I was reviewing my notes from 2016 late yesterday, when I read aboout the boardwalks next to Fish Haul Park. So I decided to go there and see what I might find. It started out well. I heard a Marsh Wren and a Blue Jay, and started seeing some good birds from the boardwalks.
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Common Yellowthroat
Common Yellowthroat
House Wren
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Gray Catbird
White-eyed Vireo
And then, mutiple bicyclists starting riding across the boardwalks, including one group of 27. Well, that was the end of birding from these boardwalks, so I headed down to the Fish Haul beach. I had seen some good birds there two days earlier, and now the sun was out.
Marbled Godwit
Dunlins
Dunlin
Least Sandpiper and Dunlin
Little Blue Heron
Little Blue Heron
I had been on the beach less than 10 minutes when a woman walking with a small girl and a leashed dog stopped right behind me. The little girl asked, "What is he doing," and the woman replied, "He's taking pictures of the birds." A moment later, the woman unleashed the dog and yelled to the dog, "Go chase the birds!" The dog obliged, chased all the birds away, and after giving the woman an uncomplimentary look, I left the beach. Unbelievable!
New trip birds:
Blue Jay
Marsh Wren
I returned to the Coastal Discovery Museum, and saw some good birds there.
Red-tailed Hawk
Eastern Phoebe
Palm Warbler
Palm Warbler
Chipping Sparrow
Pine Warbler
Pine Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Eastern Bluebird
White-eyed Vireo
New trip birds:
Palm Warbler
Chipping Sparrow
It was still early afternoon, so I decided to try the other new birding site. The Newhall Preserve is a 50 acre site. I had read some reviews, and most of them stated that very few birds had been seen there. I parked my car, and hiked a short distance to a small pond. Two eldery couples (probably mid- to late 80s) were sitting on benches along the pond. I saw a Great Egret there, and then hiked three of the short trails..
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Great Egret
I saw very few birds on these trails, and when I got back to the pond, the two couples were no longer there. I heard a loud rustling in the tall and dense vegetation next to the pond, and thought "alligator." I returned to the parking lot where I saw a warning sign about "Big Al" that lived at that pond. I assumed that the elderly couples had left on their own, and weren't with "Big Al" in the vegetation. :-)
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