 97 | 35 | 51 | 56 | 52 | 54 | 65 |
Back Bay Newport Trip: Sat. 10 December, 8:00 AM
THIS IS A SIGN-UP TRIP.
THE DRIVE IS ONE HOUR.
THE LEADER WANTS TO KNOW WHO IS COMING.
Despite what you may have read elsewhere, start time is 8 am.
Lesser (L) & Greater (R) Yellowlegs on the pickleweed
(R. Juncosa, Upper Newport Bay 12-8-18)
Back Bay Newport (or Upper Newport Bay) can provide great birding when the tides are right. It’s a bit of a drive for us (see below) and the difficulty of finding a Saturday with a high tide often keeps us from going. This year, the full moon falls on Dec. 7, and the monthly high tide(s) are 6.6 ft. on both Dec. 6th & 7th. Our Saturday trip three days later gets a good high tide of +5.74 feet at 9:22 AM, giving us a good 90 minutes of rising tide. The rising tide will (we hope) bring shorebirds close to shore and flush the rails up out of the inundated reeds.
We hope to see Sora, Virginia Rail and Ridgway’s Rail, but we will of course keep our eyes open for Black Rail, which some of our chapter members swear on a stack of bibles (an as-yet-unverified claim) they have seen there. There should be plenty of ducks, grebes, waders, sandpipers, gulls, terns and skimmers on the bay and shore, raptors overhead and things in the brush. I saw my life Short-eared Owl here, decades ago, standing on a post among the reeds, so you never know what will be around. We will also search for the endangered California Gnatcatcher at one or two particular locations along the route.
Ridgway’s Rail (Kirsten Wahlquist 10/11/14)
We’ll have lunch (so bring one!) probably at nearby & birdy San Joaquin freshwater marsh, and those who wish can do some more birding there. In 2017 we saw a Red-throated Pipit here, a Very Good Bird, and a Virginia Rail showed up recently. However, we will also make sure to look for anything around; they usually keep a nice stock of interesting birds on hand, scattered around the many birder-sized ponds. They keep a list of sightings outside the bookshop door, AND if you’re looking for a particular bird book (say…Field Guide to Galapagos Birds) they might have it. You could call them: 949-378-6501.
Sora (C. Almdale 11/09)
Family guide: We begin with a half-mile round-trip stroll on a bay-side bike path. After that we drive to a few more spots near Jamboree Rd., then to lunch. Morning temps. start cool. Dress in layers, weather may be cool.
For future reference: Link to tide chart.
Link to December 2019 report.
Driving Time: 50-60 minutes – 48 miles. While there are gas stations in the area (especially right where you get off the freeway) you could get hung up there while everyone else drives on the the next birding spot to find that uber-rariety. Don’t let this happen to you! Gas up in advance.
Carpooling Drivers & Riders: If you’re willing to drive others or ride with others, send me a reply including your contact info and approx. location and I’ll circulate it to any others similarly interested. If you’re riding, the polite thing is to get yourself to the driver’s starting location rather than try to get them to drive to your house to pick you up. They’re already in for a 2-4 hour drive time for the trip – don’t add to it. And riders should inquire of drivers about their masking requirements, if any.
Meeting time: 8 am, 10 December, 2022. Get there early and find California Gnatcatchers!
Sign-up Requested: No fee, but the leader wants to know who is coming. The drive is long: no signups, no trip.
Contact: Chuck, no later than Thursday 8 PM 8 December. email misclists [AT] verizon [DOT] net
Food: Bring munchies & liquids and/or lunch. No services next to the bay.
Directions: From the Santa Monica Fwy (I-10)Take San Diego Fwy (I-405) 46 miles south to CA-73. CA-73 south for 2.5 miles [Do not get onto I-55 Costa Mesa Fwy] and exit at CAMPUS DR / IRVINE AVE. Right on IRVINE AVE., drive southwest 1.1 miles, turn left onto not-terrifically-well-marked UNIVERSITY DRIVE (NOT Campus Drive or University Drive alongside the UC-Irvine campus, NOT, NOT!!!), and then turn right at the first driveway into the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve parking lot. Write down these directions and look at the map linked to below!!! There are certain people who get themselves lost every year! You know who you are!
There’s good birding around the parking lot where you can walk around or use the bathroom in the nature center (accessible from outside on the bay side bottom floor). It doesn’t hurt to get there early.
Link to December 2019 report.
For coffee or snacks: There are several fast food places along one-way Bristol St. just past Irvine Ave. To get back to IRVINE AVE. go right on Birch or Cypress St, south to Orchard Dr., right on Orchard and back to Irvine Ave. where you turn left and drive about 1 mile southwest as described above Meet there. Allow at least 60 minutes travel time from Santa Monica.
Bathrooms in the interpretive Center open at 6am (entrance from outside, bayside, bottom floor).
Meet at 8:00 a.m. in the parking lot. Leaders: Chuck & Lillian Almdale.
Map to Meeting Place: Back Bay Newport – NW meeting area
Use + and – to zoom in or out, left click and mouse drag to reposition the map.
[Chuck Almdale]
Black Skimmer with the giant schnozzola. (Grace Murayama)
SANTA MONICA BAY AUDUBON SOCIETY BLOG 