Today was the free Family Fun Day at the San Diego Birding Festival, so I went down there to take one of the art classes and view some birds in the San Diego River channel. They had a "Big Sit" down by the bike path.
There was a large flock of California gulls there, but not as large as there was about a week ago. There's some royal terns, heermann's gulls, and a mew gull in there, too.
Here is a marbled godwit and a least sandpiper. I didn't even know the sandpipers were there until they flew off. I'm glad I got one in the photo:
Gulls and royal terns:
A willet. It looks like his bill is deformed:
Here is a whimbrel:
Compare that photo to a long-billed curlew. Many people confuse the two unless they're side by side:
Here is a ring-billed gull. They were grabbing mussels and dropping them on the hard ground to open them. This one was expecting us to feed him.
Bufflehead and northern pintail:
Lots of ruddy ducks:
And, an American wigeon. We looked for the Eurasian wigeon, but didn't see him.
Lots of herons and egrets there today, too.
