A Quick Peck

Our first full day in California is a day of errands. Or should I say, of shopping. My wife, Cynthia, wanted  to get that over and done with as soon as possible so that we can enjoy the rest of our stay here relatively free of obligations.


First, we visited my daughter's home in Arcadia to get some documents we needed to determine if we needed to pay taxes. Inasmuch as her place was very near one of my favorite birding haunts, I insisted that we make a quick birding foray there.


Peck Road Water Conservation Area (aka Peck Pit to local birders) still harbored some nice birds that lovely spring morning. There weren't that many in terms of species but those that were there were surprisingly friendly. The very first bird we saw was a totally unexpected Mountain Chickadee. As its name implies these are birds found in higher elevations. Peck's Pit by any stretch of the imagination can never be considered a mountain or even a hill for that matter.

The chickadees turned out to be only the first among other surprises that morning. A Great Egret seemed out of place hunting among the tall grass hundreds of feet away from the nearest body of water.

Another oddity was a pair of Killdeers, which is a type of plover, doing their quaint stop-and-go antics on a grassy patch.

Cassin's Kingbirds, although a regular winter visitor were so unmindful of human beings that one of them flew from a nearby perch to the ground just a few feet in front of me!

Even the usually skittish Mourning Doves were quite accommodating too.

Despite just having a quick peek at Peck's Pit, I was happy to once again see my favorite birds here in Southern California.