California Day 5: To the Coast and Away

December 21 was my last day in California, and of course my plans for the day revolved around birds. I spent the night in a nondescript neighborhood in the LA suburbs, then started the day early at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, one of the best-known birding spots in the Los Angeles area. My biggest target of the day was Rouget's Rail, an uncommon rail found only in a few wetlands in California and Baja California. I'd dipped on it the previous day in the Salton Sea, so I was determined to see it this time, before I had to leave the state altogether. 

There was lots of bird activity at the entry footbridge when I arrived, including several Surf Scoters, Ruddy Ducks, Greater Scaups, and Red-breasted Mergansers, good additions to my California bird list. There were some Willets and Marbled Godwits foraging in the tidal vegetation, although sadly no Ridgway's Rails joining them.

Ruddy Duck

Marbled Godwit

Willet

Surf Scoter

My first lifer of the morning was a Mountain Plover hanging out in a sandy area, a vagrant bird that had been present for a few days hence. Savannah Sparrows were incredibly common, including the Large-billed and Belding's subspecies, sometimes considered full species. Walking along the trail I had good looks at a Marsh Wren, Northern Pintails, and a Black-necked Grebe. 

Black-necked Grebe

Marsh Wren

Snowy Egret

Northern Pintail

Belding's Savannah Sparrow

I spotted a very dense group of waders in a corner of the reserve, and got as close as I could to try and ID them. I don't have a spotting scope, and probably never will until I have $2 gazillion to drop on a Swarovski, but my camera's digital zoom is good enough that it works nearly as well, with the added benefit of being able to take pictures immediately if anything interesting pops up. I do take a weird pleasure out of scanning flocks of hundreds of identical shorebirds, although the idea that there was a Little Stint or something hiding within them that I've never noticed always haunts me. As far as I could tell they were all Least Sandpipers, Dunlins, Western Sandpipers, Willets, and Marbled Godwits, with perhaps a few Sanderlings in the mix. 

Part of the wader horde

There was a small scrubby path on a ridge nearby, where I was able to find some good new birds, including a displaying male Allen's Hummingbird fighting off Anna's Hummingbirds, a Reddish Egret below me in the water, White-crowned Sparrows and more Savannah Sparrows, and a few Long-billed Curlews. Raptors were plentiful, including a Cooper's Hawk, a few Red-tailed Hawks, a Merlin, and a Northern Harrier that swooped right in front of my face.

Cooper's Hawk

Allen's Hummingbird

Reddish Egret 

Savannah Sparrow

Northern Harrier

White-crowned Sparrow

Back on the main path, I got amazing views of a beautiful White-tailed Kite, only the second time I've seen one after a lucky but distant sighting in Oregon in the spring of last year. Certainly one of the best-looking raptors in the US, and it was great to be able to see it up close this time.

White-tailed Kite

I made the long walk back toward the entrance, adding a few new birds to my list and getting better views of ones I'd seen earlier, especially Least Sandpiper, Sanderling, Reddish Egret, and Long-billed Curlew. A couple of Pelicans flew over, which turned out to be Brown Pelicans, part of the rare California subspecies that nearly went extinct a while back. I ran into a couple of other birders squinting through their scopes at a group of gulls trying to find an immature Lesser Black-backed Gull that had been reported earlier. I've seen many of those on the East Coast so I didn't really feel like spending an hour looking through a hundred immature gulls to figure out which one has beige tertials or whatever (sorry, gullers), but I did ask about a good place to find Ridgway's Rail. They told me it was pretty difficult that time of day, but there was a spot a ways away where you could put a scope up and hope to find one on some floating platforms- not very encouraging, although I appreciated the help.

Pied-billed Grebe

Greater Scaup

Osprey

Turkey Vulture 

Long-billed Curlew

Savannah Sparrow

Least Sandpiper

Brown Pelicans

Marbled Godwit

Willet

Western Sandpiper

Reddish Egret

Surf Scoter

I headed back to the car, discouraged by my lack of Ridgway's Rail. One of the birders I'd talked to found me and mentioned she'd thought of another place to look, and pointed me to a spot a litle further down the road. I'd give her a shoutout, but I didn't get her name and it didn't show up on eBird- thanks to whoever you are, random LA birder! I prepared to head to the other place, but did one last walk around the parking lot to look for anything else extra. Just as I was about to get in my car, I heard a cackling call from within the thick vegetation- Ridgway's Rail! I rushed to the water's edge, and got a brief view of one as it swam from one thick clump of vegetation to another. I have no idea why my birding luck on the West Coast is so much better than it is on the East Coast, but thank you California for delivering once again. 

Ridgway's Rail!

Flush with last-minute success, I headed to Venice Beach to meet up with Aruj and Frances from my grad school, as they were finally in the area. That was mostly spent hanging out rather than birding, but I did greatly enjoy the several beautiful Heermann's Gulls hanging out on the beach and fighting for french fries. 

Heermann's Gull

We had dinner that night, then I braved rain and traffic to head to the airport, where I flew to Oregon to spend Christmas with my sister. I spent several days in Portland with very little birding and lots of good food, then flew to Asia to spend the New Year with Nikki- but that's for the next blog.