The first stop of the weekend was on Thursday morning at Ballona Creek in Playa del Rey for the Rock Sandpiper. It was first seen on Nov 22 and is the first sighting in LA County since the late '60s. I think Lisa would have been happier if I'd mentioned the stop that morning before we left, but she was a sport and walked out on the jetty in her skirt anyway. By the time we got there a group of birders already had the place staked out and had the bird in their binoculars when we walked up - one down!
The sandpiper was foraging on the jetty rocks with a Black Turnstone and a group of Least Sandpipers. All the birds were amazingly approachable and let the group of birders within 15-20' maybe even 10' without appearing nervous at all. An excellent photo opportunity and I've seen excellent pictures of the bird posted on the web by other photographers. I had carried my smaller 400/f5.6 lens with me so I took some shots. The sandpiper pictures are definitely good enough for an ID and I like the one with the turnstone for comparison. But my favorite is definitely the group of Least Sandpipers. Sure, they are common birds, but what's wrong with that? :)
Rock Sandpiper with Least Sandpiper in the background:
Black Turnstone and Rock Sandpiper
Least Sandpipers
My next birding opportunity was Friday morning. This time it was off to Bonelli Park in San Dimas. I left the house a little after 6:30am and when I drove by the mall the parking lot was FULL! Crazy shoppers!
The Painted Redstart has been seen outside Restroom #8 for at least the past two winters. Of course I had no idea where #8 was located and hadn't been able to find a map... so I figured I'd be spending the first few minutes driving around trying to find it instead of birding. Soon after entering the park I saw a restroom and pulled in near it to see if I found locate a number - #8! I parked and got out to start searching. I scanned the pine trees in the area and located a pair of Downy Woodpeckers and a Black Phoebe, but no redstart. After about 5 minutes a huge SUV pulls into the parking lot and parks on the other side of the restroom from where I'm at - with the music blaring. I tried to ignore it and continued my search. Several minutes later the let their dog out of the car - off leash of course - and let it run around the area. At this point I feared the worst: they were here staking out tables for a picnic. It actually turned out it was a mother and her three young daughters going for a run. Once they finally left I headed over past their SUV and located the redstart almost immediately - after I heard it call. Something I definitely hadn't been able to do a couple minutes before! I watched it for several minutes before heading off to explore the rest of the park. Unfortunately it was still very early and quite foggy when I was looking at the redstart, so I didn't even try to take any pictures. Maybe I'll go back later this winter and try for a picture or two. Instead here's a shot of another bird from Bonelli:
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
The next target, being an owl, was best hunted in the evening. Saturday afternoon I headed to Fiesta Island in Mission Bay to join what I knew would be a crowd looking for the Short-eared Owl. Several people were already walking the area when I arrived, but no one I met had seen the owl. I walked the area until after sunset hoping it would show, but no luck. I did have one neat encounter. While walking on one of the berms I saw an immature Cooper's Hawk swoop down onto an immature Sharp-shinned Hawk and hit it and chased it of it's kill. It all happened very fast and I was able to hear the impact of the two birds. The Cooper's proceeded to dine on the Sharpie's kill. It let me get quite close while it ate, unfortunately it was after sunset and I needed to shoot with 1600 ISO to be able to get anything. I never was able to figure out what the hawks were fighting over - probably a sparrow or maybe a mouse.
Cooper's Hawk with prey
1 comment:
What a weekend you had!! A bunch of family dinners, lots and lots of food and great birding too!! Love the peeps pic with them milling around. you should frame that one.
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