Monday 2 March 2015

California 4th February 2015

We took a trip up to Tijuana River Estuary first thing in the morning. It was extremely foggy here to start with but it gradually burned off. The main target was the recently split Ridgway's Rail. This species has been split from Clapper Rail. We managed to see a few of the rails in the saltmarsh and even had two swimming across a large tidal creek. The photos are up to much due to the distant and the fog. It was a great spot for other wetland birds such as Long-billed Curlews, Hudsonian Whimbrels, Marbled Godwits, Willets, Reddish Egret and Little Blue Heron. Off the sand dune we also had a nice male White-winged Scoter in amongst the many Surf Scoters and divers.

"Beldings" Savannah Sparrow

Ridgway's Rails

Ridgway's Rail

Ridgway's Rail

Western Meadowlark
We then moved onto Tecolote Canyon to try to get a few of the remaining California specialities that we were still missing. The one obvious omission so far was California Thrasher. We got some good views of several of these along with Allen's Hummingbird, Cedar Waxwing, California Towhee and Lincoln's Sparrow amongst others.
 

Allen's Hummingbird

Audubon's Warbler

Audubon's Warbler

Black Phoebe

California Thrasher

California Thrasher

California Thrasher

California Towhee

Cedar Waxwing

Cedar Waxwing

Northern Mockingbird with damaged upper mandible.

Song Sparrow

We were now had come to an end of our time along the Pacific Ocean and after Tecolote we started to head back East over to Salton Sea. On route we had a rest stops and at one of these - Jacumba we had good views of Roadrunner and Cactus Wren in the immediate environ of a petrol station along with the US - Mexican border fence only a short distance away.


Cactus Wren

Greater Roadrunner

Greater Roadrunner

Greater Roadrunner

US - Mexico border-fence

In the last one or two hour of daylight we arrived at the amazing Salton Sea. This inland saline "sea" is an extremely productive site for waterbirds. Ruddy Ducks, Black-necked Grebes and Ring-billed Gulls were probably the most numerous species. We would spent the next two nights in Brawley town.


Black-necked Stilts

Black-necked Stilt

Burrowing Owl beside it's burrow.

Burrowing Owl

Brown Pelican


American White Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant

Double-crested and Neotropic Cormorant
Double-crested and Neotropic Cormorant
 
Least and Western Sandpipers

Least and Western Sandpipers
 

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