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Monthly Archives: August 2018

Buena Vista Audubon/ Grande Pelagic 9-19-18 important notice

Hello all,

I just received word that Scott St. (the road in front of H & M Landing) will be closed from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Sunday morning.

If you are booked for the Aug. 19th. pelagic Plan on being at the landing at least 45 mins. ahead of the 7 a.m. departure time and you should be Ok. Allow extra time for parking.

This trip is booked completely full and has a waiting list!

Parking at the landing and surround area is limited and I expect will be very full. Two weekends ago there was over flow parking between the Best Western and Holiday Inn along North Harbor.

That is about three or four blocks from the landings. Requires a credit card for machine payment.

Again expect SCOTT ST. to be closed at 6:30 a. m. Sunday the 19th.

 

Dave Povey

Dulzura

Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports

Sunday August 12 Robb Field and Dog Beach (no Booby)

I scoped the tidal flats at low and incoming tide (Robb Field) and there were two COMMON TERNs   in with over 1000 mid and large-sized terns (most Elegants, some Royals and a dozen or so Caspians.  One Common Tern looked like it was still in complete breeding plumage, the other was still mostly in breeding plumage but the red bill was darker and it had the beginnings of a carpal bar forming.  At about 10 am,  after the huge tern flocks had exploded up, swirled and resettled quite a few times with the incoming tide,  I could no longer find either COTE again (perhaps they went fishing).  Yesterday,  I noted 9 Common Terns at the J St Marina in Chula Vista at about 3 pm.  So as Paul L says, this is a good time to check them out.
 
I then went to the Dog Beach parking lot around 10:15 or so (entrance to lot  near corner of W. Point Loma Blvd and Voltaire), and like the day before, though the place was busy,  I almost immediately found parking in the paved dog beach lot  not far from Lifeguard tower #5 (there is a big turnover, and dog people and their dogs  leaving all the time). The three cars ahead of me also quickly found spaces, as people were backing up to leave.  After parking, you just head  toward the nearby white lifeguard tower #5 and the mini jetty just beyond it,  to scope the Mission bay entrance jetties. This is not a slog– and you don't have to walk through heavy sand to get there–the spot is less than 200ft feet west from where I parked.  That said, no RF Booby seen between about 10:20  and 10:30 today. But then there were fisherman on the jetty, and one right next to the boobies perch next to the ladder and slab of the jetty light at the end. 
 
Susan Smith

Seiurus Biological  Consulting
Del Mar, CA 


—
Susan Smith
Seiurus Biological Consulting
Del Mar, CA
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports

Baird's and Semi and Solitary Sandpipers

On Sunday morning the 12th, the juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper continues in the drawn-down saltworks pond a third of a mile east of the end of 13th Street. Today it seems to favor more the southeast quadrant of the pond. And a juvenal Baird's Sandpiper is present as well, currently in the very southwest corner of the pond. Also three juvenile Lesser Yellowlegs. As expected, the pond is rapidly drying up and will probably be good only for one more day.

Barbara Carlson reports the continuing Solitary Sandpiper this morning in the north county, which had been found yesterday by Tito G.

Paul Lehman, San Diego

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Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports

Solitary Sandpiper : Carlsbad, Calavera Lake 11AUG 2018

I observed a SOLITARY SANDPIPER at 7:10 PM today, 11AUG 2018, on the NE shore of Calavera Lake in Carlsbad. This is a new ebird location for SOSA. While there were only a handful of shorebirds, this freshwater location also produced a LEYE earlier this year at the end of June. Photos are in the following ebird report.

 

https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S47795825

 

Tito Gonzalez

Carlsbad, CA

 

Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports

Agua Dulce 8-11-18

 Trent Stanley & I birded Agua Dulce Creek this morning, 8-11-18. The most interesting development is the number of Wilson's Warblers seen.  Numerous groups of 2-3 birds feeding in the sycamores, cedars and pines.  We saw isolated groups everywhere from the parking area, out to the pump house crossing and back.  Perhaps 25 birds.  No telling how many we saw more than once.

Mountain Chickadees, White-breasted Nuthatches and Pac-slope Flys were in larger than expected numbers at the creek, where there was a bit of flowing water just upstream of the crossing. 

Also seen were:
Cassin's Vireo
American Robin 2
Hairy Woodpecker 3
Nuttal's Woopecker
Flicker
Acorn Woodpecker, as expected numbers
Purple Finch 4
Brown Creeper
OC Warbler 5
Western-wood Pewee 5
Western Bluebird 6
House Wren 3
Junco 15
Pygmy Nuthatch 5
White-throated Swift
Turkey Vulture
Rufus/Allen's Hummers 2
Bush tit 3

Eric Kallen
San Diego
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports

Some suggestions on finding the Mission Bay jetty red-footed booby

I went out yesterday afternoon with some friends to find the RFBO that has been at the end of the south jetty in Mission Bay.
Our experience was that sometimes it sat in the water in the channel, sometimes it flew out to sea a little [especially as fishing boats came back into the channel], sometimes it sat on the north side of the jetty in the shade, and mostly it sat on or near the concrete slab at the end of the jetty. When it was on the slab, it moved around, and frequently was out of sight.

I was able to see the bird distantly in the channel and on the north side of the jetty from Hospitality Point, and it probably would have been visible from the north side of the channel, but at a great distance.
Getting around from one vantage point to another in that area requires a lot of driving.
My suggestion is that you just go to the end of Dog Beach, walk as far out on the sand to the NW as you can, and patiently wait for it to come back to the slab area.
I think when it follows boats in towards Quivira Basin, it soon returns to the tip of the jetty.
Needless to say, a scope is necessary.

Heat haze was terrible yesterday from 2:00-4:30. And it was pretty darn hot out in the sun.

Do note that Dog Beach is filthy, replete with human and canine ordure. I saw dozens of dogs—and even one human—defecating on the sand whose owners did not clean up after them, and anywhere in the public, paved, areas the stench of urine is overwhelming.
Wear a HAZMAT suit if possible.

It might be possible to get a better, although brief, look from the Privateer [San Diego Whale Watch]. You might ask the captain and naturalist to actively look for it, maybe slow down as you reach the end of the jetty.
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Stan Walens, San Diego
August 11, 2018; 11:15 a.m.
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports

San Dieguito Rd. horse pastures & La Jolla Cove

Mid-morning Saturday (8/11), an early Wilson's Snipe was at the wetlands in the Fairbanks Ranch horse pasture, as were a smattering of other, more expected shorebirds. 
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S47783825
Also, at dawn, it was a slow but not entirely unproductive morning at La Jolla cove. Bruce Ridout was there as well, but I think I was the only one who saw a Least Storm-Petrel among the goodly numbers of Blacks. No boobies. 
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S47783629

Happy trails. 

-Gjon

Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports

Incidental pelagic bird sightings off northern Baja California

These are pelagic bird sighting off the coast of Baja California, Mexico. The trip was a fishing trip so all sights were incidental to that.

 

Cook's Petrel   6    –   morning of Aug. 10, 2018 about 30 nautical miles west of Colonet, and some 110 n.miles south of San Diego

Black-footed Albatross-       1- Aug. 5th.  approaching Guadalupe Is.  2- Aug. 9th. south Geronimo Is.,  15+ on Aug. 10th.  30 n.miles west of Colonet.

Pink-footed Shearwater – scattered birds seen on all days except the morning of Aug. 9th. when a concentration of 500 plus were just west of Sacramento Reef.

Black-vented Shearwater   large numbers, perhaps a thousand around the outside of Todos Santos Bay, a few even inside the bay. Perhaps another hundred around Sacramento reef.

Leach's Storm-Petrel  – scattered but most common bird well offshore to within 10 n.m. of Guadalupe Is.

Townsend's, Storm-Petrel-   perhaps 5  or more offshore Guadalupe Is. I am a little loath to call all smallish, dark bright white rumped birds Townsend's without photographs. Though flight style is certainly different, and they're close to their breeding rocks.

Ashy Storm- Petrel    1    well seen 30 n.m. west  of Colonet. I have seen this species off this area on previous trips. This maybe approaching southern limit of summering Ashies

Black Storm -Petrel   relatively few perhaps 50-60 for the trip.

Least Storm-Petrel  NONE!

Magnificent Frigatebird    1   imm. near the Sacramento Reef.  Not expected north of Point Eugene (half way down the Baja Peninsula) Maybe push by Hurricane Javier?

Masked/Nazca Booby   1 imm. near Sacramento Reef

Brown Booby   1 at Guadalupe Is. ( the only species seen there other than a very few Western Gulls ).  1 off Sacramento Reef.

Red-footed Booby    5   !!!     One 20 n.m. out of Guadalupe Is.   Four near Geronimo Is. and the Sacramento Reef. All immature.

phalaropes-  Large groups and scattered individuals around, and in  Todos Santos Bay. Appeared to be mostly or all Red-necked Phalaropes. Offshore I saw a few Red Phalaropes mostly in groups of five or less.

One unidentified jaeger (sp) south of Todos Santos

No Alcid of any sort !

Saw a few hatch year Heermann's Gulls offshore. Many more (dozens) in the Ensenada Harbor.

Elegant Terns were in epic numbers north bound along the coast. More in Todos Santos Bay, and Ensenada Harbor, and Geronimo Is. !

 

Good numbers of Sea Turtles, and new for me a Whale Shark at Guadalupe Is. Yes there were plenty of White Sharks also present and we had a few National Geographic moments with them. Usually at the expense of some ones large hooked tuna.

Dave Povey

Dulzura

Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports

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