Hello Like Before

On our annual trip to the U.S. we always make it a point to go birding at the two of our favorite places in Orange County: San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary (SJWS) and Bolsa Chica Wetlands. This time we were fortunate to see (and get photos of) some species that we hadn't encountered the past 8 years or so. It was like meeting an old friend whom we hadn't seen for a while - and saying "Hello like before!"

At SJWS these were the "friends" we met:

Tree Swallow - although a regular resident, we weren't able to get photos the previous times we were here.

Rufous Hummingbird, quite uncommon and therefore a nice surprise.

The Common Yellowthroat, although "common", we never saw them the past 8 years that we've been here. And now we saw at least three of them frolicking by the reeds.

Another surprise was the very active Blue Grey Gnatcatcher

The highlight of the morning was the White-faced Ibis that was feeding at Pond D.

At Bolsa Chica, aside from the usual species seen here, we saw a Greater Yellowlegs.

Black-bellied Plovers, still in non-breeding plumage were quite plentiful.

The Belted Kingfisher was less skittish now.

I'm not 100% sure about the ID of this bird, but my guess is Least Flycatcher.

The highlight of the day was a couple of lucky shots of Ring-billed Gulls. One was flying with the moon in the background.

The other was when an immature bird leapt and then dove for some fish and I caught it at the perfect moment.

It was indeed nice to have seen these birds once again after a really long time.