Shorebird counting

I had the opportunity to go out and do two different walks and counts. I did a Salt Work's tour on November 22nd and I counted shorebirds for Point Blue Bird Observatory on December 1st. Both are on the San Diego Bay.

Salt Works Tour:

Semi-Palmated Plover with a bunch of brine flies all around.

Dunlin and dowitchers:

Dunlin and western sandpipers:

Eared grebes:

Why did the godwits cross the road? To look at all the birders who walked by:

Lots of long-billed curlews all around. Here are two of them:

American avocets:

Short-eared owl (looking away):

I also saw killdeer and one of the peregrine falcons in the area snagged one of the tiny sandpipers right in front of me. Poor little sandpiper. The owl was also eating one of the grebes.

Point Blue Bird Observatory Coronado Bay Survey:

I counted in my usual area around the ferry landing all the way up to near the naval base entrance. Most of these were closer to the ferry landing area.

Black-bellied plover:

Marbled godwit:

Sleepy shorebirds (godwits and willets):

 Brown pelican:

Sanderling:

The sanderling woke up and freaked out some of the sleeping birds:

Lots and lots of willets:

This next one was OK, he was just sleeping. I was worried he was sick, but when I walked away, he and a marbled godwit followed me up to the walkway:

San Diego Shorebird Survey for Point Blue

It's that time of year again and it was time to count shorebirds around Coronado Bay for Point Blue Conservation Science.  Luckily, we were able to do it yesterday because it's really rainy and windy today, so it would have been very hard to do.

Here are some photos. I didn't see many shorebirds, but there were a few.

The day started out with marbled godwits.

Those two in the photo above later flew off to a grassy area of the park, but left after people with dogs started walking by.

Another marbled godwit with a willet:

A different willet nearby:

This willet was dodging a whisky bottle in the surf:

I think this willet didn't feel well:

This spotted sandpiper was really aggravated with me and kept running away.  I told her I wanted to take her picture and she decided I was alright and started posing for me:

Flock of marbled godwits and willets:

There were lots of other birds in the water including surf scoters:

And, lesser scaup:

There were also some royal terns laying around until I got too close for their comfort and they flew off.

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.