A Golden Day, Bar None

To shake off our jet lag resulting from our recent trip to the Philippines, Cynthia and I decided to chase after the Bar-tailed Godwit at the Upper Newport Bay. We probably arrived a tad too late because the tide was already rising and as such, the rare Godwit usually flies off to the less accessible parts of the bay. Nevertheless, we still waited for about two hours for our target bird to show up, finally giving up at around 11:30 am.

From there we visited nearby San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary. I was walking slowly, a bit dejected from missing the Bar-tailed Godwit (which have been seen by probably every birder in Southern California) when Cynthia yelled "Hawk! Hawk!". She was pointing at some dark object by the edge of Pond C. We have not fully unpacked from our trip and that was the reason I did not have my binoculars with me to check out what my wife was enthusiastically directing my attention at. Peering through my meager 300mm zoom lens, I finally saw a raptor grasping some black thing..barely visible from the pond's edge. I thought it was a dark morphed Red-tailed Hawk. I was still pondering over its identity when it suddenly flew off carrying a dead Coot in its talons. Cynthia and I thought that was the end of it and meandered back to the parking lot, taking shots at whatever interesting bird we find along the way. Near the entrance we saw Thang, a fellow bird photographer, busily shooting something something atop an electrical post. I hurried to where he was and discovered that the "hawk" I saw was now feasting on the dead Coot at the top of the pole. Then I realized that what we were looking at was actually a Golden Eagle enjoying its lunch! This was the first time I have seen this species this close. It stayed up there until all that was left of its meal were a few feathers and some tiny bones. I will now let the pictures tell the story of an Eagle enjoying lunch:

Lunch to go:

Yummy!

Mmmm!

A little stretch after lunch

What goes in.....

I'm outta here...

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A Tern of Fortune

Our birding woes continued to haunt us. Having failed at finding the Solitary Sandpiper last August 15th, two more species of its family made our lives a bit miserable lately. On both occasions we had those “maybe we did, maybe we didn’t” situations. Allow me to elaborate:

Last Saturday my wife and I went to the Los Angeles River to look for Baird’s Sandpipers. There were hundreds of peeps gathered in the distance about of perhaps more than a hundred feet away. To pick out a few paler, longer winged individuals from that group was downright frustrating, especially when the flock would suddenly take off, circle a bit, and land just a few feet where they used to be. We thought we saw a couple of pale birds from the constantly moving throng but without a photograph (did I mention they were too far?) to support our hunch or an expert opinion to confirm the identities of the birds we saw (where are the uberbirders when you need them?), we decided not to include the Baird’s on our list.

I visited San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary in Irvine last Monday. Cynthia has to go to work so I went solo. This time my quarry was a Semipalmated Sandpiper. As Yogi Berra once said, “it’s déjà vu all over again”. There were tons of Westerns and Leasts frolicking at the ponds and to pick out one with a shorter bill among them was an exercise in futility. Even with the arrival of locals Jim and Lucy (with her spotting scope) didn’t do any good. I took some pictures of what I suspected to be the Semipalmated, but the expert who I sent them to couldn’t be 100% sure either.

Earlier in the morning, just to shake off the misery of failing to find the Semiplamated, I wandered off to the other ponds, hoping that my target bird would be there (and easier to spot). While I was scanning the waters at Pond C, a tern kept circling and made various attempts at catching some prey. I didn’t pay much attention to it, as terns are not that unusual here. But then in one of its turns, I noticed that the wings were dark grayish unlike the Forster’s that frequent this place. Now this time I had with me my big 500mm lens mounted on a tripod. This set-up is excellent for birds that stay put. But try it on a fast flying whitish bird and it becomes the epitome of inefficiency. That said, I was able to get a “hail mary” shot – good enough to confirm (thanks to Lucy’s help) that what I saw was a juvenile Black Tern! I think it is safe to say that the Black Tern is as uncommon as a Semipalmated Sandpiper hereabouts. At least my day wasn’t a total loss.




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Some Walking

Last Independence Day Cynthia and I did some walkin' at San Joaquin (did you get that?) Wildlife Sanctuary in Irvine. It was the usual summer doldrums with only a few species to see. The birds were so sparse that fellow birder/blogger Felicia Lee recommended to take "Avocets" to relieve such avian ennui. Sure enough the Avocets and their young at Pond D and E were always a sight to see.

Actually we were hoping to catch a glimpse of the Black Tern that was seen here just recently. Unfortunately only Forster's (and only a couple of them) were foraging the deeper ponds. After some walking (here we go again..) around Pond 2 and the temperature slowly climbing to almost unbearable heights, we were startled by a loud chattering. My wife patiently stalked the source of that sound unsure of what bird is creating such a racket. Finally, she was able to get a photo of what she termed as a "loud brown bird". When she showed the image to me, I realized right away that it was a Yellow-breasted Chat. Of course! With that kind of noise-making, it had to be a Chat! For the next half-hour or so, it played hide-and-seek with us - always uttering it's raucous call while remaining out of sight, hidden among the dense thicket around us. For a few moments it would emerge from hiding, perhaps trying to find out if we have given up the chase, and then would promptly disappear again, still continuing it's taunting vocalizations. It was during one of the Chat's attempts to satisfy it's curiosity that I was able to fire off a few shots at last. Eventually, the heat being a great factor, we got tired of the game and left the loud brown bird to it's own antics.

We were at the parking lot getting ready to leave when we were engaged in conversation by Bob who is a regular visitor at San Joaquin (he comes every Saturday for the past 20 years he said - now that is some walking!). A few minutes later, Jim Rowe came along. We have met Jim several times before and he was the "angel" that showed us the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker at Santiago Oaks early this year. He joined our conversation and related how surprised he was to find a Redhead (a kind of duck - not a Lucille Ball lookalike). Cynthia and I simultaneously exclaimed, "A Redhead? Where?" When he said it was at Pond C, we hastily bade them "adios amigos" and half-ran to the pond referred to.

And there it was in full redheaded glory, standing out from among the Ruddy Ducks and Cinnamon Teals, shining in the noonday sun.






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