Happy counting shorebirds day 2014!

Well, has been my New Year's Day tradition four years in a row.  I counted the shorebirds near the bike path in the San Diego south bay.  We also are having "king tides" in San Diego, so the tide was very high.  Every year, I see different birds on New Year's Day.  Since the tide was so high today, it was a good day for ducks and geese.

Here is the bike path at the highest tide:

Here is the bay at high tide.  Normally, the area would be mud flats and plants which are completely covered with water.  You can even see the research markers:

The water came up over the bike path:

Here is the same area a little over two hours later:

And, here, the plants in the bay are visible again:

All there was in the bay, earlier, was this little island with some shovelers:

Two hours later, the shovelers have more ground to lie on:

Today was a good day for seeing northern pintails:

And, of course, hundreds of brant:

There was a flotilla of redhead ducks and some scaup:

Some redheads and maybe one scaup, a closer look:

I also saw a red-breasted merganser:

Lots of willets and godwits:

And, near those willets and godwits, there was an occasional long-billed curlew:

Some American pipits:

Lots of savannah sparrows:

These willets, godwits, curlews and ducks were sitting on a berm:

After the tide started going down, they all rushed to feed on invertebrates before they went back to deep in the sand:

The sandpipers wanted to go feed, too, but the water wasn't shallow enough, so they flew around everywhere:

I saw no avocets or stilts today.  Nor did I see the peregrine falcon.