Thursday, October 22, 2015

Southern California Birding (Part 2)

     The second half of my CA trip wasn't exactly as birdy as my first half but I racked up what I could wherever I could. The morning after my pelagic excursion, I went to the beach with my family and we walked along the shore. While I was near some chaparral habitat I heard the distinctive song of the Wrentit (lifer)! The bird was calling from across a lagoon so I didn't see it but I sure knew what it was! While we continued walking along the shore a Whimbrel posed to be photographed.

Whimbrel

Once we reached the end of our walk we headed back in the same direction.While we walked by the spot where I heard the Wrentit I kept an eye out and after a little waiting one came out for amazing views!

Wrentit



Once we were done with the beach we drove over to my mom's cousin's house. Luckily her house is right next to a hill full of great oak habitat, yeah, you know where I'm going with that! So with great habitat comes great birds and great birds are what I saw!  For example, this California Thrasher and Oak Titmouse.

California Thrasher

Oak Titmouse


Both the CATH and the OATI were photo lifers for me, so I was excited to finally photograph these bush-dwelling birds. While I was birding on the hill I heard some weird flight calls which I had never heard before, and after trying to get a look at the birds that were calling I finally got a good enough glimpse to see that they were Scaly-breasted Munias! The SBMU is an exotic finch that has built a population in California. I was not expecting to get this bird on this trip but lifers are usually unexpected.

Scaly-breasted Munia



The next day was my last day of spotting any "cool" birds. We started off with hiking a boardwalk and before we even reached the ocean I spotted my 17th lifer of the trip, a Surf Scoter!

Surf Scoter

The SUSC was my last lifer of the trip ending my CA trip with 17 lifers was awesome, especially since I was hoping to get 10! Before I end the trip let me show you some more of Southern California's birds!

Pelagic Cormorant


Western Gull


Heerman's Gull

Yes, my California trip is done, but wait what is that?! Another trip to So Cal coming up???

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