California Day 3: Coast to High Desert

It may just be me, but it seems as if the bird bloggers I follow are more productive than usual... hopefully because they're all self-quarantining in their own homes like good members of society. I'm no exception- currently sheltering in Michigan after the situation in Washington DC seemed like it was only going to get worse in the near term, and the middle of the north woods seemed like a safer bet. The weather is colder of course, but I can walk for miles outside without encountering another soul, and take birding breaks since everything in my life is now being carried out online. Of course, the other upside is more time to work on my birding blogs, which is good considering I'm still grievously behind. 

I spent my first two days in SoCal in the Los Angeles area, exploring various city parks and getting some easy Western US specialties (and some of the harder ones too). The plan for the next days was to head eastwards over the Coast Range to the Salton Sea, where some good water birds and desert birds could be found. First, though, there were some coastal birds I wanted to see around LA that couldn't be seen further east. Chief among those was California Gnatcatcher, an uncommon and declining bird found only on a narrow strip of land on coastal California and Baja California in Mexico. Since I didn't have any trips to Baja planned in the near future, I was hoping to see it here instead. 

I decided to stop at Crystal Cove State Park in southern Orange County, between Los Angeles and San Diego, as that had had recent eBird reports of the gnatcatcher. As it turned out it was $10 an hour to visit there (ah, California), so I resolved to look around relatively quickly. That was unfortunate, as it actually ended up being one of the best birding places I visited during that trip. It was early morning when I got there, and the birds were singing, especially the ubiquitous White-crowned Sparrows. Soon after I had great views of a displaying male Anna's Hummingbird and a singing House Wren. A California Thrasher perched briefly out in the open, giving me much better views than I'd had of it previously- one of my favorite California birds.

Anna's Hummingbird

A young White-crowned Sparrow

House Wren

California Thrasher

Common Side-blotched Lizard, the only reptile of the trip

Some kind of darkling beetle

The trail at the park led through scrubby fields to the seashore, down a sandy bluff. I hadn't come for water birds, but there was a surprising variety of waders along the rocky coast, including Marbled Godwits, Grey Plovers, Willets, Semipalmated Plovers, and my lifer Snowy Plover. Another surprise lifer was a beautiful adult Heermann's Gull, a vulnerable West Coast breeder and one of the best-looking gulls in the world.

Sanderlings

Marbled Godwit

Western Willet

Snowy Plover 

Whimbrel

Heermann's Gull

Western Gull 

Sunburst Anemone

Back up in the scrubby field, I heard a whiny call from the bushes and realized it was a California Gnatcatcher! Soon enough a pair of them popped up from the weeds and started calling, chasing a House Wren that seemed to have intruded into their territory. I had several minutes of great views of this rare and difficult bird. A bonus was a few Wrentits, another uncommon and unique West Coast specialty that I'd only recently seen for the first time in Oregon.

California Gnatcatcher

Wrentit

I returned to the car after that, with not a bit of regret that I couldn't stay longer, and started driving eastward. My destination for the late morning was Rangeland Road, a stretch of road through prairies in eastern San Diego County that looked good for some birds I hadn't seen, including Tricolored Blackbird. I didn't see any blackbirds driving up and down the road, but I did see a distant Ferruginous Hawk cruising over the fields and scaring the ducks in a large pond. I also had great looks at an unusually confiding Say's Phoebe, and a Cassin's Kingbird that perched semi-obscured in a tree.

Say's Phoebe

Cassin's Kingbird

Red-tailed Hawk

I stopped for lunch in a one-horse town somewhere in the middle of the prairie, and kept driving east. The road that brought me over the low mountains of the Peninsular Range was narrow and winding, going through woodlands and dry forests. As I went eastward it became steadily dryer, until I descended into the Arizona Desert, a beautiful landscape of wide, sandy valleys with dry riverbeds and distant, low mountains.

My destination for that afternoon was the Anza Borrego Desert State Park, a wide area of desertlands with some trails well-known as a spot for some dry country birds like Costa's Hummingbird, White-winged Dove, and, yes, Rock Wren. I pulled up at a campground with a small ranger's station, and was greeted by a park ranger. As soon as she spotted by binoculars she brightened up and asked if I was there for the owls. I was not, in fact, there for the owls, but if anyone asks me if I want to see an owl the answer will be a very quick yes, so I shrugged and said that I was. As it turned out, the campground is a well-known roost for Long-eared Owls, a usually uncommon owl that's generally only seen at winter roosts. I quickly spotted a beautiful pair of roosting owls, an unexpected and welcome lifer for the day. Walking around the dry riverbed near the campground I didn't see many more birds, except for a single Ladder-backed Woodpecker. 

Long-eared Owl!

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

I decided to spend the rest of the evening walking along a short trail across the road from the campground in search of Rock Wrens. I didn't see any Rock Wrens because I'm pretty sure I'm destined never to see a Rock Wren, but it was a beautiful walk through a beautiful desert habitat with some amazing and diverse dry country flora. I ended up losing the trail for a bit, which meant that I spent more time than I wanted to getting unstuck from various cacti, but there was enough wildlife to make it worth it. There were a few Verdin, strange, yellow-headed little birds that are the only penduline tits found in the New World, and a few Black-tailed Gnatcatchers, the inland relatives of California Gnatcatcher. I saw a small group of Black-throated Sparrows, which were only not a lifer because of my embarrassing experience with them earlier in the year in Michigan. Some angry Anna's Hummingbirds fooled me into thinking they were Costa's Hummingbirds for a while, but alas that ended up as one of the few target birds I missed in California. Really, though, the highlight of the evening was the sun setting over the mountains in the clear desert air.

Anna's Hummingbird

Black-throated Sparrow

American Kestrel

White-tailed Antelope Squirrel

An absurdly well-camouflaged moth (Cobubatha dividua) 

Teddy Bear Cholla cactus

Chuparosa

Ocotillo

Sunset near the campground

I drove a little up the road after I finished my hike for a better look a the sunset. In addition to more great landscapes, I spotted the mammalian highlight of the trip- a herd of Bighorn Sheep on the hillside near the road! Certainly one of the coolest mammals in North America, and the males had even bigger horns than I expected to see.

Bighorn Sheep!

Sunset in the valley

It was the perfect ending to an incredible day of beautiful landscapes and great birds. I drove the rest of the way out to the Salton Sea that night, to one of the strangest AirBnb experiences I've ever had. But that will have to wait until the next blog entry...