Birding the Americas Trip Report
and Planning Repository
Return to the Main Index
Return to the North
America Index
Return to the U.S.A. Index
Return to the California
Index
U.S.A. -- CALIFORNIA: South
03 - 12 November 2001
by Mike Tanis
Gabi and I flew on an evening US Airways flight from Philadelphia to Las
Vegas. The flight was nearly full, likely the result of merging two
pre-Sept 11 flights (our flight number and time had been changed by the airline).
Airport check-in and security only took a few minutes longer than in the
past. I'm not sure if it was too comforting that things seemed so "normal."
We had chosen a Las Vegas flight because at the time of our purchase (in
August) we got a much better fare to LV than San Diego. Rental car
costs were also somewhat lower out of LV. We arrived at the Alamo desk
at around 11pm (LV time, for us now 2am) to find a line of about 30 customers
waiting for cars. We finally walked out of the Alamo office at about
midnight with keys to our not-thoroughly-cleaned Chevy Malibu (10 days, final
cost $244 with an "Entertainment Book" discount). Stayed at Wellesley
Inn on Flamingo Rd in LV ($49, reserved one day earlier via internet).
Saturday Nov 3
We got a late start and spent most of the day driving to San Diego.
We made an hour-long stop for birding at Lake Hodges south of Escondido CA.
Eventually I got a short glimpse of California gnatcatcher after about 45
minutes. Other birds there were Osprey, Northern harrier, California
towhee, Spotted towhee, and Chipping sparrow. We stayed at the Buena
Vista B&B in La Jolla which had nice views, close access to the LaJolla
oceanfront, friendly hosts, hummingbird feeder, comfortable room, jacuzzi,
and swimming pool ($110 per night). It was rather gloomy and cool for
the three days in San Diego, so we made use of the jacuzzi each night.
Sunday Nov 4
Local birder John Walters had offered to join us for a morning of birding,
so we arranged a meeting and went to San Elijo Lagoon. Highlights there
were better views of California gnatcatcher, Merlin, California thrasher,
Nuttall's woodpecker, Bushtit, Wrentit (h), (Large-billed) Savannah sparrow,
many many (Audubon's) Yellow-rumped warblers, White and Brown pelicans, Western
scrub-jay, and Lesser goldfinch. Remember that highlights for me are
viewed from an East Coast birder's perspective! Many thanks to John
for an enjoyable morning and helpful advice. Anna's and Costa's hummingbirds
were seen at the B&B feeder in the morning. In the afternoon we
drove downtown for a walk around the San Diego waterfront.
Monday Nov 5
This was our day to visit the San Diego Zoo, which is definitely a great
zoo. The enclosures were smaller than I expected, but maybe I had images
of the related San Diego Wild Animal Park (which we did not visit) in my
imagination. Anyway, I suppose smaller enclosures mean the animals
are closer to the visitors. I was glad I took my binoculars along to
the zoo, because the many aviaries provide an interesting simulated foreign
birding experience. Sure, the avifauna of various regions are juxtaposed
a bit randomly, the "forests" are alarmingly populated with birds (but who's
going to complain about that!), and, of course, nothing is countable.
But it is still a lot of fun. Most visitors who pass through the aviaries
probably see less than 1/5 of the birds because they really don't take the
time to look around. I found our limited time at the zoo passing much
too quickly whenever we entered another aviary.
Tuesday Nov 6
Because our hot breakfast was not an option at an early hour, we left the
house early and drove down to the ocean at La Jolla and went for a walk along
the rocky beach. It was cool and foggy but still a very beautiful morning
to be outside. There were plenty of birds and seals along the shore.
Highlights were Whimbrel, Rock sandpiper, Black turnstone, Brandt's cormorant,
Surf scoters, Pacific loon, and Say's phoebe.
After breakfast, we drove north to Torrey Pines SP, one of my favorite places
for walking in the San Diego area. There we spent 1 1/2 hours wandering
the trails to points overlooking the ocean. For quite a while, we enjoyed
watching a peregrine perched on a dead snag close to Razor Point. Other
highlights for us were Ravens, Surf scoters and Western grebes in the ocean,
and a jaeger (probably Parasitic) which was chasing a gull.
From Torrey Pines we drove to Borrego Springs, enjoying the beautiful drive
over the mountains through Julian. Because of limited time, we didn't
stop for any birding along the way. Cuyamaca Lake, just south of Julian,
looked like a good spot to try some birding (parking $6). In Borrego
Springs we stayed three nights there at The Palms at Indian Head ($89), which
has only 10 rooms and is managed more like a B&B (although did not serve
any breakfast this time of year). It has a lovely property with lots
of palms and a beautiful pool area. The restaurant is also very nice
as they have a number of tables outdoors on the patio by the pool.
The first night there, I went for an evening walk around the property and
enjoyed an eye-level view of a very tolerant Great horned owl from 25 feet
away. This owl had a whitish face and pale overall coloring--is this
the race B.v. subarcticus? There were also lots of Western bluebirds,
Yellow-rumped warblers, Cedar waxwings, a few Common ground-doves, and Northern
flickers feeding in and around the palms of the hotel every day (and bats
at night).
Wednesday Nov 7
We woke up with the sunrise (lovely through the front window of our room),
nibbled a snack, and set off on the premier hike of the Anza-Borrego SP,
the 1.5 mile walk to the palm oasis of Borrego Palm Canyon. The early
morning light and cool temperatures made for a most enjoyable trip.
There were no other visitors that early, so we had the canyon to ourselves.
We failed to see the Bighorn sheep, but the highlight bird-wise was a male
Scott's oriole at the palm oasis. Also seen were Black-throated sparrow,
Black-tailed gnatcatcher, numerous Costa's hummingbirds, and a Crissal thrasher.
For the afternoon we headed over to the Salton Sea. At the bizarre
"ghost development" of Salton City, we looked for the Yellow-footed gull
which we failed to find. There were many other shorebirds and gulls
around, though. Since we had received so many messages from BIRDCHAT
folks saying that we wouldn't fail to find Burrowing owls on the irrigation
ditches in the agricultural lands south of the Salton Sea, we eagerly made
our way through the area, scanning dike and ditch. We stopped at the
Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR VC for advice. After a couple of hours of
searching mile after mile of roads, still no owls were seen, even in the
areas suggested by the NWR staff! Highlights near the Salton Sea were
lots of Eared grebes, White pelicans, Snow geese, Canvasback, Long-billed
curlew, Greater roadrunner, and Verdin. I can't believe that I neglected
to check the Snow geese for Ross's geese. White geese for Easterners
are virtually always Snow geese. We retreated for the evening to Borrego
Springs, a bit disappointed about the owls, although we were blessed with
a spectacular desert sunset.
Thursday, Nov 8
After enjoying another sunrise from our room, we headed for breakfast at
Kendall's Cafe, which makes great omelettes and some of the worst decaf coffee
in southern California. From there we went to the the Tamarisk Grove
Campground (also in Anza-Borrego SP), where we spent the morning walking
the Yaqui Well and Cactus Loop trails. Bird highlights here were Loggerhead
shrike, Phainopepla, Verdin, and Oak titmouse. In the afternoon we
made the drive back to the south end of the Salton Sea in another attempt
for the Burrowing owls; another couple of hours of searching met with the
same lack of success. Can anyone provide an obvious explanation why
we didn't find any owls? We were there around mid-day both days (1-3:30pm,
sunset was around 5pm), and it was warm (85-90 degrees). Also, there
was quite of bit of hay cutting and bailing in progress. Maybe all
the owls were out in the hayfields chasing insects?
Friday, Nov 9
We drove from Borrego Springs to LA via Palm Springs. But first I wanted
a quick stop to at least make a token attempt for LeConte's thrasher near
the Clark Dry Lake just east of Borrego Springs. This was recommended
as the best spot in the area to try for the thrasher, although I was warned
by more than one person that the odds were very poor outside of breeding
(singing) season. We drove our rental car down the dirt road to where
it forks, although for the best chance at thrasher, it was recommended to
go all the way to the rock crusher, a large piece of yellow machinery already
visible from where we parked. I walked nearly to the edge of the Dry
Lake, maybe 3/4 mile, without hearing a single sound, and turned to head
back to the car. Almost immediately I heard a soft "weep." Before long,
I spotted a pair of LeConte's thrashers doing their best to elude my view.
Eventu ally I enjoyed some pretty good looks as they hopped through the thin
brush and ran along the ground.
From there we continued on to the Palm Springs area for breakfast and a brief
look at the town. Around noon we left Palm Springs, drove through the
wind farm of San Gorgonio Pass, and up into the mountains behind Palm Springs
on SR 243. We spent half an hour birding and walking at lovely Fulmor
Lake but otherwise had little time for birding. Highlights there were
Mountain chickadee, Stellar's jay, Acorn woodpecker, and long eye-level looks
at a cooperative Red-breasted sapsucker. Also here we saw the first
American robins of the trip--what an unexpected pleasure to take a trip where
you can find 100 other species before Am. robin!
We continued on to the LA Hollywood area where we spent the remainder of
our nights at Elaine's Hollywood B&B ($60). We didn't look for
Spotted dove in LA; in fact, we did no birding at all, only sightseeing.
On the final day we returned to Las Vegas for an evening of mostly looking
at the new casinos, returning the rental car, and preparing for our red-eye
back to Philadelphia.
Birdlist:
H = Lake Hodges
E = San Elijo Lagoon
L = LaJolla coast, Torrey Pines State Park
B = Borrego springs area
S = Salton Sea area
I = Idyllwild area of San Bernardino National Forest
HELBSI
..L... Pacific loon
..L.S. Pied-billed grebe
....S. Eared grebe
..L... Western grebe
.EL.S. Brown pelican
.E..S. White pelican
.EL.S. Double-crested cormorant
..L... Brandt's cormorant
HEL.S. Great blue heron
.E..S. Great egret
.E..S. Snowy egret
....S. Cattle egret
....S. White-faced ibis
....S. Snow goose
.E.... Green-winged teal
.EL.S. Mallard
.E..S. Northern pintail
.E..S. Northern shoveler
.E..S. Gadwall
.E.... American wigeon
....S. Canvasback
....S. Lesser scaup
..L... Surf scoter
....S. Bufflehead
....S. Ruddy duck
....S. Turkey vulture
HEL.SI Osprey
HEL.S. Northern harrier
.E..S. Cooper's hawk
HELBSI Red-tailed hawk
.ELBS. American kestrel
.E.... Merlin
.EL... Peregrine falcon
....S. Sora (h)
.EL.S. American coot
..L.S. Black-bellied plover
..L... Semipalmated plover
....S. Killdeer
.E..S. Black-necked stilt
.E..S. American avocet
.E..S. Greater yellowlegs
.EL.S. Willet
..L... Spotted sandpiper
..L... Whimbrel
....S. Long-billed curlew
..L... Ruddy turnstone
..L... Black turnstone
..L... Surfbird
..L... Sanderling
.EL... Western sandpiper
....S. Least sandpiper
....S. Long-billed dowitcher
..L... Parasitic jaeger
....S. Bonaparte's gull
.EL... Heermann's gull
....S. Ring-billed gull
.EL.S. Herring gull
....S. Caspian tern
.E.... Royal tern
.E..S. Forster's tern
...... Rock dove (common in cities)
HELBS. Mourning dove
...B.. Common ground-dove
....S. Greater roadrunner
...B.. Great horned owl
.E.... White-throated swift
.ELBSI Anna's hummingbird
..LB.. Costa's hummingbird
.E...I Belted kingfisher
.....I Acorn woodpecker
.....I Red-breasted sapsucker
.E.... Nuttall's woodpecker
...BS. Northern flicker
HELBSI Black phoebe
..LBS. Say's phoebe
....S. Horned lark
...... Tree swallow (from highway)
.EL... Western scrub-jay
.....I Steller's jay
HELBSI American crow
..LBSI Common raven
.....I Mountain chickadee
...B.I Oak titmouse
...BS. Verdin
.....I White-breasted nuthatch
...B.. Cactus wren
...B.. Rock wren
...B.. Canyon wren
.EL... Bewick's wren
.EL... House wren
.E..S. Marsh wren
HE.... Ruby-crowned kinglet
...B.. Black-tailed gnatcatcher
HE.... California gnatcatcher
...B.. Western bluebird
.....I American robin
.E.... Wrentit
HELBSI Northern mockingbird
...B.. LeConte's thrasher
...B.. Crissal thrasher
.E.... California thrasher
....S. American pipit
...B.. Cedar waxwing
...B.. Phainopepla
...BS. Loggerhead shrike
HELBSI European starling
HELBSI Yellow-rumped warbler
H..B.. Spotted towhee
HELB.. California towhee
...B.. Black-throated sparrow
HE..S. Savannah sparrow
...B.. Song sparrow
H..... Chipping sparrow
HELBSI White-crowned sparrow
....S. Red-winged blackbird
....S. Western meadowlark
....S. Brewer's blackbird (also downtown SD)
....S. Great-tailed grackle
....S. Brown-headed cowbird
...B.. Scott's oriole
HEL... House finch
.E.... Lesser goldfinch
..LBS. House sparrow
Mike and Gabi Tanis
gmtanis@snip.net
Wayne PA