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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.
The last few days of our stay in California were spent birding familiar places. Birding areas that were close to where we used to live such as Veteran's Memorial County Park in Sylmar where we got some nice looks at the Chipping Sparrow and White-breasted Nuthatch.
Eaton Canyon in Pasadena was the place closest to home and despite harboring a great number of visiting Homo sapiens, was still birdy enough to produce California Quail, the always skulking Fox Sparrow, the winter resident Golden-crowned Sparrow and another winter visitor, albeit uncommon, the Pacific Slope Flycatcher.
Finally, Legg Lake in South El Monte, another park where humanity congregates, also had White Pelicans, Great Blue Herons and Ring-billed Gulls inhabiting its three lakes.
The surprise came after we had our lunch at Waba Grill. As we were driving out under a drizzle, I caught a glimpse of a small brown bird hawking for insects by the wire fence. I asked Kurt to stop and for the next half hour or so tried to photograph the skittish Say's Phoebe. As fitting finale, rain started to fall and a Common Raven dropped by and perched on the same fence where the Phoebe was and protested the cold downpour.
