First walk of Fall 2013 at the San Diego Salt Works

Western sandpipers

Today, I went on the very first walk of the fall 2013 at the San Diego Salt Works.  Once a month, from October to March, San Diego Audubon holds a walk in this restricted area. It's a great chance to see some birds that are difficult to see from the areas regularly open to the public. Most of the walks take place on Saturday, but today they did this one on Sunday.  They are also canceled if there's bad weather.  Though today was foggy, it cleared up enough to see some birds.

So, let's get our sandpipers in a row:

So, like I said, it started out dark and cloudy.  Here is a shot of one of the drying ponds.  That is all salt in there, not snow or ice.

I think one of the most common birds inside the salt works area were western sandpipers.  I got lots of photos of them.

There were a log of cormorants hanging out on this thing until just before I took this photo.  You can see a couple of them flying away.

Also on this building were two turnstones, one ruddy and one black.  They seemed like they were best friends.

After a while, we finally saw the willets and godwits:

Willets flying away:

And, where you see willets, you also see marbled godwits:

I saw a few least sandpipers, too:

And, a few red knots:

Western grebe:

Eared grebe, very common there:

And, a surprise horned grebe.  Note the different shaped head and bill and brighter side and neck/head area:

A few greater yellowlegs were around, too:

There were a good number of long-billed curlews there, too.  Here's one with a couple of dunlin:

Here's a couple of western sandpipers with a couple of dunlins.  Lots of dunlins, too.

The ever-present Belding's savanna sparrow:

Royal tern:

Black-necked stilts:

Stilts with a few avocets:

There was also a surprise stilt family there with chicks that are still fuzzy and have gray necks.  Here is dad with the two chicks:

Here are the two babies:

And, a couple more surprises.  This is a photo of the first cattle egret ever seen at the salt works.  Cattle egrets, though common in many areas in the south, are not common in the San Diego area.

And, there was a short-eared owl, though I couldn't get a photo of him flying around.

And, then the sun came out and made the salt ponds look like glass:

Killdeer at the salt works

I forgot to add the photos of the killdeer at the salt works from last Sunday.  There are usually about thirty of them there all year around.

I didn't see any that looked like they were related to the Lake Murray killdeer.

Mystery gull (ID'd) and the salt works

Today, at Lake Murray, I saw a very pale juvenile gull:

I'm not sure what kind it is, but it looks like a pale juvenile Western gull.  But, it also looks like a juvenile Thayer's gull and a couple of other juvenile gulls that visit the coastal areas during the winter.

Western, Herring, and California juvenile gulls are usually a little darker and this one has a weird head, too.

UPDATE:  The consensus on the gull is that it is a juvenile Glaucous-winged gull, which is unusual to see inland.  Thayer's gulls are the same color, but have a smaller bill.

I thought I should add this photo of a young duck running away with a piece of tomato someone threw at her.  The coots were trying to steal it from her.  I thought she was Skippy, but I think it was one of the six babies I saw in early August:

I heard the killdeer, but did not see them.  Also, one of the Pekin ducks is missing.

Salt Works:

Sunday, I went on the short tour at the South Bay Salt Works in Chula Vista.  I thought this was cool, it's bits of salt floating on the water.  Sorta looks like ice:

There weren't that many birds around.  A fair number of grebes were there, plus a few buffleheads:

Dowitchers:

Marbled godwit:

More birds:

Dowitchers and sandpipers:

Looking for the curlew sandpiper

I've been hearing reports of a curlew sandpiper in the Imperial Beach area for the last few days and decided to go check it out because I missed the last one that was there.  Well, I didn't see this one, either.  I did see some of these other birds, though:

Reddish egret

Gull-billed tern

Cliff swallow gathering mud

Cliff swallow nests on nearby apartment buildings

I also saw lots upon lots of black-bellied plovers in non-breeding plumage and semiplamated plovers in breeding plumage, too.

A day at the San Diego Salt Works.

Once a month, docents from the San Diego Audubon Society lead a tour of the San Diego Salt Works area that is usually closed off to the public.

When we arrived, we were greeted by killdeer, but I couldn't get any photos of them because people ahead of me caused them to move too far away.  But, we did find a whole bunch of gulls and grebes at first.  Also, there was a peregrine and the remains of many, many dead birds, mostly eared grebes, but also a cormorant, gulls, a few ducks, and a black-necked stilt.  There were also coon and dog prints around.

One of the first friendly birds we saw was an least sandpiper.  Later, though, we saw several dozen flying around.  Only a few western sandpipers were present.

Also, hundreds of Belding's savanna sparrows:

And, there was an American pipit there, too:

And, we saw some Clark's and western grebes:

This willet was very curious:

There was an Eurasian wigeon among the brant, but I don't think I got a photo of him.  

Also, a rare winter Caspian tern among the juvenile gulls:

Our guide said this was a glaucous-wing crossed with a western gull, juvenile:

We saw several royal terns and a few Forster's terns, too:

A friendly female northern shoveler who seemed to expect us to give her food:

Black-necked stilt:

Marbled godwit:

Here are more shots of the salt ponds:

Other birds seen include lots and lots of eared grebes, a horned grebe, kestrel, osprey, brant, dunlin, ruddy and black turnstones, blue-winged teal, northern pintail and American avocets.