Water Low

"The Boy" was supposed to bring a lot of rainfall to Southern California. El Nino is a climate cycle in the Pacific Ocean that supposedly causes drought in eastern Asia and Australia and wetter winters in western North America. However since it is now spring, the rain apparently had abated and gave way to a warmer-than-usual weather. The absence of precipitation caused the water levels in the ponds and wetlands to drop significantly.

That was how it was when we visited the two prime birding spots in Orange County: the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary (SJWS) and the Bolsa Chica Wetlands. Thankfully, and despite the low water levels, there were still quite a number of birds in these places.

At the SJWS all three species of teals were represented.

Blue-winged Teal

Green-winged Teal

Cinnamon Teal

The long-legged waders were up and about.

American Avocet

Black-necked Stilt

There were fewer birds than usual at Bolsa Chica because most of the migrants have returned to their breeding grounds way up north.

The uncommon Reddish Egret was performing its fishing dance.

The long-billed birds were already busy pursuing their morning meals.

Long-billed Curlew

Long-billed Dowitcher

Marbled Godwit

The Belding's subspecies of the Savannah Sparrow is a sure sighting here.

The absence of the migratory duck species were compensated by these crested swimmers.

Horned Grebe

Red-breasted Merganser

It was spring break, so to speak, in terms of bird migration. That was why there weren't that many birds compared to the colder months of the year. 

All in all, we had a good birding experience, low water level notwithstanding.

Once Was Lost.....

Imagine my horror when not a single photo showed up when I was uploading my CF card to the laptop! And to think that the photos I took were of the birds of two of our favorite spots in Orange County - San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary and Bolsa Chica - and also those from our first day in Arizona! My mind raced to what caused such mishap. Perhaps it was when I reset the date in the camera settings. It was still in Philippine time so I changed it to U.S. Pacific Coast time. Or I might have pushed a wrong button. In a state of panic I asked for help via Facebook. Friends responded quickly. Two of them, Jun Osano and Micky Lim, even offered the codes needed to access the data using a specific software. I tried those but somehow it didn't work. Possibly it was because the software was designed for the Sandisk brand whereas my CF card's was Lexar.

Days passed and my heart still couldn't bear the fact that I might have lost my shots for good. Not that there were any photo lifers there, or that Cynthia also took pictures of practically the same birds using her own camera. Still......

I took the CF card to Samy's Camera who quoted me $35 for the recovery process. That afternoon I got a call from them saying they were not able to recover even a single shot from the card. So we went to the store and picked up my damaged CF. Since Cynthia and I are planning to go to Costa Rica in a couple of weeks, I bought a 64GB Lexar CF card which was on sale. At home when I opened the package, voila! there was a code provided should I need to recover a damaged card! After downloading the recovery software we (with my son, Kurt's, help) tried to work it out. Yes, we managed to get some raw files but they were from an earlier session and not those from the Orange County foray.

It was after our trip to Costa Rica and with a lot of time in our hands that I tried to run the software again. This time it was a complete success! What were once lost, now are found!

Here are some of those recovered shots:

American Avocet

Black-necked Stilt

Allen's Hummingbird

Savannah Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

Re-tern to Bluesa Chica

On a bright, sunny Saturday, the place to be is at the beach. It has been awhile since we visited Bolsa Chica in Orange County and sightings of a Little Blue Heron - a California rarity - was incentive enough.

There weren't that many people there when we arrived. Usually, the boardwalk would be filled with photographers of various shapes and sizes wielding lenses of various shapes and sizes. Not this time. Perhaps it was the obvious lack of birds - only terns were whizzing by - or the ridiculously high gasoline prices that prevented my colleagues from visiting this popular place.

Anyway, the first bird that we saw was a Savannah Sparrow. For some reason they were bolder this year. 

Meanwhile, Cynthia was busy capturing a Black-necked Stilt tending its nest.

How can such a long-legged bird sit on its nest? you might ask. Well, here's how:

At the end of the boardwalk, a Least Tern was also patiently sitting on its egg.


As I mentioned earlier, there weren't that many birds along the trail. A Black-bellied Plover was starting to put on it's summer plumage. Marbled Godwits competed with Willets for foraging rights on the mudflats. By the tidal gates, terns of different varieties were having a field day diving for tiny fish.

Somehow, mama duck and her brood of eight managed to evade the dive-bombing terns.

We rounded the trail without seeing the Little Blue Heron. Cynthia needed to answer the call of nature so we drove to the nearest fast food restaurant. "Do you want to return to Bolsa Chica?" she asked me afterwards. It was still quite early, so we did. This time I chucked my big lens and opted for the smaller 300mm. We planned to hike to the mesa and a lighter gear would give my aching shoulders a much needed relief.

Halfway up the boardwalk, I noticed something blue fly by us. It was the Little Blue Heron! Half-running we chased after it until it landed on the shallow part of the lagoon some 30 yards away from the trail. Slowly, it worked it's way northward. About 50 feet ahead, the lagoon would be only a few feet away from trail. Anticipating that the heron would end up there, we positioned ourselves and waited. And waited. And waited. Just as it turned the bend, we started shooting but then the sun was overhead and cast shadows on the heron's blue face. Besides, it was still too far for our short lenses to get a decent shot. I dared not go back to the jeep to get my big lens, pessimistically assuming it would be gone by the time I got back. It was then it decided to fly off towards the tidal gates. We thought of chasing after it, but not knowing where it landed, we both agreed that it was enough that we saw what we came for and still got some "documentary" shots of it.

As we walked back to the parking lot, Cynthia reminded me that we already had some gorgeous photographs of the Little Blue Heron that we took in Texas. No need to get frustrated here, she said consolingly. My wife has always been the voice of reason in a situation like this. Now how can you argue with that?