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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Birding Southern California (1 Viewer)

Day 1

Traveling back and forth up the canyon road winding in and around mountains reminded me of when I was a child growing up in California when we went camping and I would get car sick every trip. I tried to avoid thinking of that, but in all honesty had to make a couple stops to make sure I didn’t barf. The 26 mile trip up to the Chairlo Visitor Center seemed much longer than I expected. The visitor center was empty and there were only a couple patrons driving in and out. I turned off the main road and quickly saw a woodpecker of some sort fly across the front of the car. To quick to id, I quickly parked and headed up the ridge to get a better look. After searching and trying to avoid noises from many other birds I located the culprit, a female Acorn Woodpecker. I also spotted what appeared to be a Black-capped Chickadee, but didn’t take the time to id properly or photograph. After consulting the eBird list, it might have been rare. Lesson learned.

Disappointed I headed back to the car to move over to search the picnic area. The picnic area was vacant and I figured with the limited activity, compared to the visitor center my target bird might feel more comfortable and make an appearance. It took about 10 minutes of watching Western Bluebirds, White-breasted Nuthatchs, and American Crows then suddenly from behind me the White-headed Woodpecker flew up and began searching for food among the tall pine tree right in front of me! I excitedly grabbed my camera and tried to get of some shots...unfortunately I was way to excited to photograph the bird so this is the best I got.

White%20headed%20Woodpecker.jpg


It was still early and I had seen my first target bird quickly so I decided to move on to the next hotspot on my list, Salt Lake Park in Los Angeles, Ca. Salt Lake Park is perhaps the most reliable location in SoCal to spot the Spotted Dove.

While the Spotted Dove is accepted by the ABA it is considered an established exoitc from India and southeast asia. In Asia it’s found across a range of habitats including woodland, scrub, farmland and habitation. Established birds in California, Hawaii and other are now found in streets, parks, gardens, agricultural areas. While I didn’t find one in Salt Lake park I did find one atop a tv antenna in the neighborhood to the north. He gave me some great views of it’s named feature.

Spotted%20Dove.jpg


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The sun was getting lower in the sky, but I knew it was going to set until 8. I still had 3 hours. I quickly got back in the car and headed down to Huntington Beach and the Bolsa Chica Wetlands. What a perfect time to be there as many species were out feeding and returning to roost. I added 3 lifers; Elegant Tern, Whimbrel, Surf Scoter. Here are some of the shots.

Forsters%20Tern%20on%20a%20fence.jpg


Elegant%20Tern.jpg


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