Crested Caracara

I woke up at 6am this morning and headed south with the Tijuana River Valley as my destination. My first stop was the National City outlet mall. There were two reasons for the stop. First, there is a Starbucks there and I needed coffee. Second, the Crested Caracara was still present and I wanted another shot at seeing it. I was hoping this wouldn’t be my third strike on this bird. There was no sign of him when I pulled into the parking lot. Inside Starbucks I order coffee behind a member of the Border Patrol (a very common sighting in the area). As I walked out of the store I saw 5-6 crows pursuing another bird. I immediately knew I had my bird. The Crested Caracara landed on a light pole about 30 feet from my truck. I set about getting my camera ready as the crows continued to pester the Caracara. Eventually the crows let it alone and I was able to snap off a dozen frames before it flew off to the west where I lost sight of it.

After that I hit the usual TJRV spots: Dairy Mart Ponds (quiet), Sunset/Hollister (missed the Red-Throated Pipit), Bird and Butterfly Garden (lots of warbers including American Redstart, but missed the Black-and-White), TJRV Estuarine Reserve, and Salt Works at 7^th street. I also made stops at the SD River Flood Control Channel (very high tide, so not much going on) and Famosa Slough (Peregrine Falcon!). I ended the day with 68 species.