Headed
west on this chilly morning, looking forward to the first Salineño feeder visit
of the season! We headed for the
“Seedeater Trail” first, after a quick look at the Rio Grande that nailed us
Neotropic Cormorants and a distant Osprey.
I heard a Ringed Kingfisher way
downriver, and was not surprised that I couldn’t spot him… Things were very
quiet along the trail except for one feeding flock that had several Red-winged
Blackbirds, a Black-and-white Warbler, and a few Orange-crowned Warblers, but
the star of that show was the
Blue-headed Vireo that came down to say hello!
A pair of Long-billed Thrashers and an Audubon’s Oriole drove us nuts by
vocalizing but not allowing any views at all, but a little Lincoln’s Sparrow
was more cooperative. At the cul-de-sac
we found another Osprey eating breakfast, plus a little pod of Least Sandpipers
(I had spooked a Spotted when walking to the edge). Suddenly I heard the splat of a Green Kingfisher, and we initially spotted him on a
white stump across the river, but then he took off and everyone thankfully saw
him fly! When he landed again we were
able to get the scope on him for distant but passable views! An invisible Gray Hawk was yelling during all
of this…
Checking out a feeding flock along the Seedeater Trail
Mariana and Andy at the cul-de-sac
Back
at the car Michael and Chamois the Rescue Dog were down at the boat ramp,
shortly to be joined by John and Sue, the Santa Ana bird walk volunteers! Michael also confessed it was very quiet, but
a pair of distant ducks finally flapped their wings so I could confirm them as
Mexicans, and a dark blob on top of a dead tree on the island proved to be the
Gray Hawk (and a Red-shouldered was also yelling in the distance just to
confuse things…)! Mariana found a baby
turtle – probably a Red-eared Slider – and Michael mentioned that even they’ve been scarce along the river!
Baby Red-eared Slider
Andy
and Mariana opted to walk up to the feeders while I moved the car up there,
and shortly we were reunited with Merle and Lois, the ever-faithful feeder
stockers (I had brought along some “oriole bait” J)! They also admitted that things had been slow;
in fact the Audubon’s had only come in once to look during the whole season but
never stayed to eat! We hung around for
an hour; Green Jays and House Sparrows were out the yin yang, but a little
patient waiting finally let us get looks (and pictures) of the Long-billed
Thrasher! Both a Golden-fronted and
Ladder-backed Woodpecker gave brief looks, and an Olive Sparrow made an
appearance within the mob of Houses! A
Bewick’s Wren sang off stage, and titmice came in to steal a seed and then
steal away. An Orange-crowned Warbler
finally screwed up the courage to eat some peanut butter mixture, but at long
last, we heard the choip and happy
whistle of an Altamira Oriole, and he came right in and put on a great
show! The White-winged Doves finally
came en masse, with a couple of
White-tipped Doves giving great looks. I
was hearing two Gray Hawks whistling to each other, so I got up to see if I
could spot them, but got distracted by Merle’s “butterfly collection” of bugs
that had just expired with the cold; one of them was a smart Southern Dogface
that we all took pictures of (you don’t often see that great dorsal
pattern)! At the end of the hour, we got
up to leave but the oriole kept coming back as though enticing us to stay! And looking back on it, what started off slow
actually turned out to be quite active!
Green Jays
Long-billed Thrasher
Altamira Oriole
Orange-crowned Warbler sneaking a bite
White-tipped Dove
Nice look at the dorsal side of a deceased Southern Dogface
Andy, Mariana, and Merle
From
there we headed down the Dump Road which was also quiet (best bird was a close
Harris’ Hawk; I think we all got distracted by lively conversation J), then headed in
to Falcon State Park. We had a brief
look at a female Pyrrhuloxia on the entrance road, and nice wire birds on the
way in included Eastern Bluebird and both Chipping and Lark Sparrows! But Andy (I think it was) spotted the best
bird: what I thought was an Eastern
Phoebe at first morphed into an Ash-throated Flycatcher! They’re definitely there in the summer, but
most clear out in the winter.
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Crawling
around the park we’d run into occasional feeding flocks with Orangecrowns,
Yellow-rumped Warblers (aka Butterbutts), Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and Blue-gray
Gnatcatchers. At one flock I thought I
had a Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, but the next gnatcatcher to pop up was
definitely Blue-gray, so I thought I was losing my mind… But then another, duller gnatcatcher gave a
harsher call, and showed much black under the tail – we did have the Black-tailed after all! We tried to pull a Verdin out, but to no
avail… About four Couch’s Kingbirds
posed on a wire, and crawling around the primitive camping area got us talking
about kayaks as we saw a jeep with two of them strapped to the roof! After that we headed down to the boat ramp, not
picking up much of anything until going “four-wheeling” down into the overflow
area: an Eastern Meadowlark sat up
singing, and along the water’s edge we had several coots and the occasional
egret and Laughing Gull floating past.
The jeep with the kayaks had passed us and were putting in down in the
flat, grassy area, but we turned around as the track was getting a little
dicey.
Couch's Kingbird
Eastern Meadowlark
We
did happen to see a Caracara power by with a stick in his mouth, but the picnic
area was also disappointingly quiet; we parked at the end and walked the little
loop towards the water’s edge where we again ran into the kayakers and a large
flock of Blue-winged Teal. A Great Egret
posed for pictures, and a Belted Kingfisher rattled in the distance for a
Kingfisher Trifecta (at least heard J), but that was
the extent of the bird life…
Andy shoots a Great Egret (below) in the picnic area
I
decided to swing through the powered campground in search of feeder birds, and
that was a little more productive: a
group of Pyrrhuloxias bounced up and gave everyone great views (until we
slammed the car doors L), and near the end of the campground loop,
I was despairing of seeing any Roadrunners until one materialized right in
front of us! Thankfully everyone got
great looks (and even a few “through the windshield” photos)!
On
that note we headed home with 69 species for the day, but not before witnessing
a family of Javelina crossing the road on the way out! Bird list:
Blue-winged
Teal
Mexican
Duck Lesser Scaup
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Common Ground-Dove
White-tipped Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Greater Roadrunner
American Coot
Least Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper
Laughing Gull
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Harris's Hawk
Gray Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Ringed Kingfisher
Belted Kingfisher
Green Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Eastern Phoebe
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Couch's Kingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo
Green Jay
Black-crested Titmouse
Verdin
House Wren
Bewick's Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
Curve-billed Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Olive Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Eastern Meadowlark
Altamira Oriole
Audubon's Oriole
Red-winged Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Black-and-white Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Pyrrhuloxia
House Sparrow
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