Famosa Slough, San Diego (Friday, Feb 4, 2011)

I've been meaning to post about our trip to Famosa Slough. Here it is, better late than never! For more about our trip to the Slough, see my trip blog.

The Slough is one the San Diego's birding hotspots. I can't believe I hadn't been there before this. Here are pics of some of the birds we saw. (I didn't realize some of the settings on my camera were off, resulting in some over exposure, sorry!)

Snowy Egret:



Belted Kingfisher (female):



A scaup parade led by an American Coot. I think that the 3rd scaup from the left is a greater scaup, the rest definitely are lesser scaup.



Black Phoebe:



Little Blue Heron:


Lots of ducks: Coot, American Wigeon, two Gadwells.


(We also saw northern pintails, ruddy ducks, blue winged teal, northern shovelers and some mallards.)

Say's Phoebe:



Red-tailed hawk:



Great Egret:



Willet:



Greater Yellowlegs:



Pied-billed grebe and horned grebe:



Blacknecked stilts, american avocets, northern pintails among others. The stilts and the avocets have successfully bred in the Slough the last few years.



Aside from the birds already mentioned, we also saw:

Anna's Hummingbird
Marbled godwit
House finch
House sparrow
Song sparrow
Orange crowned warbler
Yellow rumped warbleer
Northern mockingbird
Mourning dove
Western gull

It was indeed birding heaven. If you are in San Diego, definitely worth a visit! See their website for more information.

-- Posted from my iPad!

Birding San Diego

No photos to post yet of birds, but I have seen a few of the usual San Diego suspects. I haven't really done any birding yet, these are just in passing.

First bird in San Diego (woohoo) was a house sparrow. *rolls eyes*

Also:
black phoebe
double-crested cormorant
brown pelican
anna's hummingbird
brant
western gull

We've also had fun watching the pelicans dive in the channel outside the condo with a gull in hot pursuit, in case the pelicans surface with something!

And, not a bird, but I saw a seal swimming by in the channel this morning.

-- Posted from my iPad!

In San Diego and not a minute too soon!

We had a pleasant flight out to San Diego from Baltimore on Southwest Airlines. Our rowmate was a young mother with a 13 month old boy named Adam. He really was quite good. By far not the worst rowmate we've had. (Did I ever tell you about the woman who was concerned that the change to daylight savings time would cause the earth to wobble on its axis?)

I won't say much about the weather we found when we arrived in San Diego, because I know you don't want to hear it. But a picture is worth a thousand words, they say...



Above, waiting for the rental car shuttle. Below, after picking up the car, we went off to lunch at the Prado in Balboa Park.




The Prado has wonderful fish tacos, I wish I'd taken a picture...but here's a picture of the flan we had for dessert.















-- Posted from my iPad!

More Winter Birding with Renee

There had been reports of a Lapland Longspur (click on link to see a photo by Dave Boltz of the bird in question, at Occoquan) so Renee and I decided to put the long underwear on again to check it out. It was positively balmy by our standards, only 27 degrees when we got out ot the car at the Occoquan National Wildlife Refuge, about 20 minutes south of my house.

There were lots of birders, but no Longspur in sight while we were there. Renee did find a wild turkey roosting in a tree (digiscoped pic below)




It was beautiful and peaceful. We walked to one of the river overlooks and scanned the ice and mud packs. We saw several eagles. Two were roosting in a tree on a little island well out into the river. I digiscoped a picture:



One eagle is at the very top, another is on the right middle part of the trees. A gull is flying by on the left side. The river was incredibily beautiful, snow and ice and all the shades of silver.

It was a great birding morning. We stopped for a light breakfast in the town of Occoquan (I recommend the Blue Arbor) and did a last bit of birding on the river in town.

Here's our list for the day:

Northern Harrier
Turkey
Golden crowned kinglet
Bald eagles
Cooper's Hawk (I think)
Sharp shinned hawk (Certain)
Song sparrows (Renee says I should put this down twice, there were so many of them)
Savannah sparrow
Cardinal
Northern Flicker
Mockingbird
Red winged black bird
Canada geese (one with a almost entirely white head)
Gulls. I'm terrible at gulls.
Red bellied woodpecker
Downy woodpecker (Renee saw these)
Carolina wren (heard)
Great blue heron--several
Kildeer--several
Juncos

On the way to breakfast
Black vultures--about 30 of them roosting in light poles and a tree just next to Route 1)
Turkey vultures--flying with some BVs in the same area
White throated sparrows

Occoquan village
bald eagle
Black vulture
Great blue heron
Gulls--Greater Black Backed, Herring, Ring-billed

-- Posted from my iPad!

Omigawd it's cold--wait, was that a catbird?

My friend Renee and I had arranged to go birding this morning so she could try out my old scope with an eye to buying it. This had seemed like a good idea earlier in the week when we had planned it. Last night, when it was heading to 20 degrees F, it seemed less so. But, given our history of birding together, somehow appropriate. (Renee and I always do a Christmas Bird Count together. Some years, it's the only birding we do together. Last year, it was in the 'teens for the CBC and there was a foot and a half of snow on the ground. This year's CBC seemed balmy, being just under 30. Fred thinks we're both loony.)

So, when Renee arrived this morning promptly at 8:30, we packed the gear in the boot of her Prius and duly headed off to the Jackson Abbott Wildlife Refuge, a little park about five minutes away on Ft. Belvoir's piece of the local wetlands. Despite it being 24 degrees.

It was a short walk through the woods from the parking past the small frozen pond to the wetlands Not surprisingly, no one else was at Jackson Abbott. None of the usual dogwalkers, fishermen or friendly winos were there. Can't imagine why.

There used to be a platform to allow one to study the wetlands, but at some point this summer it was burned rather completely by vandals. Renee and I set up next to the remains of the platform. Here's Renee trying out the scope with the wetlands in front of her and the platform's skeleton next to her. (Click on either pic for a full sized, higher resolution view.)




In between bouts of shivering, we had a pretty good hour of birding:

golden-crowned kinglet in some pine trees to our left
two red shouldered hawks across the wetlands, digiscoped below:


an obliging song sparrow
a downy woodpecker
several white throated sparrows
many juncos
a crow
the ubiquitous canada geese, titmice and chickadees
blue jays (heard but not seen)

and the bird of the day as we walked back around the pond--a catbird, which Renee first spied in a brush with a bunch of sparrows but which I saw too. We are on the far western edge of the catbird's winter range, so that's a pretty good sighting!

(Renee, did I leave anything out?)

Our fingers were numb so we called it a day! I was hoping for some bluebirds, we see them often around the pond, but I'll have to settle for yesterday's sightings in our neighborhood.

-- Posted from my iPad!

Bluebirds aren't just over the rainbow!

Fred and I went out for a walk in the neighborhood today to enjoy the 1/2" of snow while it lasted, and saw three bluebirds hanging out in a yard a few blocks away!














We've not seen bluebirds in our neighborhood before, let alone in the winter, though we're not far from Huntley Meadows, where they are common. They were with a few house finches, which were what originally caught my eye.

So, I learned that they stay here year round (confirmed by the range maps in my birding app.)

A good winter's walk!

Betsy

Eastern Phoebe Nestlings, 3-5 days old...

Pictures from today...the three nestlings are all sleeping with their heads lined up on the right side of the nest. I'm going to try to get some pictures in the morning of them, maybe they'll be awake!

I take these by putting my little video camera on my monopod and holding it up by the nest. The nest is under an overhang, so there's no way to lean out the window above it...

Betsy

Phoebe Nest -- all eggs have hatched!

A picture of sleeping phoebe nestlings from a couple of days ago. This morning I got to see one of the adults feeding the babies, but I had no camera with me!

Phoebe Nest

Not a great video, but I just put the camera up on a stick and took some quick video each day; we're trying NOT to disturb the Phoebes anymore than we have to. The Phoebes built the nest while we were out of town for five days. I'm sure they were surprised when we started bustling about! It's a beautiful nest, with moss and grasses.

I was fascinated to learn that the Eastern Phoebe was the first bird banded in North America. John James Audubon, in 1804, wrapped a silver wire around the leg of a Phoebe to tell if it was the same bird returning each year!

I understand it takes about 16 days for the phoebes to leave the nest, I'll keep you posted and try to get some better pictures!

Eastern Phoebe Nest

We were gone to New Bern for five days. Apparently the Phoebe built the nest while we were gone, thinking she had found a nice quiet place. Cornell Lab of Ornithologyindicates they build the nest in 3-6 days, and that during daylight hours, the female spends about half the time on the nest. We're trying not to use the front door as much...

She'll fly away very quickly if she sees me, I was lucky to get this shot before she flew!

Spring is here

Several pics from the last week or so. A new yard bird for me, an Eastern Phoebe. Poor pic, I know, but it was through the patio glass door, between the railings to the fence between our yard and the neighbors'. He/she was doing that flycatcher thing, and I didn't have much time to get the shot! I've seen the phoebe since, perhaps we'll have a nest near here!

It's always fun to have the hummingbirds back. I didn't have the feeder up yet, but fortunately, these little red flowers were attractive! The feeder is up now, and very busy!

We heard this little guy (no problem there!) and finally found him in my water garden on the deck. That rock and the flat water made quite an echo chamber for him. If I can figure out how to post an audio file here, I will! We had quite a froggy concert that night between our visitor and the frogs around the area!

He was back the next day, but we haven't seen or heard him since. All the other frogs have fallen silent, too, but it's been quite cool at night the last few nights. I believe this is a northern spring peeper.

Occoquan NWR part 2--Great Horned Owl nest

So, this was our goal--a Great Horned Owl nest in a former osprey nest. In a totally open field at the Occoquan National Wildlife Refuge, Occoquan, VA. My friend Renee discovered the nest this winter during one of the huge snowstorms we had. I was thrilled when she said she would take me down to see it!


Renee and another birder check out the nest.

Mama and an owlet. Another owlet is to the right, behind the sycamore branch.

We went on to see some wild turkeys (previous post). It was a great morning! Not a huge number of birds but some very cool ones. And the weather was great! Nothing better than to be out with a friend birding in good weather. (Much better weather than the last time I birded with Renee!)

Occoquant NWR--Wild Turkeys

My friend Renee and I headed down to see the Great Horned Owl nest at the Occoquan National Wildlife Refuge. More on that later. We were driving out of the park after seeing the owls and saw some wild turkeys near the road and had to get some pictures. They were just beautiful, and there were about a dozen of them strung out along a ridge.

It was a beautiful morning with some special birds.

San Diego Bird Festival 2010

I went on three trips on the San Diego Bird Festival this year: Birding by Bike around Mission Bay, "Local Favorites" which went to Lindo Lake, Santee Lake and Old Mission Dam, with my sister-in-law Peg, and a trip to the Camp Pendleton marine base. Here are some pics from those trips and from a trip my husband Fred and I made to Lake Murray.

Cactus Wren. This was digiscoped through the leader's scope. The coastal Cactus Wren is a separate subspecies from say, the Cactus Wren found in Arizona.

Little Blue Heron at the San Diego River from the Birding by Bike trip.

Western Meadowlark, also from the Birding by Bike trip

Brown pelican. This was also a trip by my hubby and me to the Ocean Beach pier. This handsome fellow was waiting for scraps from a fisherman.

I've got a lot more pics, you can see them here:

or here, with captions

Birding Hyde Park, part 2

This mother and duckling (just one!) were stars as people came and went along the Rond Pond.

OK, it's just a starling, but you have to admit it's beautiful. Check out those spots!

This lone shoveler amongst the nmallards did not get much attention from most people but I was delighted to see her.

This is the goose that fascinated me. Again, most ignored it. This is an Egyptian Goose, part of a feral population established now, mostly in the eastern part of England. Some have a bold patch around the eye; too, this one just had a hint. There are various morphs. The pink bill and legs, yellow eye, neck ring, fox-colored back, bold white stripe and black flight feathers all confimed the ID.

Birding Hyde Park

Fred and I spent a quiet morning at Hyde Park. We walked over to Round Pond as there are usually some good birds there.
Female Tufted Duck, above, and male, below.



Mute Swan, there were tons of these!

Greylag Goose. There were a lot of these. There were also a lot of Canada Geese. There was one that looked like a Cackling Goose (like a Canada but with a very short neck), but I suspect was a Canada x Graylag hybrid instead. My picture was not good.