Bolsa Chica V

Date:  10 February 2012

When: 0745 - 1100

Where:  Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, Huntington Beach

As I've said a number of times on this blog, I love to bird at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. I was there earlier in February and had a banner day...  

Today I parked in the lot off of Warner Avenue and hiked about 3.8 miles along the tidal marsh and then along the canal. I've included a map below.

Two of the best things about this foray into Bolsa Chica was meeting Ramon, a wildlife photographer, and Steve, a docent with the Bolsa Chica Conservancy. Ramon showed me some lovely pictures of a loggerhead shrike and great action shots of American kestrels mating and Steve was a great source of information about where to find birds and other animals on the Conservancy lands. Thanks very much to both of you!

The highlights:

• a Cinnamon teal! All by itself in the canal, just hanging out.   
• a Loggerhead shrike perched on the chain-link fence between Bolsa Chica and the adjacent land.
• A flock of American coots, foraging and loafing in the grass near the Warner Avenue visitor's center.  Coots are common at Bolsa Chica, but this was the first time I'd seen a large flock on land.
• A Black-chinned hummingbird - a new species for my life list!
• Some interesting omissions:  Western gull, for example. I don't have it on the list, but I've rarely gone to Bolsa Chica and not seen one...  but I'll trust the list I made in the field...

The entire list (54 species)

Eared grebe

Western grebe

Double-crested cormorant

Great blue heron

Reddish egret

Snowy egret

Great egret

Black-crowned night heron

Northern pintail

American wigeon

Northern shoveler

Green-winged teal

Blue-winged teal

Cinnamon teal

Lesser scaup

Bufflehead

Red-breasted merganser

Ruddy duck

Northern harrier

Cooper's hawk

Red-shouldered hawk

Red-tailed hawk

American kestrel

Merlin

American coot

Killdeer

American avocet

Black-necked stilt

Yellowlegs -- lesser or greater?  I really have to improve on telling these apart!

Marbled godwit

Long-billed dowitcher -- they were foraging on the mudflat with their absurdly long bills

Willet

Ring-billed gull

Royal tern

Forster's tern

Mourning dove

Eurasian collared 

Belted kingfisher

Black-chinned hummingbird*

Northern flicker

Black phoebe

Western kingbird

Loggerhead shrike

American crow

Northern raven

Tree swallow

European starling

Common yellowthroat

California towhee

Song sparrow

White-crowned sparrow

Red-winged blackbird

House finch

Goldfinch -- unidentified beyond that as I viewed it from below as it perched in a tall tree. My guess is Lesser goldfinch

Bolsa Chica Conservancy 

My route on 10 February