San Diego South Bay birding with a curlew

I took a short trip to the south bay this morning, visiting the Bird and Butterfly Garden, the sod farm, and the 7th street area.   It was my first trip to the Bird and Butterfly Garden and the sod farm where I hear of a lot of unusual birds, but I didn't see a whole lot.  Here are a few pictures:

At the bird and butterfly garden, I saw a ruby crowned kinglet, but couldn't get a photo.  I also saw several dark-eyed juncos.  Here's a photo of one of the males.

At the sod farm, I didn't see a whole lot, either.  I saw about five hawks and several turkey vultures sitting in one area, which I thought was kinda strange.  Two of the hawks flew off when I went to take a photo.  I think they were a family of three or four juvenile red-tails and an adult.  Here are three juveniles and a turkey vulture:

One flying off:

Here's one that looks like a dark morph, which is unusual for this area:

I saw at least two kestrels, one at the Bird and Butterfly Garden and one at the sod farm:

At 7th street, I didn't seem more than a few birds and a few ducks.  It was low tide.  I saw mostly killdeer and this long-billed curlew stayed close by.  Here he is eating what I think might be a mussel:

Whenever the killdeer flew over, he stood very still and did not move for several minutes before feeding again:

Very still, watching:

I saw him also eat several fiddler and sand crabs.  He was very thorough and I would bet he ate just about every crab and mussel he came across.  None of those stood a chance with him.

Sad day for Shy and Tom the Muscovy

Today is a sad day for Shy because two of her eggs were found smashed open, probably by a crow or blackbird. One egg was missing and another was pushed under the fence and could no longer be brooded. It looked like it happened yesterday evening as the ants had not gotten to them, yet, but it was starting to dry up. One egg still had an embryo that looked like it was about a week, more or less, developed. The dad was still around as was Shy's parents. Everyone seemed really somber. Shy probably went somewhere to reset her hormones so that she can try again. Hopefully, she and her mate will choose a better spot. There's no hope for her last egg, it was stone cold this morning. I pulled it out so it's more accessible to the father in case he decides to keep trying to brood it.

Tom hasn't been seen for almost two weeks now. No one who knows him has seen him, either. I thought I saw him in the brush in his napping area this morning, but it didn't look like he was alive. I think he might have died of old age in his sleep. I don't think a predator got him, just a peaceful death.

In the south bay

Today, I went to the Tijuana Estuary and the South Bay and took some photos of the birds.

He's a photo of a long-billed Curlew:



And, a couple of willets:






Here's a couple of cliff swallows gathering mud before a Cooper's hawk decided to try to get them for dinner:





At the Visitor's center of the Tijuana Estuary, I saw a Say's phoebe nest:



And, in the south bay, I saw a bunch of little shorebirds. Most of these are semi-palmated plovers, western sandpipers and sanderlings:



And, finally, a photo of what looks like to be a western sandpiper alone:

Here come the shorebirds!

Least and western sandpipers

Today, I visited the National Wildlife Refuge and Biological Study area off of the Bayshore bike path between Imperial Beach and Coronado, California. It was the first time I've been there to actually look at the birds, though I have ridden my bike down there several times in the past.

I saw a lot of cute shorebirds, but first started with some wigeons, gadwalls, and pintails (I didn't get any photos of the gadwalls):

Pintails

Wigeons

Then, I saw a whole lot of willets. Here's a couple with some wigeons:



There were gobs of birds I couldn't identify because they were so far away:



I like the semipalmated plovers, they look like 2 to 3 week old killdeer chicks. Here they are with a few western sandpipers:



I thought I had scared this big flock of western sandpipers off because I stepped into the boundary of the refuge a few feet (which is a no-no). But, then, I saw a falcon fly by, so I knew they weren't nervous wasn't because of me:



I couldn't get a photo of the falcon, I was concentrating on getting a correct identification. In that photo above, there are also some brants (a type of goose). Here is a close-up of a few:



I am going to post more photos on my Gather page, you can access it here: Darlene's Gather "Other Photos" Page I will also be posting them on We Love Birds and Flickr, too.

I did see some killdeer and some other plovers, but they were too far away to get a good photo of. The killdeer were staying far away from the area the falcon (and a feral cat) were at. In fact, one group of killdeers saw the falcon five minutes before I did and were probably long gone or hidden by the time it flew over to that area.