Submitted by: Carol Sweet (RRAS Membership Chair)
On January 12-15th, Je Anne Branca led Audubon members Ken and Patti Ward and Carol Sweet on a 4-day birding trip to the San Diego area. We visited the Santee Lakes, Tijuana River Estuary, South Bay, Coronado Island, Imperial Beach, San Diego River, Newport Upper Back Bay, San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, Bolsa Chica, and Lake Murray. A total of 104 species were seen on the trip.
A wide variety of ducks were observed including buffleheads, goldeneyes, mallards, ruddy ducks, wood ducks, ring necked ducks, lesser scaups, northern shovelers, pintails, teals (cinnamon, green winged, and blue winged), red-breasted mergansers, and American wigeons. Coots, cormorants, and grebes (Clark’s, eared and pied-billed) were also identified.
Shoreline birds included American avocets, long billed curlews, long and short billed dowitchers, marbled and bar-tailed godwits, white-faced ibis, plovers (snowy, semipalmated, and American pacific), sandpipers, black-necked stilts, Forester’s terns, and willets. Herons, flycatchers, gulls, pelicans, hawks, and terns were also observed.
Land species of birds included Anna’s hummingbirds, blackbirds, bushtits, cowbirds, doves, finches, mockingbirds, thrashers, towhees, ravens, scrub jays, sparrows, swallows, and warblers. Raptors included red tailed, red shouldered, and Cooper’s hawks, osprey, and peregrine falcon.
Highlights of the trip were the American bittern, bar-tailed godwit, vermilion flycatcher, hepatic tanager, red-throated loon, Belding’s Savannah sparrow, cedar waxwings, black-throated magpie jay, California towhee, and California thrasher.
One of our stops was at the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary in Irvine. The sanctuary is located on property that had been used for duck hunting until the early 1960s. Four old buildings were moved onto the property and restored by the Irvine Ranch Water District. Today, the buildings are used for meetings and the Sea & Sage Audubon Society. The old duck ponds were reconfigured and trails were added in 1997. Currently, the sanctuary has five ponds that are home to 223 species of birds. We saw 40 species including black necked stilts, least and western sandpipers, spotted sandpipers, a sora, white faced ibis, long billed dowitchers, cinnamon and green-winged teals, northern shovelers, coots, double crested cormorants, gadwalls, buffleheads, eared grebes, great and snowy egrets, great blue and black crowned night herons, a Cassin’s kingbird, and a vermilion flycatcher. The ponds are filled with water from either San Diego Creek or the adjacent tertiary treatment plant. Sea & Sage Audubon Society has a well-stocked gift shop with checklists, trail maps, and birding supplies.
