A Tale of Two Sites

It was the worst of times and it was the best of times. It was hot and it was cool. There were no lifers and there were several lifers. There were unhappy birders and there were happy birders.

Pardon me for going a bit Dickensian with this blog. It's just that the contrasts between two birding sites in two consecutive days seemed to recall the opening lines in Dicken's "A Tale of Two Cities".

My wife took a day-off on Friday, Oct. 17th. We had originally planned to go to the Solvang/Santa Barbara area for some R & R and of course to go birding as well. Maybe garner a couple of lifers such as the Yellow-billed Magpie and the Chestnut-backed Chickadee. But fate had a way of making even the best laid plans go awry. Around 4 am on Friday, I suffered some stomach pain and it kept me bedridden until about 9 am when the medicine I took finally relieved me of my discomfort. Cynthia and I both agreed that the Solvang trip was now out of the question. Checking the birding listservs at Yahoo, I discovered that two rare Pipit species (Sprague's and Red-throated) were located at the Santa Fe Dam that very morning. I convinced my wife that I was well enough to go birding. Besides Santa Fe Dam wasn't that far from home, so in case my stomach trouble returns, we can quickly go back to our apartment. I also told her that we can still go to Solvang the next day.

Thus began a terribly bad birding day for us. We stayed at the dam from 10 am to about 6 pm, taking only an hour's break (3 to 4 pm) to visit the nearby Wal-mart for a quick snack. All through those hours we endured the heat and buzzing insects without seeing even a glimpse of either Pipit. Even the birds were few, except for the Western Meadowlarks which we didn't even bother to photograph. Local twitchers came and went, each one experiencing sheer frustration as we did. We went home exhausted and despondent that evening.
That night as I was once again trolling the listservs for birding information, I was intrigued by the report that not one, but two, Black-throated Blue Warblers were sighted at Galileo Hills. As far as I'm concerned, Black-throated Blues are one of the most beautiful warblers there is. And they are extremely uncommon in California. We chased one at Beverly Hills last year but all I got was a look that was shorter that the blink of an eye. Cynthia had probably a split-second longer sighting of the lovely bird. Because of those fleeting views, I did not consider it as a lifer at that time. Seeing it again and photographing it this time would finally make it to our lifelist. So, in my most charming way, I sweetly asked my beautiful, understanding wife that we once again postpone our trip to Solvang and go to Galileo Hills instead on Saturday. To my joy and relief she agreed. Telling her that my birthday was coming soon probably helped, too.
Perhaps in some obscure history of the area, the place was once called Galileo Hills but now it is the Silver Saddle Resort and Spa. It is a veritable oasis in the middle of a desert. Although privately owned, the owners are graceful enough to allow birders in their expansive grounds which contains several lagoons and ponds, a Skeet range, an Archery range, a Petting Zoo, horse stables, and a Pavillion where the functions and parties are held. Yet somehow among birders, the place has always been referred to as Galileo Hills.

We left the apartment at 6 am. We did our "traditional" breakfast at MacDonalds at the city of Rosamond and arrived at Galileo Hills at 8:30. At first, the place seemed quiet, birding-wise. We walked over to the grassy area next to the Skeet range where one of the Black-throated Blues was last seen. But we didn't find it. We then ambled to the lagoon where a lone, juvenile Double-crested Cormorant looked perplexed.

We met Gary, a birder from Bakersfield, who told us where to find our quarry and added that there was also a Swamp Sparrow "close to the Pavillion". We thanked him profusely and headed to the direction he provided us. Along the way, we chased a bunch of Sparrows (mostly White-crowned) and Dark-eyed Juncos (including the Slate-colored subspecies) next to the Archery range and came upon a tiny pond that harbored a young Ring-necked Duck which definitely looked incongruous to the place.

We returned to the grove of trees across the hotel parking lot and met Mary & Dermott Lumkins who immediately pointed the Black-throated Blue Warbler flitting among the lower branches to us.

Just as we were firing away, Mary then diverted our attention to the tiny and energetic Golden-crowned Kinglet foraging a few trees away

In a span of fifteen minutes we racked up two lifers in a row!
Encouraged by our two lifers, we proceeded to the Pavillion area. The rosemary bushes alongside the Pavillion yielded Orange-crowned and Yellow Warblers. I thought I saw a Tennessee Warbler, but since I wasn't able to take a picture of it, I can't be sure. On the other hand, a Fox Sparrow gave me some good photo ops.

Soon Nick and Mary Freeman, birders from Glendale, came. Nick showed me where the Varied Thrush hangs out and sure enough, it was there. The Varied Thrush is another colorful, albeit uncommon bird here, although it was not a lifer for us - we've seen it before at San Diego back in 2005.
At noon we took a break and had corned-beef sandwiches and Coke for lunch. Although Silver Saddle had a restaurant, we thought it will be a lot cheaper if we brought our own provisions. Also, we learned our lesson from yesterday where we almost got dehydrated because we failed to bring along even a single bottle of water. Just as we were enjoying our lunch at the picnic table, the Black-throated Blue alit on a branch above us just to say "hello".

After lunch Cynthia loitered around the picnic area while I tidied up and returned our lunchbag to the Jeep. As I walked back to where my wife was, she pointed at the base of a tree and said: "Nutmeg!"

"Nutmeg Mannikins?" I asked skeptically.

"No!", she said, still pointing at the tree trunk, "Look!"
I looked and I saw a Red-breasted Nuthatch (the Lumkins told us about them, too). My wife, when excited at seeing a gorgeous bird for the first time, has this habit of christening the creature with a new name - like calling a Moorhen a Moorhouse. Unfortunately, we were unable to get a shot of the Nuthatch, but it still counted as our third lifer of the day.
Later, Mary and Dermott came and excitedly told us that they saw the Swamp Sparrow at "the tiny pond with some rocks next to it and a willow tree nearby." But you have to be patient, they warned us. Needless to say, we immediately went to the said pond and sat on the grass in front of it and waited. For almost an hour. As we stood up thinking the little brown bird would never show up, I saw something move next to the rocks that the Lumkins mentioned. "Swamp Sparrow", I whispered to Cynthia. For the next quarter-hour or so, our fourth lifer obliged for some picture-taking sessions.

We then tried to take a few more shots of the Varied Thrush, which was quite a challenge, it being very skittish.

Back at the picnic area, we once again met up with the Lumkins. While Cynthia was engaged in some bird-talk with them, I saw an American Robin fly to the ground. Not far from it were some White-crowned Sparrows. However, there was a bird among them that looked different from the rest. It was very pale, like light beige, and unlike any sparrow I've seen so far. That unidentified sparrow capped a very exciting, fun day.

As Cynthia was talking to Mary, she related to her that we actually planned to go to Solvang, but decided to come here at Galileo instead. "But I'm glad we came here," she confessed to the Lumkins. I pretended not to have heard it but I was grinning from ear-to-ear as I photographed my mystery bird. - and a potential fifth lifer for the day.

Dip and Drip

It had been quite a while since we seriously birded. At first we were still “getting over” our Hawaii trip and then I was under the weather for some time. Saturday, October 15th, we decided to drive down to San Diego on a two-fold mission: to bird Pt. Loma and to recover some of my clothes. Allow me to explain the latter. When I visited the Philippines last year, I left behind some clothes at Cynthia’s place (they were still being laundered at the time of my departure). Since then Cynthia had been trying to have those pieces of my apparel brought over by someone – anyone - who is coming over to the States. That finally became a reality when her aunt who attended Cynthia’s Tio Totoy's funeral, had the space to carry my clothes over. Her aunt of course, lives in Poway in San Diego County.

It was a bright and sunny morning when we left Pasadena. The moment we entered San Diego County, the skies suddenly turned gray. Undaunted, we continued on to our scheduled first stop – the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. Cemeteries are always good places to bird - the local residents don’t bother the birds at all. As we were getting off our car, another car pulled over next to us and disgorged two gentlemen birders/photographers. My kind of people, I told Cynthia. In a short while, all four of us were in a part of the cemetery called the “Dip” because the relatively level ground “dipped” slightly towards a ravine. There we joined several birders in looking up a eucalyptus tree. “Grace’s Warbler”, one of the birders whispered as he pointed to a tiny object flitting among the leaves 30 feet up. Training my binoculars to the constantly moving bunch of olive green feathers, I smiled as I saw my first lifer of the day.

We continued roaming the cemetery grounds and saw the usual birds – Black Phoebes, and their more colorful cousins, Say’s Phoebes, a bunch of House Finches and Yellow-rumps, and a Townsend’s Warbler, not as rare as a Grace’s, but pretty nonetheless. 

As we were getting back to the parking area, one of the birder/photographers we met earlier (we went separate ways after seeing the Grace’s Warbler) told us that he saw a Varied Thrush. Now not only is a Varied Thrush a colorful bird, it is also quite rare in southern California and this is one bird that I’m dying to see. We vigorously searched the area where the guy said he found the thrush but it was a no-show. Soon birders from the San Diego Audubon who also heard the news came and searched high and low but didn’t find the bird either.

Trying to stick to our schedule, we decided to go to the Cabrillo National Monument further down the road. After paying the $5 entrance fee (good for one week, we were told) we proceeded to the visitor’s center and inquired about the “Drip”. The drip is the one place at the park where birds are guaranteed to be seen. It is so called because in the middle of a clump of myroporium bushes is a faucet that drips into a red dish. This is where birds drink and bathe. We were informed that it was located not far from the visitor center so I grabbed my camera gear (with my 500mm lens) and rushed over to the “Drip”. We were surprised that there were already a flock (no pun intended) of birders there (many we already met at the cemetery).

I set up my equipment alongside the birders and their scopes and pointed my camera to the dripping faucet. Already bathing were a family of House Finches. Then coming in succession were the White-crowned Sparrows, Fox Sparrows, Orange-crowned Warblers and the highlight of the day, Golden-crowned Sparrows. 

The rarer Clay-colored Sparrow and Green-Tailed Towhee were both absent. At about noon, and not seeing anything unusual, the birders slowly dissipated, us among them.

We decided to give the cemetery one more try (it’s along the way anyway, we rationalized) and see if we can find the Varied Thrush. There were still a group of birders there, holding a vigil for the now intriguing bird. After a couple of false alarms, one of the lady birders shouted, “There it is! There it is!” We all rushed to where she was and looked at the area of the fence that she was pointing to and sure enough, there it was, my second lifer of the day! 

With hearts pounding and stomachs growling we finally went and had lunch at Arby’s. Somehow something as blasé as a roast beef sandwich seemed like a gourmet entrée when you just notched 2 lifers in half-a-day’s birding.

We arrived at Poway a little after 2 pm. After some family talk and being incredulous at the low rent rate that Tito Ramon and family were paying for their apartment ($375.00 a month for 2 bedrooms!) we said our goodbyes and left at around 3 pm. With still enough time to do another quick birding, we checked out a place called Blue Sky Preserve also in Poway. Other than a few Yellow-rumped Warblers, we saw nothing but blue skies (maybe that’s why this place was so named). On the way home we stopped by West Covina and had dinner at Salu-salo because Cynthia had this hankering for Pilipino food. To top off the evening we had fun dipping eggrolls in their sauce and seeing them dripping as we popped them into our mouths. Dip and drip – what a day today was!