Famosa Slough and Killdeer Land

Famosa Slough is a great place to see a variety of birds and even a few uncommon or rare birds. It's right there in the middle of Point Loma, so you don't have to drive far to see them.

First, a bunch of dowitchers flying away. There's always dowitchers flying around there. I believe these are short-billed dowitchers. However, your eBird list will be flagged if you identify them as such as they're very hard to tell apart from the long-billed dowitchers in winter.

A pair of mourning doves on a branch. The dove at the top eventually walked down and stroked the back of the other dove before pecking him to move.

Stilts, avocets, willets and yellowlegs:

One of the stilts:

Blue-winged teal:

American wigeon:

Famosa Slough is basically killdeer land in winter. There were probably a few hundred of them in there, watching me.

Least Tern, Picture of the Day 05/24/16

Today's picture of the day is of a least tern that was flying around at the Tijuana River Natural Estuarine Research Reserve down by the border near Imperial Beach. I took this on International Migratory Bird Day on May 14th. The least terns nest in this area and this adult was looking for small fish in the river area. It was a cloudy day.

Update on the ducklings in the last post: Unfortunately, they were all gone within a couple of days. 

Duckling update at Lake Murray for the last few weeks

Instead of posting duckling updates over and over, I decided to put the last few weeks of ducklings together all in one post.

Mom and One Duckling:

First up is a mom of a single duckling I first saw on June 16th. A crow tried to grab it, but I shooed the crow away. Later, I didn't see him and feared he had been eaten shortly after I walked away. Then, I saw the same mom and duckling three days later. He also disappeared soon after I saw him and I haven't seen him or his mother since.

The Uneaten Ducklings:

The story behind these ducks is that one of the western gulls was intensely watching this family of four, but I managed to steer him towards a couple of dead fish nearby. Once he discovered and began feeding on the fish, the ducklings passed by without harm. However, a few days later, there were only two. But they may not have been eaten by the gulls. Mama duck has a habit of taking them back and forth across the lake. I'm thinking a fish or cormorant may have gotten them. The other two are still around and growing strong:

The Older Ducklings:

The older ducklings are still plugging along and are just about full grown.  All they need is their primary feathers. They are almost the same size of the adult ducks.

New Littles:

These ducklings just showed up a few days ago. The mother started with six, then she had five. Today, I didn't see her at all:

Goslings:

All the goslings have grown up and are flying, including the youngest one:

In Memorium:

Sadly, the three ducklings that were in the last post were all eaten by the western gull. I tried to dissuade the gull, who caught them by sneaking up on them, but he ate them anyway. 

Also, both Sissy and Pumpkin, the two blonde female ducks, have been missing for a couple of weeks and I'm very concerned. Trouble has been around, but his bill was damaged from what looks like a rock.

Sunday highlights of the San Diego Bird Festival 2014

Today was the last day of the 2014 San Diego Bird Festival.  It was pretty stormy throughout the entire event, pretty much.  Some days were better than others and most events happened regardless of the weather.  It even rained today, but we had some sun, too.  Today was Family Fun Day which means all events are free and open to the public.  I checked out the Big Sit, the Expo and a lecture on local parrots.

The "Big Sit" circle

The Big Sit list as of about 11:30 a.m.

The Big Sit list 2 hours later

The river was a bit high, covering the roosting spots.  It lowered, later in the day:

Spotted sandpiper with a small crab near the "Big Sit":

Greater scaup in same area:

A pair of red-breasted mergansers outside the Expo in the marina:

Inside the expo, Project Wildlife was there with a barn owl named Boo:

They had something new this year:  SoCal Parrots.  They were advocating for the wild parrots in our area.  These are conures in this cage.

Shorebird Counting Day

Today is the day where, once a year, Point Blue Bird Observatory counts all the shorebirds around San Diego Bay at the same time. I was assigned the Coronado Island area.

My day started out with a curlew, though with her head tucked in, she looked just like a marbled godwit:

There were a couple of short-billed dowitchers with her:

The other two in the group were marbled godwits for sure because at least one of them pulled their head out and I could see the long, pointed bill:

This kingfisher was spotted with a fish and she dropped it when she saw me coming.  Then, she sat on this light pole hoping I would leave so she could go back and get her fish:

There were a whole lot of shorebirds in that spot:

Close-up of a willet and two godwits:

Look at that middle godwit and how he puts his toes up when he walks across the rocks:

I went to another area and people were chasing the birds!  Oh no!  I asked them to stop and they did, but it was definitely an awkward and uncomfortable moment there for a few minutes.  All the birds came back, I think.  I'm glad because there were a whole lot of them:

And, a sanderling was with them, too:

Some of the godwits were having a disagreement, plus the tide was going up:

And, here is the sanderling again:

There were two spotted sandpipers there today.  I saw this one who might be a juvenile:

Oops, water going over his feet:

Oh no!  My feet are getting wet!

In other bird news, there were plenty of surf scoters around:

This one was showing off and following me around:

And buffleheads.  Lots of buffleheads and coots: