Here and There Birding

My bad luck seemed to continue as I consistently dipped on my target birds the past couple of days. Fall migration is in full swing and there were a few reports on migrating warblers passing through the San Gabriel Valley area.

When I went to Eaton Canyon last Monday morning, my expectations were really not that high. So I just challenged myself to take a picture of every species I saw. After a couple of hours, I saw about 16 species and had photographed 13 - 3 of which are not good enough for my standards. Among the better shots are: A young Anna's Hummingbird whose head seemed like it was dipped in grape jelly...

Tuesday morning I headed to Legg Lake. At the area where we found the Bay-breasted Warbler last year, various kinds of warblers, including a rare Lucy's, were reportedly seen. Of course when I got there, there wasn't a single bird at all. Not one! To console myself from such disappointment, I wandered around the lake and even visited nearby Whittier Narrows, hoping for some sort of redemption. Thankfully, there was. At a tiny puddle of water in Whittier Narrows, an Anna's Hummingbird, unable to stand the sweltering heat, decided to take a bath.

Soon it was followed by an Orange-crowned Warbler, finally showing why it was given such a name.

I returned to Legg Lake shortly after that, where I encountered a group of birders staring at a young Red-tailed Hawk, uncharacteristically perched low on a high tension wire tower.

I joined the group for a few minutes as they searched vainly for the warblers as well. I even managed to show them a young Bullock's Oriole who tiptoed to look at the bunch of gawking people below.

The heat of the day and the disappointment of not seeing some unusual warblers were both getting to be quite unbearable, so at 10:30 am I called it quits.

One Morning in Spring

The doldrums of the past week have to be shaken off. Once again the price of gasoline soared to ridiculous heights thereby making trips to my favorite birding haunts economically unfeasible.

But I have to go birding. What's more I need the exercise. So off to Whitter Narrows I went Wednesday morning. It was a beautiful day with just a touch of nippiness to make long hikes pleasant.

I started off at the Whitter Narrows Nature Center where I immediately saw an Allen's Hummingbird enjoying the morning sun. 

The Lesser Goldfinches were also busy having breakfast. 

Other than the usual House Finches and Butterbutts, I didn't see much of anything else.


At the Legg Lake area, there were more birds variety-wise but still nothing unusual. What got my attention was the Great Blue Herons building nests high on the treetops. The male would bring in some broken off branches from somewhere, give it to the female who then sticks it in to the nest platform. 

The Cormorants likewise were building their nest - sometimes on the same tree as the Herons.

The duck population were now down to the native Mallards, a few Northern Shovelers and one or two Cinnamon Teals.
Herons and Cormorants nesting and wintering ducks almost gone, it must be spring.

Whittier Narrows

The air was nippy that Saturday morning we arrived at Whittier Narrows . The sun seemingly reluctant to wake from its slumber. It was uncharacteristically silent as we hit the trail that passes by a small pond.

Further down the trail I saw a bird perched on the top of tall bush. Without her binoculars (she lent it to my niece who was with us that day) Cynthia started ticking off possible ID’s:

“Kestrel” “Nope”

“Mourning Dove” “Guess again”

“What is it, then?” she asked, finally giving up.

“Northern Flicker”, I replied.

I tried to move closer to get a better angle, but as soon as I set up my tripod, it flew away. Not a good start I thought to myself.

We moved on and came upon a dried up pond. Just as we descended into it, the sun finally broke through from the horizon and flooded the thicket in front of us with its warm light. As if on cue, birds were suddenly everywhere! The particular bush where I focused my camera produced in quick succession: Song Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, House Finch, Allen’s Hummingbird, Lesser Goldfinches and Anna’s Hummingbirds. Several feet away from me, Cynthia was stalking an American Robin. A flock of Bushtits flew by.

Our return route took us alongside a creek by the San Gabriel River . There we spotted a hawk quietly perched on a bare branch of a tall tree. It allowed us some photo ops before flying off on some avian errand. Continuing our stroll by the creek, we were startled by the scolding call of a Belted Kingfisher as it flew across the river. We tried to relocate it later but it was nowhere to be found. San Gabriel River yielded a few Killdeers, one Spotted Sandpiper and the ubiquitous Mallards. A great Egret soared silently close to us.

At 9 am, we called it a day, hied to the nearest Golden Arches and indulged in our usual Saturday morning routine.