tijuana river valley & south SD bay rarities 2-19-23
tijuana river valley & south SD bay rarities 2-19-23
By {authorlink} – 4:22 pm
John Dumlao, Rick Grove, Dan Jehl, Martha Wild, and I scouted various spots in the Tijuana River Valley and South San Diego Bay today in preparation for the Birding the Border field trips planned this coming week for the San Diego Bird Festival. Highlights included a male Eurasian wigeon in the Otay River channel just ESE of the South Bay Bikeway bridge just NE off 13th St in IB this afternoon. Farther east from there, viewable from the bikepath just east of the second bridge east from 13th St (near a granola wrapper tied to the chainlink fence, and graffiti on the bikepath pavement) and looking to the NNE, the head of the burrowing owl was visible poking up from within a low spot in the SSE central portion of the expanse of dirt salt in S pond 20 of the saltworks. It was approx 10 ft north of the saltworks maintenance road near the first strip of white salt among the more brownish/grayish saltcrust. (Note that it does not have a consistently used burrow in the area, and yesterday had been seen both in the center of the expanse of dirtsalt and in a cave-like divet along the west-facing bank of the dirtsalt mesa). A merlin was perched in a scraggly mulefat to the south in pond 20A, to the SW of all of the construction activity.
The female vermilion flycatcher continues at the TRV Community Gardens, seen hawking insects from the top of a sycamore and perching on wooden ballards and fenceposts SSW of the intersection of Hollister and Sunset. A rough-winged swallow was foraging over the river at the Hollister St bridge between the Bird & Butterfly Garden and the Community Gardens. A pair of black-throated magpie jays were seen working west to east through the trees along the north edge of the gardens, and earlier a pair with presumably a young of last year (based on tail length and behavior) were along the riparian stretch along the north side of the B&B, including foraging on sapote at the B&B park building.
At the main drip in the Bird & Butterfly Garden, John briefly had the black-and-white warbler and a male Wilson’s warbler. A pair of common ground-dove shifted around near and to the north of the drip (be aware that one of them appears very rosy, but was too scaly and lacking head color to be made into a ruddy).
Earlier this morning at the main Dairy Mart pond, we had 75 white pelicans pass over and a flock of about 40 white-fronted geese go by to the east. A least bittern was vocal in the SE corner of the pond. An immature glaucous-winged gull was among the western gulls on the pond. A rough-winged swallow was among tree swallows over the pond. The northern waterthrush was heard briefly a couple of times on each side of the boardwalk near the second curve north of the main pond, and seen briefly as it flew across the boardwalk & skulked along a low willow branch before disappearing.
The old quarry site SE of the TRV park headquarters yielded rock wren, Calif gnatcatcher, and rufous-crowned sparrow. A Calif gnatcatcher was along the fenceline and just to the south of it, just NE of the pump station on the south side of the road near the west end of Monument Rd and the Border Field SP parking lot and gate. A rufous-crowned sparrow was singing to the SSE of there on the western slopes of Spooner Mesa/east edge of Goat Canyon, SE of the old quarry notch through the ridgeline, near the golden-spined snake cactus stands.
(I had IT issues and my phone died, but ebird lists will be submitted shortly).
Robert Patton
San Diego, CA
The female vermilion flycatcher continues at the TRV Community Gardens, seen hawking insects from the top of a sycamore and perching on wooden ballards and fenceposts SSW of the intersection of Hollister and Sunset. A rough-winged swallow was foraging over the river at the Hollister St bridge between the Bird & Butterfly Garden and the Community Gardens. A pair of black-throated magpie jays were seen working west to east through the trees along the north edge of the gardens, and earlier a pair with presumably a young of last year (based on tail length and behavior) were along the riparian stretch along the north side of the B&B, including foraging on sapote at the B&B park building.
At the main drip in the Bird & Butterfly Garden, John briefly had the black-and-white warbler and a male Wilson’s warbler. A pair of common ground-dove shifted around near and to the north of the drip (be aware that one of them appears very rosy, but was too scaly and lacking head color to be made into a ruddy).
Earlier this morning at the main Dairy Mart pond, we had 75 white pelicans pass over and a flock of about 40 white-fronted geese go by to the east. A least bittern was vocal in the SE corner of the pond. An immature glaucous-winged gull was among the western gulls on the pond. A rough-winged swallow was among tree swallows over the pond. The northern waterthrush was heard briefly a couple of times on each side of the boardwalk near the second curve north of the main pond, and seen briefly as it flew across the boardwalk & skulked along a low willow branch before disappearing.
The old quarry site SE of the TRV park headquarters yielded rock wren, Calif gnatcatcher, and rufous-crowned sparrow. A Calif gnatcatcher was along the fenceline and just to the south of it, just NE of the pump station on the south side of the road near the west end of Monument Rd and the Border Field SP parking lot and gate. A rufous-crowned sparrow was singing to the SSE of there on the western slopes of Spooner Mesa/east edge of Goat Canyon, SE of the old quarry notch through the ridgeline, near the golden-spined snake cactus stands.
(I had IT issues and my phone died, but ebird lists will be submitted shortly).
Robert Patton
San Diego, CA