Mokka mit Schlag » Birding

Elegant Tern is an embarrassing bird for me. Hundreds breed at Bolsa Chica. They are common in flight up and down the coast, and occasionally show up almost in my backyard at Upper Newport Bay and San Joaquin Wildlife Refuge. I’ve seen them repeatedly as far back as 2005 on my first trip to Orange County; and until now, every single time I’ve misidentified them as Royal Tern (a much less common bird out here).

I finally realized my mistake this past Spring, and have paid somewhat more attention to large terns since. However I didn’t get back out to Bolsa Chica to correct my mistake until just this last weekend, and there they were, dozens of Elegant Terns just sitting there with all the Western Gulls, Forster’s Terns, and even a couple of Gull-billed Terns:

Fall migration is kicking into high gear. I’m not sure if I should target something next, or just spend a lot of time at the shore. A juvenile Black-chinned Sparrow has been reported at San Joaquin. Maybe I’ll spend some time looking for that.

I slept in this morning, and consequently almost drove over to the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary for the monthly Sea & Sage Audubon Walk, but fortunately I decided there was still a good chance to pick up a BGBY species or two if I walked. Last month I drove over and consequently missed Sora and Rock Pigeon. However this time I did walk and consequently I can now count #440 Baird’s Sandpiper for my life, California, Orange County, and BGBY lists.

I have a list of target birds I’m looking for in the local area, but this wasn’t on it. It’s fun to still find completely surprising life birds within walking distance of my apartment. Baird’s are far from unknonw out here, but this was apparently the first one at SJWS in the last two years.
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I’ve been going out to Irvine Regional Park every Thursday evening for the last month+, since it’s one of the few “reliable” places to find Lesser Nighthawks, a Southern California specialty. Of course, reliable inn this instance seems to mean somewhat more likely than having a red-necked Stint turn up on your doorstep. Two weeks ago I even found two Phainopeplas (previously #438) but still no nighthawks, even though they were reported to be breeding in this location.

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Desert Cottontail, Sylvilagus audubonii
William R. Mason Regional Park, 2008-07-07

These rabbits are all over Orange County. It took me a while to ID them though.
At first I thought they might be released pets like the rabbits back home in Prospect Park, but apparently they’re native. Despite the name, they seem to do quite well in local well-irrigated suburban parks, subdivisions, and chaparral.

The key fieldmark by which you can recognize them is the rufous fur on the back of the neck and the forelegs. The tail also shows a dark patch which isn’t present in an Eastern Cottontail or a Brush Rabbit, but that’s not always obvious if they have their tail tucked up as they usually do.

Common Raven, Corvus corax
San Joaquin Wildlife Refufe, 2008-07-04

It’s funny how many species don’t make the hop over the last desert and mountain range to reach the California Coast. Previously this year I’ve added 10 species to my life list (and several more to my California list) on the far side of the Santa Ana Mountains that border the O.C. on the east. Probably eight of those are uncommon in the county at best. Last weekend I added four more on a Sea & Sage trip to the San Bernardino National Forest on the south side of Big Bear Lake.

I met up with Stan Winterman about 5:30 A.M. in Costa Mesa to carpool out to Big Bear. (Side note: unlike NYC field trips, carpooling out here is the exception, not the rule; and usually just means you drive two hours to the meeting point, then carpool five miles down a dirt road from there. It takes major effort to arrange car sharing, even for long distance trips outside the county like this one. If anyone wants to carpool with me for next month’s trip to Piute Ponds, please holler.) From there it was about a 90-minute drive to Big Bear in the light early morning traffic. My first lifer was on the mountain road up to Big Bear, but it was a mammal, a Coyote. I’ve never actually seen a wild one before, but there it was; standing by the side of the road as bold as anything. Cute too, though I might feel differently if it ate my cat.

The group met at the Aspen Glen Picnic Area. The first thing that struck em when we got out of the car was that this smelled a lot like Sunspot, New Mexico (where I haven’t been for 12 years or so). Not too surprising: it’s very similar habitat on the top of a mountain in the middle of a desert. Both even have solar observatories. However there was one notable difference: the piney smell was mixed with a strong aroma of vanilla. I wondered if some camper had for some strange reason poured a bottle of vanilla extract on the ground or into the trash or some such. However I later leanred that this is actually the smell of the Jeffrey Pine, which is prevalent here, but which I guess we didn’t have back in Sunspot.

The picnic area parking lot was just a convenient place to meet, but it has some birds nonetheless. Apparently Cassin’s Finch (a potential lifer) was seen here on this trip last year, but all we got this year was House Finch. Other common parking lot birds included American Robin, Common Raven, American Robin, Spotted Towhee, Brewer’s Blackbird, and Acorn Woodpecker, but we did find Northern Flicker, Steller’s Jay, and White-breasted Nuthatch. We also found California Ground Squirrel and what I think was a Lodgepole Chipmunk, but I don’t have pictures so I can’t be sure. They’re something like a dozen+ species of chipmunks around here, so ID’ing them is more challenging than the single species we have back east. Final species for the parking lot was this Skipper:

I think the genus is Hesperia, but I’m not sure. Skippers are tough to ID, even with photos.

Around 8:30 we consolidated into mostly high clearance vehicles and headed off down a dirt road (2N10 or 2N11?) that doesn’t show up on Google Maps road to Bluff Lake.
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