Birds and Other Nature Sightings

     After spending a few days in Manhattan Beach, we made it down to San Diego County and were staying in National City, not too far from the Tijuana, Mexico border.  Monday was our first full day there and a day trip to La Jolla was on our schedule.  Before we headed out for the day, I did my usual get up early and take a walk around the vicinity.  Our hotel was right next to the Paradise Marsh area of the San Diego Bay National Wildlife Refuge.  I spent roughly an hour walking about a mile-and-a-half around the area which was mostly a salt water marsh surrounded by chaparral-like habitat.  I picked out 18 bird species, highlighted by American wigeons, northern pintails, Anna’s hummingbirds,  black phoebe, Cassin’s kingbird, several bushtits, lots of white-crowned sparrows and Audubon’s yellow-rumped warblers, a California towhee and a California gnatcatcher. California towhee.   © S. Weiss California gnatcatcher. © S. Weiss After my ...

     On Super Bowl Sunday, we left Manhattan Beach for our next stay near San Diego.  My intention was to take the Pacific Coast Highway to soak in the views of the California coast.  We were to meet my cousin at her home in Encinitas.  She had lived in Kansas City for awhile when she was younger and is a huge Chiefs fan.  We were going to meet up with her to watch the Big Game.  I wanted to take the PCH to San Juan Capistrano, where the PCH hooks up with Interstate 5 (or the 5, as they call the interstates in California).  I thought that would be an interesting place to visit.  San Juan Capistrano is historically linked to the return of swallows to their mud nests on the old mission.  Their return had always been on or about March 19.  We were about a month early, plus restoration years ago supposedly interrupted the swallows annual return.  As it turned out, we were running behind schedule and we had to drive past my int...

     During our stay in Manhattan Beach last week, we took a day trip on Saturday to the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.  The observatory is a free public attraction that looks out over downtown Los Angeles.  The hilliness of the area and its proximity to Griffith Park gave me hope of some birding opportunities.  The drive to the observatory offered scenic views of snow-capped mountains as a background to the tangle of freeways and overpasses that traverse the metropolitan area.  Once we arrived and found a spot to park, we hiked up the hilly paths to the observatory.  At the summit there were panoramic views of downtown LA and the iconic Hollywood sign. Snowcapped mountains in the background along the Los Angeles freeways.   © S. Weiss Griffith Observatory.   © S. Weiss Views from the Griffith Observatory.   © S. Weiss Top left, hills and mountains outside of Los Angeles.  Top right, downtown Los Angeles.  Above, the...

     Last weekend I traveled with my wife and younger daughter to Southern California for ten days.  My daughter planned to attend the Cali Vibes Music Festival in Long Beach.  Since none of her friends were joining her, my wife and I took the trip with her.  The weekend prior to us leaving I watched on our local news casts the Pineapple Express  dumping what they called days of historic rain to California.  The images of overflowing water ways, flooded neighborhoods and mudslides were concerning.  I reached out to my cousin who lives along the coast, between Los Angeles and San Diego, to check on her welfare and to assess the chances of us making it out there.  In her words, it was wet but nothing crazy.  The storm system was pulling out of the area and the coming weekend forecast promised a return to typical sunny Southern California weather. The first stop on our getaway was Manhattan Beach for two days.  Saturday morning, ...

     On Wednesday I submitted another checklist to the eBird database for Island Beach State Park.  This checklist marked the 2,000th consecutive day for which I submitted a checklist.  The first checklist in this streak started back nearly five and one-half years ago on July 28, 2018.  When I reached this milestone, it was no different than any other day that I entered a checklist.  There were no popping balloons and confetti on my screen, like a birthday text message on an iPhone.  There was no congratulatory message from the administrators at eBird or Cornell Lab.  Actually, no one would even know how many consecutive days anyone else has since this statistic only appears on each person’s personal eBird account screen.  If I recall correctly, my friend Larry experienced the same when he reached 10,000 checklists. Screen shot of my eBird home page.  The stats, other than the Days of Checklist Streak , are for New Jersey checklists...

     On Tuesday, my first night back at home after several days down in much warmer Florida, I started getting reports that a Red-flanked bluetail had been seen in Whiting, Ocean County, NJ.  My first impression was, no way .  Red-flanked bluetails are an Asian species, with rare occurrences in the United States.  The only one that I remembered was in Los Angeles in 2019.  I just happened to be in that area with my family then and actually made an unsuccessful attempt to see the bird.  It had been frequenting the grounds at the Clark Library of UCLA.  Since then, though, there have been a few more vagrants to the U. S., but none east of Wyoming. So, my next thought was that someone misidentified the bird.  This happens with some new or casual (or careless) birders, especially when there are no photos to backup such an unusual sighting.  Then photos soon followed, and unbelievably, it was a red-flanked bluetail!  This would be...

     My wife and I took advantage of an opportunity to get away for a few days and flew down to Orlando, FL.  With a pool, gym and shopping outlet within walking distance of our hotel room, she had no problem with me heading out yesterday for a birding jaunt.  So I headed over to Lake Apopka Wildlife Dive.  This is a nice, self-guided auto drive through Central Florida wetlands.  There is no fee to visit the refuge, but it is only open to vehicles from Fridays through Sundays.  The drive is a one-way route, but has pullouts along the rod to allow other vehicles to pass, or allow you to walk around for unrushed views or photographs, just beware of alligators lounging along the road. This is probably the best, most-bang-for-your-buck birding stop in the area.  While I only tallied 46 bird species yesterday, many others eBirded over 70.  The birds move around the refuge, so different times of day offer different sightings. American alligato...