Dominic and I left Phoenix today at 6:30 A.M. and arrived in California at roughly 10:00 A.M. We had a big agenda and plenty of birds we wanted to see, even on the way to San Diego. The first stop was at a very small town by the name of Jacumba.
Jacumba isn't a good looking place by any means, and is a rather small and beat down looking town in a rural dusty community. But it does have good birds for those wanting to see a few cool California specialties. And one of those birds is the Tricolored Blackbird. Dominic found out from fellow birder Diane Touret that this town is great for Tricolored Blackbirds, and Diane was right. After making one pass through town, we didn't see them. We then decided to head through the road of the towns that run through the neighborhood. I then heard the calls of the Tricolored Blackbirds, which are a very distinctive and guttural sound. We turned onto a street where the sound was coming from, and there they were....
A kind lady in town was putting seed outside in her yard, which attracted the Tricolored Blackbirds to that bare tree and her yard. She was very welcoming to us, and she let us observe the birds up close and invited us to look into her yard. And Dominic and I had a front row ticket to the Tricolored Blackbird show! It was a lifer for me, the first of the trip. The voice of the Tricolored is distinctive, but a good field mark of the adult male is the white wing covert.
As Dominic and I were on a mission to get good photographs of Tricolored Blackbirds, we stopped at an intersection in the middle of Jacumba and were discussing what to do. Before I get to the next part of the story, I'll add that the skies were overcast and it was drizzling rain slightly. With overcast conditions and also with the fact the Blackbirds were acting very nervous and skittish, we weren't going to get the best shots. Most of the time, they perched up high. But at this intersection I spied a thrasher like bird running on the ground, and I had a feeling it was another bird I was wanting to see...
As it popped up on a post out in the open, I realized it was my second life bird of the trip, my first ever California Thrasher! Lately in Arizona, I've been lucky enough to see the Le Conte's, Crissal, Bendire's, Curve-billed, and Sage Thrashers up close. Adding this bird to my life list in California was a very special addition. Other than a small and local population in southern Oregon, the California Thrasher is limited to California in it's range. It is very similar to a Crissal Thrasher but has a thicker bill and is more brown. Gosh, what a nice bird. It was a surprise to see it in Jacumba, as I was only thinking I would add Tricolored Blackbird as my only lifer for the location.
This particular bird is unique in North America is the only member of it's family found in the country. It's rather shy and hard to see at times, but it's loud song gives it away. After awhile after waiting, and with patience, one shall see this small bird that has a tail that's longer than the rest of it's body. For the photographer, the tail might make things extra interesting. This bird is called the Wrentit, and it was one of my most wanted birds for the trip. And luckily, this guy was very cooperative for us! The Wrentit is limited to coastal chaparral habitats in North America from the northern part of Baja to southern Oregon. Thus, this makes it another specialty that mainly has California written all over it. So far, the Wrentit has been my favorite bird of the trip. They are heard more often than seen, and Dominic and I heard at least 10 of them while birding from Kitchen Creek Road.
After the Wrentit, the California birds were far from done. The case continued when a California Towhee started calling from a hillside and eventually presented itself to Dominic and I. It was already my 4th life bird of the day. The California Towhee used to be one species with the Canyon Towhee (formerly known together as Brown Towhee), and they were split into two. In the United States, California is the best place to see California Towhee, as it's range mainly consists of California.
As we continued up Kitchen Creek Road, we still had plenty of birds to see with more and more potential. My fifth life bird of the day presented itself in an oak tree. This was the Oak Titmouse, one that favors oak woodlands of the Pacific Coast. It used to be lumped as one species with the Juniper Titmouse, which both of them were known as Plain Titmouse. Although this bird looks identical by all means to the Juniper Titmouse, they don't have range overlap hard at all and they also have different songs. This bird photographed below sang in front of us for a long period of time.
After the Oak Titmouse, I had room for one more lifer, which was my sixth of the day. That was another bird with California in it's name, the California Quail. Dominic kicked up a large covey of these quail while I was away briefly, and we followed them up the slope they flew up into. We had brief but diagnostic views of the quail, followed by the song of the male. This area in California is also home to the elusive Mountain Quail, one that would be another life bird for me. We didn't find that, but we hope to try again on this trip. As we were about to leave, we heard what we think was the Nuttall's Woodpecker, another life bird for me. We couldn't track it down, but they are common in the region and hopefully, one will show up in front of us during the course of the trip. The number of lifers almost seems overwhelming for one day, but it's awesome. Hopefully there will be more to come for the remainder of the trip that is on the awesome side.
Right now, I am staying in San Diego at Mission Bay. The weather forecast has winds and rain in it tomorrow, but that won't stop Dominic and I from trying to see these awesome California birds!
So far, I have been really enjoying your blog posts on CA. The photos of the Wrentit are awesome!!! Much better views that I got on my trip, Congratulations. Now on to reading more posts!
ReplyDelete