Talbert Nature Preserve

Common Yellowthroat

Belted Kingfisher

Bushtit

Talbert Nature Preserve is just a few minutes away from Newport Beach in Costa Mesa, and as I had a few hours free on my last day in California I headed here for a walk. Though I had set my trusty GPS, I had a momentary problem finding it. I parked in the small parking area, but the 'preserve' seemed to be just a paved bike track alongside a large fenced storm-water drain. I was there, however, so I set off along the bike track.

A short way along the canal, I took a gravel path designated for walkers which soon became the nature preserve I was looking for. There were six different habitats (i.e. wetlands, sand dunes, woodlands), which were signposted with basic information about the vegetation, wildlife and ecological importance. The paths were primarily roped off from the surrounding area, so while at times I could hear lots of birds, it was difficult to photograph them.

I was thrilled, however to get photos of three birds that I have been seeing regularly without any opportunity of grabbing a pic. Not great photos, but certainly good record shots.

The kingfisher flies around Newport Bay regularly, I see it perched on boats out in the harbour. But it had so far always been too distant, or noticed too late. There have been large groups of busy bushtits at a number of places, but they have stayed deep in the shrubs and scattered when I came too close - I wasn't even sure of their ID previously. The yellowthroat has been a rapidly moving patch of gold in the shrubs at a number of spots around Orange County, but my only images of him had him pretty well obscured by branches.


With the Santa Ana River on one side and the Costa Mesa Bluffs on the other, the Talbert Preserve provided good views of a number of raptors. A small pond held ducks, egrets and a heron.

Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve

Willet

Black-bellied Plover

Semi-palmated Plover

Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve is a 300 acre wetlands - a 'little pocket' of nature between the Pacific Coast Highway and the houses of Huntington Beach. During the Spanish occupation of the area it was ranchlands, home to wandering cattle and their watching vaqueros. In 1895 a Gun Club bought Bolsa Chica. The land was then leased to oil companies for drilling, with artillery mounts and bunkers being built during WW2. In 1976 Amigos de Bolsa Chica was formed to save wetlands from development, and the State of California purchased the land, which by then was pockmarked with oil rigs and wells, contaminated with oil, heavy metals, PCBs and mercury and blocked off from the sea.

Restoration work was undertaken between 2000 and 2006 and includes a new ocean channel, tidal basins, island habitats and pedestrian bridges that connect the wetlands to the beach via Pacific Coast Highway. Today it is a paradise for birds and birdwatchers. Nearly half of the birds found in the U.S. have been seen in Huntington Beach - and it is a prime staging post for migrating shorebirds.

Bird list:

Common Loon

Pied-billed Grebe

Eared Grebe

Brown Pelican

Double-crested Cormorant

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Reddish Egret

Mallard

Northern Pintail

Blue-winged Teal

Cinnamon Teal

Northern Shoveler

American Kestrel

Red-tailed Hawk

American Coot

Black-bellied Plover

Semipalmated Plover

Killdeer

Black-necked Stilt

American Avocet

Willet

Long-billed Curlew

Marbled Godwit

Ruddy Turnstone

Western Sandpiper

Dunlin

Short-billed Dowitcher

Long-billed Dowitcher

Ring-billed Gull

California Gull

Western Gull

Elegant Tern

Forster's Tern

Rock Dove

Mourning Dove

Anna's Hummingbird

Black Phoebe

Say's Phoebe

American Crow

Bushtit

Northern Mockingbird

European Starling

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Savannah Sparrow

Song Sparrow

House Finch

House Sparrow

Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary

The Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary is administered and maintained by the non-profit California State University, Fullerton, Foundation. The bird refuge serves as a labratory and center for ecological education for the university's science classes.

The place has an interesting history. It was the retirement home for Ben and Dorothy May Tucker, who loved the local wildlife and designed and made hummingbird feeders which they hung around their cabin. Their feeder design became the standard for modern hummingbird stations. The Tuckers willed their property to the California Audubon Society, which took over the care of the sanctuary and opened it to the public in 1939. During World War II, when sugar was rationed, the sanctuary had special permission to continue obtaining and using sugar in the hummingbird feeders. In 1968, the Audubon Society gave the property to Cal State Fullerton on the condition that it be maintained as a wildlife sanctuary for the benefit of the public and the animals.

The sanctuary runs alongside the canyon's natural creek which has water during the winter months. The grounds are in part landscaped with native plant species, including a scented garden and a cactus garden, and in part natural vegetation.

The Bird Porch is a verandah on an old house. Covered with wisteria and with flowering plants in the garden outside, it has a variety of different feeders strung along the edge and is a wonderful place to watch hummingbirds, finches, quail, scrub jays, titmouses and more. The feeders were in deep shade with intensely bright light beyond, so it was not a great place to photography, but the sheltering wisteria, bench seats and constant visitors made it a wonderful spot to relax in the cool.

There is a small natural history musuem with interesting displays and a limited range of drinks and snacks. Behind the musuem, a trail that leads up over the hill and down into another canyon through native vegetation. This area was burnt out earlier this year and signs warn of the danger of landslips and mud slides. The threat of rain last week has resulted in walls of hay bales running along the canyon walls, and cement barriers along the road.

I could hear quail chirping in the grass, but none strayed out onto the path. Hummingbirds buzzed around the last of the fall flowers. Titmouses (titmice?) collected a seed and perched with it between their feet and pecked to open the outer casing. Woodpeckers stored literally hundreds of acorns in the powerpoles.

Adding to the pleasure of the trip were the tree-lined winding roads and the eclectic and historical homes in Modjeska Canyon including that of Madame Modjeska.

Bird List

White-breasted Nuthatch (Pictured above)
Pacific-slope Flycatcher
Black Phoebe
Acorn Woodpecker
Anna’s Hummingbird
Mourning Dove
Hermit Thrush
Northern Mockingbird
Yellow-rumped Warbler
California Towhee
House Finch
Lesser Goldfinch
American Goldfinch
Western Scrub-Jay
Oak Titmouse

Huntington Central Park

This multi-function park includes a large equestrian facility, sports fields, off-leash dog exercise area, a couple of large lakes, a nature reserve and miles of paved paths through landscaped gardens and natural woodland. Located along the Pacific Flyway, an overhead highway for migrating birds, Huntington Central Park is known as a 'vagrant trap' by local birders.

The shady paths were a welcome change from the sun-baked wetlands, but the birds stayed high in the trees making photography (and sometimes identification) difficult. I saw different vireos and warblers but could only name those that ventured into camera range.

Bird List:

House Wren (Pictured Above)
Black Phoebe
Bushtit
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
House Finch
Gray Vireo
House Wren
American Kestrel
Nutmeg Manniken
Song Sparrow
American Crow

San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary

Though in the middle of a business center, tucked in beside a university and a water treatment plant in a busy city, the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary has a surprising sense of stillness. The smells are of the woodlands and the sounds are the rustling of willow, alder and cottonwoods.

The paths are wide and level, there are strategically placed benches, and restrooms at the parkng lot and at distant points on the trail. The trail map bears a distinct resemblance to the actual trail, which is not always the case, so getting lost is entirely voluntary. The area covers natural and rehailitated wetlands, and man-made ponds, and the trail system is a series of increasingly larger loops.

The fog didn't make for great images.

Bird list:

California Thrasher (Pictured above)

Spotted Towhee (Pictured above)

Yellow Warbler

Red-Winged Blackbird

American White Pelican

Brown Pelican

Black Phoebe

Savannah Sparrow

MacGillivray's Warbler

Anna's Hummingbird

Allen's Hummingbird

Black-winged Stilt

American Avocet

Great Blue Heron

Snowy Egret

Great Egret

Mallard

Black-necked Grebe

Pied-billed Grebe

Northern Shoveler

Ruddy Duck

Green-winged Teal

Cinnamon Teal

Greenshank

Forster's Tern

Mourning Dove

Osprey

San Joaquin Marsh

The stiff-tailed ducks (Anatidae: Oxyurini) include some rather distinctive birds, including our local musk duck and blue-billed duck. The female's stiff tail can be seen in the top photograph, spread out behind her. The tail can also be raised to a vertical position. Stiff-tailed ducks generally inhabit freshwater lakes and marshes. They are foot-propelled diving birds, and their legs are set far back, making them awkward on land, so they rarely leave the water. They aren't often seen in flight and are believed to travel at night.

They are known for their unusual courtship displays involve drumming noises from inflatable throat-sacs, head throwing, and erecting short crests.

There are only two species of stiff-tailed ducks in the United States. The Ruddy Duck is the most common and is found year round in lakes and ponds on the West Coast. The Masked Duck is the other stiff-tailed duck but it spends its time in warmer areas of the country such as southern Florida and Texas.

San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary

Anna's Hummingbird

Allen's Hummingbird

The Sanctuary has been developed around the water board's settlement ponds. Dense plantings filter urban run-off and provide shelter for more than 200 bird species. By agreement, the local chapter of the Audubon Society provides the Sanctuary with natural history information, including a bookstore and a small museum/library. A list of recently reported birds is posted outside the door. The Big Sit has been won from here more than once.

A building that housed one of the many private duck hunting clubs that dotted the marshy areas of Orange County in the 1800s is now an education centre. The parking area nearby is landscaped and the Mexican Sage was in full flower, attracting hummingbirds.

Anna's and Allen's are the most common hummingbird in southern California, and with Costa's the only permanent residents of the US or Canada. Unlike most other hummers, Anna's has a (minimal) song.

Hummingbirds vigorously defend their feeding territories which, although often as small as a few clumps of fuchsias, provide adequate nectar and small nectar-feeding insects. During the fall, however, transient and juvenile birds disregard territorial claims. As if it wasn't hard enough to photograph these tiny, fast moving subjects, they kept chasing each other.

Downtown Milwaukee

Milwaukee County Parks publishes a map of the Oak Leaf Birding Trail which includes an innercity loop that passes through four parks; Pere Marquette, Red Arrow, Zeidler, and Cathedral Square. A break in the weather tempted me into a longish lunch break during the conference to wander the loop.

Despite being quite small parks, they seem to play an important role as links between larger reserves, providing a corridor for birds and wildlife. The route also passed alongside the river, were there were ducks and geese, as well as gulls. There were a number of warblers hunting for insects, the Tennessee Warbler spends its summers in Canada, and was passing through Wisconsin on its way to Central America.

Bird List:

Canada Goose
Mallard
Herring Gull
American Crow
Tennesee Warbler (Pictured above)
American Goldfinch
Northern Cardinal
American Coot
Dark-eyed Junco
White-throated Sparrow
Rock Dove
House Sparrow

Schlitz Audubon Nature Center

Just fifteen minutes from downtown Milwaukee is the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center, a 185-acre stretch of undeveloped land on the shore of Lake Michigan. Over about four hours I wandered the six miles of trails in the centre, through woods where the trees were beginning to show autumn colour, grasslands thick with wildflowers, ravines filled with dense layers of vegetation, past ponds and along the lakeshore beaches.

Last month the center held a raptor photography day which sounds like a great idea - at public displays it is usually impossible to get a good photo without other spectators, the light at the wrong angle or some other photography unfriendly element. Good to see bird photographers are becoming a sufficiently significant group to be catered for in this way. Wonder if the Hunter Wetland could be convinced to have a photographers' early morning opening.

Bird list:

Hermit Thrush (Pictured above)

Canada Goose

Wood Duck

Mallard

Red-tailed Hawk

Wild Turkey

Ring-billed Gull

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Blue Jay

American Crow

Eastern Phoebe

Hermit Thrush

Black-capped Chickadee

White-breasted Nuthatch

House Wren

Great Blue Heron

European Starling

Cardinal

White-crowned Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Brown-headed Cowbird

House Finch

American Goldfinch

House Sparrow

Newport Bay, California

Over the last couple of days I have taken photos of a pelican, a cormorant and a gull with fish hooks or fishing line in their beaks and a gull with fishing line wrapped around a wing.

Upper Newport Bay

In LA I'm staying on the peninsula, a strip of land between Newport Beach and Newport Bay. While this end of the Bay is wall to wall shops, bars and restaurants, the top of the Bay is relatively undeveloped. A coastal wetland with grasslands and sage scrub, the area is one of Orange County's birding hotspots, home to a number of endangered species, and staging post for thousands of migrants.

Trails wander along the water giving good views of the waders, and amble through cactus stands and massed wildflowers where birds forage for insects or feed on the nectar. I'm still trying to identify all of the species I photographed, let alone all that I saw so I'll amend the Bird List as I get IDs.

Bird List:

Coastal Cactus Wren (Pictured above)

Turkey Vulture

Willet

Dunlin

Marbled Godwit

Cassin's Kingbird

American Goldfinch

American Coot

Anna's Hummingbird

Double Crested Cormorant
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Brown Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Black-bellied Plover
Ring-billed Gull
Forster's Tern
Belted Kingfisher
American Crow
Black Phoebe
Say's Phoebe
European Starling
House Finch
Savannah Sparrow

Newport Bay, California

A breakdown in the Harbour Tunnel, and a unexplained two hour delay in departure time behind me I had a good flight. I watched My Life in Ruins and The Proposal then slept undisturbed for seven hours. Kristian and Winston met me and we went to the Bear Flag Fish Co for fish tacos on the way home. A lazy afternoon - chatting, finishing my book Birdsville: My Year in the Back of Beyond by Evan McHugh, walking Winston along the shore of the bay, more chatting ...

Bird List:

Willet (Pictured above)

Mallard

Brown Pelican

Double-crested Cormorant

Great Blue Heron

Black-bellied Plover

Ring-billed Gull

Black Phoebe