Hello Like Before

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.

Walking San Joaquin

The San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary in Irvine is one of my favorite birding spots. It has a very well maintained restroom facility, it doesn't allow dogs, and most of all, it is a birdy place.

We visited San Joaquin early Saturday morning. The parking lot, which occasionally delivers a bird surprise, was unusually quiet. We started our trek at the butterfly garden and enjoying the white flowers of the bower was an Allen's Hummingbird.

Mention San Joaquin to any birder and immediately the Tree Swallow would come to mind. These acrobatic flyers were everywhere. The staff at the Sea and Sage Audubon have placed dozens of nest boxes all throughout the sanctuary specifically for these birds. And in Spring all these boxes were occupied as they were today.

As we rounded Pond 1, an Anna's Hummingbird were staring at us. Other than Song Sparrows and Marsh Wrens that were always heard but seldom seen, there were not much at Ponds 1 and 2. Pond D, however, was a different story. Killdeers patrolled the banks.

Cinnamon Teals and Ruddy Ducks were dozing while Avocets patiently sifted the water with their upturned bills searching for some tiny morsels.

Then I saw them. Phalaropes. In their breeding plumage! In winter these birds are just drab grays with black lines over their eyes, but in spring, they put on chestnut and orange and brown. And what is even surprising (and lucky for us) there were two species of Phalaropes in the same pond - both doing seemingly tireless dipping of their bills into the waters trying to catch an unwary insect. The Wilson's, with it's white crown and cheek and deep rust colored nape competed with the Red-necked, with it's tell-tale red neck and white throat in sheer beauty.

Reluctantly, we moved on to search for other species. Soon an American Goldfinch peeped among the leaves. By the stream, Wilson's and Yellow Warblers took turns in enjoying a quick bath. Warbling Vireos would drop by to check out the action below.

Soon the sun was almost directly above us and the sweltering heat was becoming unbearable. We headed back to the parking lot when I noticed a White-faced Ibis feeding in Pond C. The light from the midday sun shining on it's plumage produced spectacular glowing colors that were a feast for the eyes!

That awesome beauty was a perfect ending to our birding day.

Ibiseeing you

Battling with neck and shoulder pain, (ah, the travails of getting old) I still asked Cynthia that we go birding Saturday afternoon. I wanted to see the reported Wilson's Snipes at the Irvine Civic Center as it would be a lifer for us.

I don't know what happened, but plans changed when we exited Jamboree Ave in Irvine. We ended up at the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary instead. After looking at the various duck species at the ponds, we checked out San Diego Creek (afterall it was in this creek that the snipes were seen, albeit further upstream). Down below was a White-faced Ibis nonchalantly feeding among the Killdeers. We saw this bird as we drove in but when I got off to get a better look at it, it was spooked by a low-flying Red-tailed Hawk. Which prompted my wife to declare that it was a "scared" Ibis - an intended pun against the Sacred Ibis of Asia. Witty, my wife is.

Having gotten some good shots of the wader, we proceeded to Upper Newport Bay to look for the Short-eared Owl. Dipped on that one (although some birders saw it a few minutes after we left). Oh well, c'est la vie. At least we got eye-level shots of an American Kestrel and a very busy Say's Phoebe.

We passed by San Joaquin again on the way home where we met fellow photographer and Blogger Glenn Price & Felicia Lee, respectively, who were just about ready to leave, too.

That evening at Wal-mart (a good place to end a birding day, at least according to my wife), we met fellow photographer Jimmy Chen and his wife Susan. We may not have been that successful in seeing our target birds but meeting friends definitely added nice memories for the day.