First walk of Fall 2013 at the San Diego Salt Works

Western sandpipers

Today, I went on the very first walk of the fall 2013 at the San Diego Salt Works.  Once a month, from October to March, San Diego Audubon holds a walk in this restricted area. It's a great chance to see some birds that are difficult to see from the areas regularly open to the public. Most of the walks take place on Saturday, but today they did this one on Sunday.  They are also canceled if there's bad weather.  Though today was foggy, it cleared up enough to see some birds.

So, let's get our sandpipers in a row:

So, like I said, it started out dark and cloudy.  Here is a shot of one of the drying ponds.  That is all salt in there, not snow or ice.

I think one of the most common birds inside the salt works area were western sandpipers.  I got lots of photos of them.

There were a log of cormorants hanging out on this thing until just before I took this photo.  You can see a couple of them flying away.

Also on this building were two turnstones, one ruddy and one black.  They seemed like they were best friends.

After a while, we finally saw the willets and godwits:

Willets flying away:

And, where you see willets, you also see marbled godwits:

I saw a few least sandpipers, too:

And, a few red knots:

Western grebe:

Eared grebe, very common there:

And, a surprise horned grebe.  Note the different shaped head and bill and brighter side and neck/head area:

A few greater yellowlegs were around, too:

There were a good number of long-billed curlews there, too.  Here's one with a couple of dunlin:

Here's a couple of western sandpipers with a couple of dunlins.  Lots of dunlins, too.

The ever-present Belding's savanna sparrow:

Royal tern:

Black-necked stilts:

Stilts with a few avocets:

There was also a surprise stilt family there with chicks that are still fuzzy and have gray necks.  Here is dad with the two chicks:

Here are the two babies:

And, a couple more surprises.  This is a photo of the first cattle egret ever seen at the salt works.  Cattle egrets, though common in many areas in the south, are not common in the San Diego area.

And, there was a short-eared owl, though I couldn't get a photo of him flying around.

And, then the sun came out and made the salt ponds look like glass:

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.

Famosa Slough

Not much going on at Famosa Slough, just a few stilts, Forster's terns, and ruddy ducks.

Here are some stilt pictures:

And, I think this might be a juvenile or female lesser goldfinch.  I couldn't get a good look at the front of it:

Happy shorebird counting day!

I started a new tradition last years for New Year's day where I go and count shorebirds.  I still don't have a scope, but it didn't matter because it was so foggy!  I don't think I could even see a mile even later in the morning.  I went to the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge in the South Bay which includes the mud-flats.  Here is what the fog looked like at 10:30, but it was way worse when I arrived.

Many of the photos were taken through the fog and a couple were taken through fences, hence the "noisy" photos.

First the ducks:

Green-winged teal and short billed dowitcher

Northern Pintail (looks like Snoogie!)

More pintails

Bufflehead

I was pleasantly surprised to see these guys for the first time.  They're surf scoters!  Here are some females:

The only male was not very co-operative:

Now, for the shorebirds, beginning with some stilts seen through the fog and a fence:

Stilt drinking

Short-billed dowitcher

Best picture I could get of a long-billed dowitcher

Dunlin

Bunch of western sandpipers

Willet, eating

Godwits and dowitchers

Godwits and least sandpipers

Long-billed curlew

The next picture shows a godwit and a willet.  These two are best buddies and followed each other everywhere.  Another willet came by to visit, but went away.  If one got too far away, the other would call for it.

There were also brant, eared grebes, several species of gulls and sparrows, too.