Tijuana Estuary – Ferruginous Hawk

Early this morning I walked along the South McCoy Trail and scoped the fields around the helicopter base. Very few birds. Most interesting subject was a juvenile Ferruginous Hawk, a species that doesn’t occur right along the coast very often.

Later I walked to the Tijuana River mouth. A large feeding flock of birds was fairly close to shore, and at times actually came inside the breaker line. When I arrived the flock was about even with the end of Seacoast, but quickly drifted south to the river mouth. It was mostly cormorants, with at least 100 pelicans, some loons, Western Grebes and at least 3 Brown Boobies. One of the boobies was a male with a frosted head and neck. One seemed to be an adult with a bit of frosting just on the forehead. The third individual had a duller colored belly. There could have been more than 3 boobies as the feeding flock spread out over quite a bit of area. On the shore inside the river mouth, a nice-sized flock of Red Knots was clustered with the Black-bellied Plovers. The Pacific Golden Plover was mixed into the group of knots. Scope views for all of the above.

Nancy Christensen

Ramona