World Shorebird Day and Trouble Update

Yesterday was the very first ever celebration of World Shorebird Day (though I've seen in some places that it's official the 5th, but celebrated the following weekend).  People were asked to count birds from the 5-7. I went to the lake on the 6th early in the morning, but found no shorebirds.  Today, I went to Fiesta Island in Mission Bay and found several shorebirds.  Luckily, I went before the crowds came in.  It was already crowded with thousands of people and I could see thousands more coming in.  The shorebirds I saw today probably moved to another area after I left.

Marbled godwits and willets

I did a quick drive around the island, stopping at various points to check out the birds.

Black-bellied plover

2 Godwits, I'm thinking 1  might be a juvenile

Short-billed dowitcher amongst the godwits

Western sandpipers

Male and female horned larks

Heermann's gulls

Another Heermann's gull

There were absolutely no ducks or terns on the bay at all, at least in that area.  It was probably a good thing because there was about a hundred speeding watercraft out there.

Back at Lake Murray, the ducks are plentiful.  I took all these photos on Labor Day.

Snowie in her fresh molt

Both sister ducks are seen together a lot, but it's still hard to photograph both of them together.  Here's Big Sister.

After about two weeks of not seeing him, Trouble came up to visit me.  The thing is he was sneezing and his eyes were irritated.  The right eye looked only slightly irritated, but the left one was obviously sore.

He still has his long, yellowish legs:

Trouble couldn't resist rubbing his left eye constantly to the point where it was swollen and red.  I'm thinking the algae in the lake where he hangs out was irritating them.  His nares actually looked clear and clean, not like he has a cold.  His eyes were a little drainy, but not draining mucous.

One good thing is that he now has all his feathers and can fly, but I don't know how well he can see with his irritated eyes.  I didn't see him yesterday, but I hope he's OK.

Trouble still stays within visual contact with his family.  Here are two of his brothers nearby.

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:

Curlews and a very light godwit

I was at the Tijuana Natural Estuarine Research Reserve and there were a lot of long-billed curlews.

There were also some whimbrels and willets there, too, and some northern harriers.

But, I saw this very light marbled godwit there, too.

It's definitely a marbled godwit because I can see the pattern on its back.  I think it might be a girl.

San Diego Birding Festival

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.

Shorebird counting with PRBO

Today, I did my first official shorebird count with Point Reyes Bird Observatory.  I was paired up with Lynne, who is very experienced at doing this and we went to the east side of Coronado to look for shorebirds.  However, the shoreline there was not very conducive to shorebirds as it's very rocky.  Though, we did find a few.

We surveyed a couple different sections, one north of the ferry landing and one near Glorietta Bay and south of the ferry landing until we got to just past the bridge.

It was a nice, bright, sunny day:

In the first section, all we saw was this little spotted sandpiper.

Up ahead, there was a small roost, but they were outside the study area.  Three sanderlings, some godwits, and a black bellied plover.

At Glorietta Bay, I saw my first Heerman's gull, though gulls were not part of the count:

Lots of grebes of all kinds, but we weren't counting those.  Here's a western grebe:

Lots of buffleheads here:

A few pacific loons (too far away to get a good photo):

This marbled godwit and black bellied plover were very co-operative.  They were located just south of the ferry landing:

The purpose of this census was to check on the population health of various shorebird species.  Many of these birds breed in the far north in areas that are not accessible for research.  It's possible that the warming of the arctic may have an effect on these species' breeding.  So, they are counted while they are in their wintering areas.