Monthly Archives: November 2022

The pair of snow geese continuing as of 11:30, foraging on the
main field south of the tennis courts, dogs notwithstanding.

John Bruin
Bay park

Lisa Ruby
Sabre Springs

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Lisa Ruby
Sabre Springs

There are a number of nocturnal crow roosts scattered around the county at this time of year, but the one at the Bonita Plaza shopping mall in Bonita is especially impressive. My estimate this morning is 4,000 birds. Many of them roost at the actual mall but an even larger number are in the bordering riparian along the Sweetwater River. This really is impressive to see it and I suppose is reminiscent of the movie “The Birds” on steroids. Best time to be here this morning was between 6:00 and 6:20 a.m., although it’s overcast so on a clear day it might be a few minutes earlier. One good vantage point is standing in the parking lot in front of the JCPenney store on the I-805 side of the mall. And even though crows are not the favorite bird of almost all of us, this really is quite impressive and worth seeing, and also would be a good lesson in estimating bird numbers!

I live in the general neighborhood, and the evening flight into the roost is also impressive.

John Walters

Bonita, CA

johnfwalters5552@…

For those that want a good view/photos of 2 Snow Geese they are feeding on the grass on the first baseball field West of the Robb Field park office. 

Mike Wittmer

Escondido 

Update on the Wood Thrush. I’m not sure what time the last sighting
was this morning by the culvert, but as far as I know it did not go
back there for the rest of the day. I got there at around 8:30  and
was told it had been 20 minutes or so since anyone had seen it by
the culvert.

Later in the morning, not sure what time, maybe 9:30-10:00, David
Trissel found it in the creek bed all the way down by Doane Nature
Trail marker 9. Those of us that still hadn’t seen it hung around
that area for a while and then gave up and dispersed.  Some watched
for a while by the culvert.  Jan Nordenberg and I went back to the
marker 9 area and walked up on the Thrush in the creek bed, but it
quickly moved and disappeared on the far side of the creek. That
might have been around 11:00, not sure. Around 11:50  I spotted it
again in leaf litter about a third to halfway up the far side creek
embankment, and a few others saw it before it disappeared. Over the
next few hours it was seen in the creek bed a few times and also up
the far embankment after it left the creek bed. I have some bad
photos with times of 2:17 and 2:19 p.m. from the creek bed. I know
it was seen at least one other time before that in the creek bed.

Nobody ever found it again by the culvert as far as I know. A few of
us think it’s possible that sometime after 2:30 it may have headed
back upstream, but we never got a clear look at what we saw moving
in that direction. We watched carefully as we walked back and I
stood by the culvert for a little while, but never saw it. So maybe
it will appear at the culvert again first thing in the morning,
maybe not. Not an easy bird after early morning.

The Pacific Wrens were active on and off for a lot of the day. Heard
one at marker 9 multiple times, but couldn’t spot it. Some of us got
good looks at one by the creek crossing that is further down the
trail from marker 9. Matt had one of them near marker 7. Hard to say
how many there are. Definitely more than one. Someone thought maybe
as many as four.

Lisa Ruby
Sabre Springs