Hi, At the eastern edge of the ponds where the Stilt Sandpiper is there were multiple Great Blue Herons and a confusing bird that had all of the appropriate plumage characteristics and bill pattern of a juvenile Reddish Egret but appeared to be too large to be that species, as if it was some kind of strange Great Blue Heron. I spent a lot of time studying this bird (all of them were a good one or two hundred yards away from me) but was not able to figure it out. Did anybody else see this bird

Thomas Geza Miko
Claremont, LA County
909.241.3300
"Time is just something we invented to make motion seem simple."--Albert Einstein

My non-birding partner, Kim Reger, reports seeing a bird at Bolsa Chica this afternoon that reminded her of a small Great Blue Heron, but with a white belly, orangeylegs, and a crouched posture while foraging. The bird was on the flooded oil property on the south side of Wintersburg channel, visible from the trail and not far west of the neighboring homes. Confirmation required.
Jim Pike HB

Hello,

A European Goldfinch in Bolsa Chica this morning. Seen previously in the same area north of pocket pond in Great Blue Heron nesting area. I will post photos later.

Nancy Salem
Long Beach

As the Green Bay Packers were robbed of their rightful place
in the Super Bowl (thanks for nothing, Mike Pence), Kim and I were able to take a leisurely walk along the lower
Santa Ana River this afternoon. There were six Common Goldeneyes halfway
between Hamilton and PCH; their numbers typically increase at the river mouth in
Jan/Feb. An Osprey continues hunkered down on the traditional nesting site atop
the telephone pole near PCH. Three pairs of Great Blue Herons have so far built rather skimpy
nests in the tall palm trees of the sanitation plant near Talbert Marsh. Lastly,
three Glaucous-winged Gulls, including two adults, were near PCH, and a
second-year Reddish Egret continues near Hamilton. Jim Pike HB

Greetings, We walked the in-laws around this lake yesterday afternoon (Tues 5 Jan 2021), had some very nice birds. Ring billed gulls, double-crested cormorants, 6 ibis standing near the cormorants (backlit, not sure of species ), black phoebes, Cassies kingbirds, pied-billed grebes, American coots, 3 Egyptian geese, 2 snowy egrets, ruddy ducks, great blue heron, Brewers blackbirds, mallards, domestic duck, & martins (species).
The highlight was a beautiful male vermillion flycatcher. It roosted on a London plane tree on the peninsula south of the footbridge, best observed from the path on the east side of the lake. It often flew out & back, no doubt flycatching chironomid midges that are emerging from the lake.
Cheers,

-Bob Allen bugbob@... Mission Viejo, CA Author, Wildflowers of Orange County and the Santa Ana Mountains

XsMAX

Here are some shots through the rain of Great Blue Herons and a Wilsons Snipe. On Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/46984141@N04/shares/8UL2ZW . Don Hoechlin. RMV

Greetings,
Yesterday (21 Nov 2019), while leading an Environmental Biology class field trip at San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary between 1-3 pm, I saw a vermilion flycatcherfly into a cottonwood tree. Got great looks at it, since it was close by. Really took me by surprise.
The spot was along Pond 1, at the viewing cut-out loop" on the southeast side (map: https://www.seaandsageaudubon.org/SJWS/SJWSmapandrules.pdf )
Other birds seen:
Northern mockingbird - 1 in parking lot near Audubon house Great egrets - 1 in Pond E, 1 in Pond B Cinnamon teal - several in Pond C Northern shoveler - several in Pond C Green-winged teal - few in Pond C Bufflehead - few in Pond C Killdeer - 1 on shore at northeast end of Pond C America coot - few in Ponds E & C Great blue heron - 1 in Pond B, caught a fish along the southwest shore Black-crowned night heron - 1in Pond Balongnorthwest shore American white pelican - several on island in center of Pond 1, a few in flight Terns (species not noted) - about 6 orso, mostly above Pond 1 Double-crested cormorant - surprisingly few, most on island in center of Pond 1 Pied-billed grebe - 4, in Pond 1 Clarks or western grebes (didnt determine which) - about 4 in Pond 1
Common yellowthroat - saw 1 around southwest side of Pond 1, more heard than seen Northern harrier - 2 seen over Pond 1, one of them chased off a red-tailed hawk Turkey vulture - about 6 overhead Osprey - none seen by us, but a photographer said he saw one
Its still early, but winter species arestarting to show up.

-Bob Allen Mission Viejo, CA bugbob@... AdjunctProfessor of Biology, Santiago CanyonCollege &Orange Coast College Research Associate in Entomology, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Research Associate, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden Author, Wildflowers of Orange County and the Santa Ana Mountains occnps.org/wildflower-book.html

We had a huge turn out today with close to 30 people. I'm very thankful that Garrett Lepper showed up to help me with getting people on the birds. We had close to 80 species and I'm pretty sure most everyone saw nearly all of them. Some highlights, the continuing pair of Hooded Mergansers along the creek by the foot bridge. Wilson's Snipe on Pond C out in the open. Greater Roadrunner in the middle of the trail between Pond 1 and 3. White-throated Swifts were abundant, giving great views to all, most of the morning. There was a Great Blue Heron that appears to have a piece of reed stuck around its neck somehow (photos in the checklist) It didn't seem to be impaled and was able to fly without issue, just an oddity. Hope it can get it dislodged.
List below for those interested. https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S49863731

See you next month!

--
Jeff Bray
Irvine, CA

Dear All,
In the middle of the afternoon about 3 p.m. today, Saturday August 25 we decided to go down to the harbor and see if we could scare up the Yellow-crowned Night-herons. We found a single one in the company of a rotating population of Black-crowned Night-herons, Snowy Egrets, Rock Pigeons, and really, really ragged Great Blue Herons. They were all in the the beautiful, gold-fish stocked pond, on private property, at Nordhavn (Yachts) on the harbor, not breakwater, side of the road.
--
*Please forgive any typos, creative punctuation or free form spelling if this email originated from my android.

Catherine Pannell Waters
P. O. Box 3505
Dana Point, CA 92629
Phone: 949-254-3586 (cell)
562-869-6718 (land line)

Highlights of todays (August 10) Bolsa Chica survey included:
6 Wilsons Phalaropes and 20 phalarope species (too far away to determine)
2 Reddish Egrets
2 Yellow-crowned Night-herons (1 juvenile and the 2nd year almost adult)
4 Ospreys (3 seen at once and one elsewhere at the same time)
2 Belted Kingfishers
1 Peregrine Falcon
1 Loggerhead Shrike (in trees on lower mesa near tide gates)
15 Horned Larks
2 Blue Grosbeaks (male & female) from Brightwater Trail
We also saw and heard one young Great Blue Heron in a nest with an adult in attendance. This is very late in the season for nesting.
Misses were Ridgways Rail, the Lesser Scaup, and any Common Terns.

In addition, some of our volunteers talked to Ross Griswold, who volunteers with Fish & Wildlife and helps Peter Knapp. Ross reports seeing a Barn Owl in the nonpublic area.

--
Terry Hill
Huntington Beach

The April 13 survey of Bolsa Chica produced the following highlights (note we had a 4-foot high tide during the count):
1 (continuing) TRICOLORED HERON in the Pocket Pond. It was with a Reddish Egret and a group of Snowy Egrets, and they were moving around the pond together.
1 REDDISH EGRET (Pocket Pond)
1 MERLIN
709 ELEGANT TERNS
2 LEAST TERNS
20 ROYAL TERNS
28 WHIMBRELS
1 BONAPARTES GULL (Pocket Pond)
4 RIDGWAYS RAILS (1 in Pocket Pond)
There were no Brant geese today, so it looks like they might have finally left for points north.
Most of the ducks have left, although there were still 151 Ruddy Ducks, 18 Red-breasted Mergansers, and 38 Blue-winged Teal, along with 42 Canada Geese.
1 Horned Grebe is still present (at least one has lingered longer than normal the last several years)
We had 28 Great Blue Herons, including one nest in one of the palm trees that had 3 chicks in it. In addition, there were 2 Killdeer chicks about a week old in the nest site behind the fence at the end of the walkbridge.
There were no Burrowing Owls today, and the Brightwater group reported that the big hole has collapsed, probably bulldozed. The Brightwater Group has been doing a lot of work all along the trail to rigidly comply with their agreement with the Coastal Commission to have native grasses along there.
--
Terry Hill
Huntington Beach

Hi everybody,

Sea and Sage Audubon held a walk that was supposed to go to the Villa Park Basin today, but the Willow Trail was closed, so we birded just the bit of that trail that wasn't closed, then Sycamore Hill, then the extreme east end of Irvine Regional Park and the north side of Santiago Creek instead. It was a great day with cool weather and 62 species. Our small group of intrepid birders was treated with help from experienced folks including Doug Willick, Bob Keally, Art Davenport, and Jeff Bray, who also very kindly eBirded for us and the OC Spring Count. Here's the list below:

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S35793334

Irvine Regional Park, Orange, California, US
Apr 8, 2017 7:43 AM - 11:52 AM
Protocol: Traveling
3.0 mile(s)
61 species (+1 other taxa)

Canada Goose 2
Mallard 4
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 1
Turkey Vulture 10
White-tailed Kite 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Mourning Dove 8
White-throated Swift 3
Black-chinned Hummingbird 1
Anna's Hummingbird 3
Allen's Hummingbird 2
Acorn Woodpecker 20
Nuttall's Woodpecker 5
Downy Woodpecker 2
American Kestrel 2
Red-crowned Parrot 2
Lilac-crowned Parrot 2
Amazona sp. 6
Pacific-slope Flycatcher 1
Say's Phoebe 1
Ash-throated Flycatcher 3
Cassin's Kingbird 1
Western Kingbird 1
Bell's Vireo (Least) 2
Hutton's Vireo 1
California Scrub-Jay 1
American Crow 1
Common Raven 15
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 15
Oak Titmouse 6
Bushtit 20
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
House Wren 6
Bewick's Wren 4
Cactus Wren 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 7
California Gnatcatcher 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Wrentit 1
Western Bluebird 8
California Thrasher 3
Northern Mockingbird 6
European Starling 30
Orange-crowned Warbler 4
Nashville Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Yellow Warbler 10
Yellow-rumped Warbler 6
Chipping Sparrow 3
White-crowned Sparrow 8
Song Sparrow 2
Lincoln's Sparrow 1
California Towhee 6
Spotted Towhee 12
Black-headed Grosbeak 1
Lazuli Bunting 2
House Finch 25
Lesser Goldfinch 30
American Goldfinch 2
Scaly-breasted Munia 1

Cheers,
Linette Davenport
Orange, CA

We had a good group (30-40 people) today and right many target birds. Weather was a bit damp starting off at 7am, but it was a mostly comfortable day aside from everyone having wet feet!
Starting at at Huntington Central Park, we found the PACIFIC WREN on the north side of the "island" area . It called multiple times from a few different spots and only gave a very brief look at one point. We were able to track down one GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET close to the Gothard lot , below the bathrooms. It was very active in the eucalyptus. No luck on the Black-and-white Warbler or the Northern Waterthrush.
We then moved on to the Brightwater Trail above Bolsa Chica where we found the Rock Wren, 2 Loggerhead Shrikes and the continuing EASTERN PHOEBE that was seen at the trail entrance at Fordham and Oceanridge . We did not see the Burrowing Owl.
We went to Mile Square Regional Park from there and found the Ash-throated Flycatcher in it's usual location behind ballfield 6 (I think) but were unable to locate the Pine Warbler. Most of us saw a flock of Canada Geese flying in that had the one Albino/Lecustic Canada and there was one, I'm assuming, Snow Goose with that flock. We tried to get looks at that flock of birds, but they were right in the middle of the golf course behind a small hill. We then walked over to the west end of the nature center to look for the Red-naped Sapsucker and Orchard Oriole, but only came up with two Bullock's Orioles despite the Orchard Oriole being seen earlier in the morning.
Centennial Park was our next stop to look for the RUSTY BLACKBIRD that Jim Pike had found the previous day. The bird was easily found on this concrete peninsula with a large flock of Brewer's Blackbirds and a few Brown-headed Cowbirds. There was also a CACKLING GOOSE and an adult male EURASIAN WIGEON around the lake there.
Our last stop was at Mason Regional Park where we were able to find the PALM WARBLER at the west end and some saw/heard the SUMMER TANAGER and BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER, but not everyone got looks at those. No sign of the Baltimore Oriole for our group.
Thanks to everyone for coming out. Hope you had a good time.
If you'd like to be included on any of the eBird checklists from today, please reply to me and let me know your eBird username and/or e-mail address you use for eBird and I'll copy you on the lists.
A list of birds seen today:
Snow Goose (Mile Square) Cackling Goose (Centennial Park) Canada Goose Egyptian Goose Gadwall
Eurasian Wigeon (Centennial Park) American Wigeon Mallard Northern Shoveler
Ruddy Duck Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Great Egret Snowy Egret Green Heron White-faced Ibis Turkey Vulture Northern Harrier Cooper's Hawk Red-shouldered Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Coot Whimbrel Spotted Sandpiper Ring-billed Gull Western Gull California Gull Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Anna's Hummingbird Allen's Hummingbird Belted Kingfisher Nuttall's Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Northern Flicker American Kestrel Black Phoebe Eastern Phoebe (Brightwater - Bolsa) Say's Phoebe Vermilion Flycatcher Ash-throated Flycatcher Cassin's Kingbird Loggerhead Shrike Hutton's Vireo American Crow Common Raven Bushtit Rock Wren House Wren Pacific Wren (Huntington Central Park) Bewick's Wren Golden-crowned Kinglet (Huntington Central Park) Ruby-crowned Kinglet Western Bluebird Hermit Thrush European Starling Cedar Waxwing Orange-crowned Warbler Common Yellowthroat Palm Warbler (Mason Regional Park) Yellow-rumped Warbler Black-throated Gray Warbler Townsend's Warbler White-crowned Sparrow Song Sparrow California Towhee Spotted Towhee Summer Tanager (Mason Regional Park) Red-winged Blackbird Western Meadowlark Rusty Blackbird (Centennial Park) Brewer's Blackbird Brown-headed Cowbird Bullock's Oriole House Finch Lesser Goldfinch American Goldfinch Scaly-breasted Munia
Jeff Bray Irvine, CA

Hi Tom,

I recently bought a book on Gulls, to hopefully improve my non-existent
Gull ID skills.
Your bird looks like the photo of a first summer alternate Bonaparte's Gull
in "Gulls of the Americas" by Howell and Dunn. It doesn't look like any of
the Franklin's pics in the book, which all appear much darker on the back.
I attached a pic of the photo that seems to match, that probably won't go
thru to the group. I can send the photo to anyone else who would like to
see it.

Trish Gussler, Anaheim

On Sun, Jun 26, 2016 at 9:38 AM, ocean2trail@...
[OrangeCountyBirding] wrote:

Yesterday I saw mystery gull on the shore of Barbara's Lake in Laguna
Coast Wilderness Park. I'm not a gull expert by any stretch of the
imagination, but it looked to me like it might be a Franklin's Gull. I
posted a few terrible digiscoped photos taken from across the lake through
heat shimmer. I tried to put them into the "11 Skua Gulls & Terns"folder,
but can't guarantee that's where they ended up. (Yahoo Groups is not very
user friendly.) Any help with identification would be appreciated.
Barbara's Lake is one of the Laguna Lakes, the only natural lakes in
Orange County. You can get there by parking at the Nix Nature Center on
the west side of Laguna Canyon Road (CA-133), and taking a trail about half
a mile under the highway to the lake. You can also get there by parking at
the James Dilley Preserve on the east side of Laguna Canyon (CA-133, just
north of CA-73 toll road) and taking the Lake Trail north about a mile to
the lake. It's drying up pretty quickly, so there's no way of knowing how
long the water will last.
Other birds of interest included half a dozen White-faced Ibis, 2 pair of
Black-necked Stilts (one pair had 4 chicks), and 2 Yellowlegs (they were a
long way away, and I didn't try to ID greater vs. lesser). There was also
a Great Blue Heron, a Great Egret, and 10 Snowy Egret. There were Killdeer
present, and they might have a chick (I saw a nondescript pre-flight bird
close to the reeds, but couldn't get a good look due to a poor viewing
angle and severe heat shimmer). The only waterfowl left were Mallards with
several ducklings. I also had a Black-headed Grosbeak and 2
Yellow-breasted Chat in the trees along the south shore.
See you on the trails,
Tom Eastman

Costa Mesa

Hi OC Birders, I spotted a large number of white Egrets on the walls of the Wintersburg Channel while crossing the Warner Av. bridge behind the Del Taco and 24 Hour Fitness.So I pulled in there and did a count to the best of my eyes' and bin's capabilities.There were at least 60 Snowy Egrets, 40 White-faced Ibis and many more Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons.Later I saw the email from Ryan about a Solitary Sandpiper seen from the Springdale bridge so today on my way home I birded from the Springdale and also the Edwards bridges over the channel and found lots more egrets, but no sandpipers.I figure there were over 200 egrets, herons, and Ibis viewed from those three bridges, and I could see there were still more to be seen at the next bridge at Golden West.Who knows, someone with young eyes and a sophisticated camera may find a hidden rare bird amongst all those egrets.
Rick Shearer HB