San Diego Salt Works October 2014

Today was the first San Diego Salt Works tour of the 2014-2015 season.  There weren't a whole lot of birds seen today.  I put some photos of the highlights, except for the horned and eared grebes, of which they were plenty.  Also, I was too far for the black-bellied plovers and other small shorebirds.  And, I only heard 2 killdeer rather than the 50 or so that we usually see.

Migratory Savannah Sparrow

Assorted shorebirds, willets, stilts, red knots, etc

The tern congregation

Short-billed dowitchers

Dunlin and sandpiper

Least sandpiper

We sound a few sanderlings, including this one who was being very aggressive.  It was fun to watch them.

He is on a mission to chase all the other birds away or fight them if he can.

There were a few birdy tragedies.  A very sick grebe on the beginning of the walk, slowly dying and no one can help him because we were not allowed anywhere near the salt ponds.  There was also a deceased barn owl with an unknown cause of death.  

The peregrine was there as well as a few osprey and pelicans, too.  And, of course, hundreds of gulls, including one that looked like he was pulled under water by something!

South Bay Birding

I went to the South Bay to look at birds, but, unfortunately, I couldn't get any decent photos because they were a bit far away.  Above is a photo of a massive pile of willets and godwits molting.  Some of them are still in breeding colors.

The stilts liked to hang out in their own section.

The resident peregrine falcon flew by and harassed everyone before catching something from one of the berms.

It looks like a cliff swallow who had been out getting bugs for his babies and I think he was still alive and stunned:

The falcon went behind a berm, but then I saw him jump up a few minutes later and give a couple of hard hits to a small raptor that I couldn't identify.  I think it was a kestrel or a Cooper's hawk who begged for mercy from the falcon and left the area.  Next time I saw the falcon, its talons were empty, so the swallow may have gotten away during the dispute between the two raptors.

A lot of the willets and godwits went into the middle of the water.

Then, they began to go back to their roosting area:

I have been practicing digiscoping for quite a while and haven't gotten the hang of it at all.  I think I'm going to have to use a different scope for that.  Here's a digiscoped photo of the willets.  Even though I had both the camera and the scope well focused, the photos came out blurry.  I think the eye relief on my inexpensive scope is not good enough for this.  All the photos have this kind of fuzz on it.  I will keep practicing as I can't get a new scope right now.  I might try a smaller camera, too.

Willets climbing up on a berm:

Why did the willets cross the road?

To look at the stilts in the grass:

There was also a pretty good fire going inland near Sweetwater reservoir about fifteen miles away, but it was mostly out within an hour or so.

Mongolian Lesser Sand Plover (and other birds) in the South Bay

I went to the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge in the South Bay to check out reports of a lesser sand plover (also known as a Mongolian plover).  I found him, but didn't get great pictures of him because of the distance:

Lesser sand plover, bathing

Walking away with western sandpipers

Still walking away with sandpipers

There were an awful lot of western sandpipers there along with dowitchers, stilts, godwits, willets, avocets, phalaropes, and semipalmated plovers.  I didn't expect to see this many shorebirds:

Look at these western sandpipers huddled up on the sand:

Some of these little guys let me get a close-up photo:

I didn't see the two rare sandpipers, but I heard they would be hard to spot even if I could access the area where they usually are.  I was more interested in the plover.

There were two adorable baby black-necked stilts, one was close to me, another was near where the plover liked to hang out:

Lots of semipalmated plovers.  This one seemed to be keeping an eye on everyone:

And, lots of savannah sparrows, but I think I only saw one Belding's savannah sparrow (not this one):

They like to glean from the vegetation:

There were killdeer, too.

New Year's Shorebird Counting

This is the third year I've done shorebird counting on New Year's day at the San Diego South Bay.  This year, I went at a rising tide early in the morning.  The weather was mostly cloudy, but not foggy like last year.  I also didn't walk as far as usual because I was carrying a scope and tripod (which I dropped once, but it was OK).

**Yes, I know that some of the photos say "2012" on it.  I was watermarking them and my fingers aren't used to typing 2013, so several of them were mismarked, but I didn't want to go back and change them.

Willets and godwits were plentiful.  Though I saw many willets socializing with individual godwits, I did not see the special willet-godwit pair that I've seen the last two years.

This godwit was itchy:

I saw hundreds of western sandpipers, but only about a dozen least sandpipers:

Lots and lots of them:

 A good mess of northern pintails, too (and a ton of wigeons which I didn't get any good photos of):

In this next photo, though it's hard to see are several snowy egrets, a reddish egret, Bonaparte's gull, and two types of merganser.  I didn't even know I got a picture of the reddish egret or the mergansers when I took this photo.

These willets, godwits, and dowitchers were all feeding peacefully here:

When a Cooper's hawk went on the attack and tried to attack some coots and other birds along the shore.

The willets and the black-bellied plovers nearby made sure they sounded the alarm until she was gone:

A few greater yellowlegs were around:

One friendly killdeer.  I think I only saw 5 of the 30 I usually see there:

An unusual sight, a white pelican.  They are usually inland freshwater birds:

And, hundreds of black brant.

At lot of them:

Seriously, a lot:

And, lots of eared grebes, too.