Birding in 2023

Will update this log with notable birds over the course of the year in preparation for the next post

California

Saw Swinhoe’s White-eye in the plants on the bluff above the beach while at the tidepools with our friends. I’ve been interested in seeing that since seeing a few local sightings at locations in town. It is native to south-east Asia but has established itself in Southern California.

Robins

San Diego saw record numbers of American Robins this February. While you might find a few hanging around neighborhoods normally, flocks in the hundreds are very rare. I did get some great pictures of them in the back yard

Feb 26

Had a free afternoon and went birding at the Buena Vista Lagoon and some nearby areas. Ended up with a total of 38 species identified on the day. A Great Egret greeted me from the railing of a dock as I entered the trail. There was an olive-yellow Pacific-slope Flycatcher hanging out behind the fence at Maxton Brown Park which normally isn’t around this early. I also learned to ID Sora by ear. Heard more than one! There were quite a few Allen’s Hummingbirds around everywhere, often fighting for territory.

• reference (for editing only)

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

Some friends invited us to go camping with them out in the Anza-Borrego desert in the far east side of the county. It was a nice drive due east from our house. The recent rains made the hills greener than normal as we drove through the farm valleys, through cattlelands, and into the desert. As we crested the ridge and decended into the desert valley, the land was lush with vegitation like the tall, scraggly Ocotillo bushes, but plants were spaced out, each one staking claim to any moisture in the area.

The campground was nestled up against a steep hillside and densly packed with RVs and trailers. Some birds like the cooing White-winged Dove, croaking Common Raven, and curve-billed California Thrasher seemed to thrive amongst the campers. There were lots of desert species, Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, yellow-headed Verdin, and all-black Phainopepla with a tall crest. From the campground was a nice hiking loop along a rocky creekbed. One of my favorite desert birds is the Black-throated Sparrow which proudly sings from perches and is a bold looking bird for it’s size. But despite hiking for over a mile, and almost an hour, I didn’t see too many birds along the trail. I had more fun looking at all the flowering plants. Desert plants tend to have smaller leaves and flowers than those in wetter climates but they are nonetheless beautiful.

Less than a mile from our campground was a small airstrip. My father-in-law few his small plane in and met us for the afternoon. On the way back we passed flocks of White-crowned Sparrows. But a single, bright orange Hooded Oriole was the star of the day.

The morning before we left, I got up a little earlier and went for a short walk on my own to go birding. My favorite sighting was a Kestrel quietly watching from the ridge above the trail. But I also saw Lesser Goldfinch chatting away right in front of me and a Wilson’s Warbler darting in the brush.

23 species: https://ebird.org/lifelist/L1100233?time=year&year=2023

April 1

Walked around Balboa. Not much activity but saw some Cedar Waxwings chowing down on fruit in the park. Went to Coronado and saw a large flock of Surf Scooters floating on the water just off shore.

Rare bird hunting

In May I joined a local bird watching walk at a costal lagoon just south of town. The birding on the walk was relatively calm, most of the action coming from cliff swallows diving in and out of their nests on the ranger center. After the walk, the guide mentioned there was a rare bird alert for a Baltimore Oriole just down the street but he was too busy to check it out.

Rare bird alerts are sightings birders share of birds not normally seen in the area. Baltimore Orioles are native to the east coast and are only seen in San Diego every few years when one has lost its way during migration. Many birders enjoy the challenge and uniqueness of these bird alerts, but I typically don’t have time to look for a single animal. However, this morning I had a little time to kill before my next activity.

So I looked up the sighting, and headed towards the GPS location. I was surprised to find that it really was right down the street, probably a half mile from our walk. When I arrived, a couple was returning to their car from a walk with their dog and asked if I was there to see the Oriole. We talked briefly and they said someone had seen it in a stand of trees just off the path.

I headed to the area and looked around for a while, not seeing any signs of the bright orange bird. After about 15 minutes, another birder came up asking about the oriole. According to them, the bird had lost it’s tail feathers. We both continued looking, until I spotted something fly into the tree. It took another minute to find it, but there was the oriole hoping around the upper branches! We lost sight of it for a while and I continued looking around, spotting a coyote up on the hill, until another birder called out. He had a camera with a huge lens and had heard the bird’s call on the backside of the tree so we all circled around. I tried to grab a grainy picture of the bird through my binoculars, knowing the picture would be nothing like what the large camera would capture. By this point there was now there were 6 of us watching one bird. Some of the birders seemed to know each other and were catching up on each other’s escapades. I was now running behind on time and headed back to the car. As I left a new couple was arriving with their dog and asked what all the commotion was about. “There’s a rare bird in that tree.” I said. “It’s a Baltimore Oriole. Usually only seen on the East Coast.” They seemed to be more surprised by the people who’d arrived on the scene than the bird’s arrival.

Tahoe (CA/NV border)

Spent a long weekend in Tahoe and loved out time there. We also happened to run into some friends from college and enjoyed catching up with them. I didn’t spend much time specifically birding but the mountain environment provided some nice opportunities. For example, there were several White-headed Woodpeckers outside our hotel in South Lake Tahoe hanging out on tree trunks at eye level. It was a woodpecker’s paradise and I ended up seeing 3 different woodpecker species while we were there.

While on the beautiful Eagle Lake hike near Emerald Cove, I saw my first MacGillivray’s Warbler singing in a short tree with it’s yellow body and gray head. When we got to the lake we hung out for a while on the shoreline. A bold Steller’s Jay kept checking us out and was often 6 feet away in the tree above me. It is probably to handouts which is a problem, but it did make for a memorable experience.

I also logged a handful of birds over the border in Nevada. An unexpected one was the Peregrine Falcon that chased off some Canada Geese towards dusk. Even compared to the large geese, the falcon’s streamlined body still looked big.

On our way out of town, we met up with one of Bekah’s relatives in Tahoe City and walked along the river there. It was a nice spot and I got a few pictures of a Western Wood-Pewee. It was feeding a juvenile and even chased off a scrub jay. The highlight though was a beautiful male Evening Grosbeak that flew across the river carrying a green catapillar in it’s mouth in a flash of yellow, black, and white.

Mexico

Stayed a night in Tijuana to visit some friends from Puebla who had come to the embassy (consolute?) there. It was really good to see them and catch up. I didn’t really do any birding but logged a couple while waiting in line at the border for 3 hours. I think our friends got home faster than we did even with a commercial flight!

Colorado

Park:

• Great horned owl pair up close
• Red tailed hawk nesting
• Hummingbird (lifer)

Paris

Towards the end of the summer, I visited France for the first time and spent a week walking around Paris. I saw lots of Carrion Crows, Rock Pigeons, and European Starlings all over the city, usually looking for handouts. Less populous, but still common were the large Wood Pigeons that would often perch conspicuously in park trees. Of the places we went, my favorite place to watch birds was the Jardin des plantes. It was a beautifully maintained park with a cool tropical greenhouse. Next time I’d love to check out the small zoo there too. I saw (or more often heard) Rose-ringed Parakeets in several places around the city, but in the garden I found one crawling into a possible nesting cavity in a tree, at one point only it’s long green tail sticking out.

I was surprised with how few House Sparrows I saw considering how prevalent they are in American cities. There were some in a park across from Notre Dame but hardly any anywhere else. For a week in the city, I saw relatively few species on this trip and I would have liked to spend more time focused on birding. Now that I’ve gotten a taste of Paris, it would be great to come back to France and check out more of the country.