We're supposed to get rain tonight, but with the sinkhole there, it could remain favorable for shorebirds until it gets fixed.
Wednesday, September 9, 2026
Newburg Road Retention Pond ~ September 9, 2026
After noticing the water level at the Newburg Road retention pond had dropped enough to create some shorebird habitat, I decided to take a quick run over there to see what might have dropped in. I was surprised to see how low the level had dropped since yesterday. That's when I noticed that the pond had developed a small sinkhole in its southwestern corner and it was draining the pond. There were also about 30 shorebirds there. Most of them were Killdeer, but scanning through them revealed 8 Least Sandpipers, 3 Solitary Sandpipers, a Spotted Sandpiper, and a Pectoral Sandpiper. I took this photo of some of the sandpipers next to the sinkhole (in the upper left).
We're supposed to get rain tonight, but with the sinkhole there, it could remain favorable for shorebirds until it gets fixed.
We're supposed to get rain tonight, but with the sinkhole there, it could remain favorable for shorebirds until it gets fixed.
Tuesday, September 8, 2026
Little Gap and the Newburg Road Pond ~ September 8, 2026
I soent another morning birding Little Gap, hoping to find a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher or an early Connecticut Warbler. I stopped at several spots on the way up to the top of the mountain. The first stop produced a male Blackburnian Warbler.
At the second stop, I got photos of one of several Black-and-white Warblers and an Ovenbird.
Atop the mountain, I came across a nice count of 4 Philadelphia Vireos. I was fortunate to get photos of two of them.
Also there was a female Black-throated Blue Warbler.
At another spot behind the hawkwatch, I found a Ruby-throated Hummingbird and several Black-throated Green Warblers.
Other birds seen during the morning included a Broad-winged Hawk, a Pileated Woodpecker, at least 19 Red-eyed Vireos, 3 Blue Jays, a Common Raven, 2 chickadees, a Tufted Titmouse, 5 American Redstarts, 4 Northern Parulas, and 9 Magnolia Warblers. Two Wild Turkeys and a Scarlet Tanager were seen on the way back down to the car.
The lack of rainfall has caused all of the area's shorebird habitat to dry up, so shorebirds have been nonexistent in the county this Fall. Yesterday, I stopped at the Newburg Road retention pond and found that the pond's level had dropped low enough to expose some shorebird habitat along its edge. There were 2 Solitary Sandpipers and many Killdeer present along with a couple Green Herons. So, today I stopped again and found a Lesser Yellowlegs had joined the others.
Hopefully, some other shorebirds will drop in during the coming days.
At the second stop, I got photos of one of several Black-and-white Warblers and an Ovenbird.
Atop the mountain, I came across a nice count of 4 Philadelphia Vireos. I was fortunate to get photos of two of them.
Also there was a female Black-throated Blue Warbler.
At another spot behind the hawkwatch, I found a Ruby-throated Hummingbird and several Black-throated Green Warblers.
Other birds seen during the morning included a Broad-winged Hawk, a Pileated Woodpecker, at least 19 Red-eyed Vireos, 3 Blue Jays, a Common Raven, 2 chickadees, a Tufted Titmouse, 5 American Redstarts, 4 Northern Parulas, and 9 Magnolia Warblers. Two Wild Turkeys and a Scarlet Tanager were seen on the way back down to the car.
The lack of rainfall has caused all of the area's shorebird habitat to dry up, so shorebirds have been nonexistent in the county this Fall. Yesterday, I stopped at the Newburg Road retention pond and found that the pond's level had dropped low enough to expose some shorebird habitat along its edge. There were 2 Solitary Sandpipers and many Killdeer present along with a couple Green Herons. So, today I stopped again and found a Lesser Yellowlegs had joined the others.
Hopefully, some other shorebirds will drop in during the coming days.
Sunday, September 6, 2026
Little Gap and Some Ponds ~ September 6, 2026
I decided to spend the morning at Little Gap, hoping to find a few uncommon birds. When I got to the parking lot, Adam Miller was there and, soon after, Mike and Corinne Schall joined us. A pretty good migration movement was noted during a few stops along the way to the top of the mountain and near the hawkwatch. Found were at least 11 Red-eyed Vireos, 4 chickadees, a 'zip-by' Merlin, a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, 2 American Robins, a Scarlet Tanager, plus 10 species of warblers comprised of 2 Ovenbirds, 5 American Redstarts, 2 Northern Parulas, 2 Black-and-whites, 7 Bay-breasteds, 2 Blackburnians, 5 Chestnut-sideds, 6 Black-throated Greens, a Magnolia Warbler, and a Cape May. One of the birds I was hoping for was Philadelphia Vireo, which I found behind the hawkwatch. I only got these two quick photos of it before it flew.
I also got this photo of a male American Redstart.
Birds seen from the hawkwatch included 2 Chimney Swifts, 2 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, a Black Vulture, 2 Sharp-shinned Hawks, a Cooper's Hawk, 3 Bald Eagles, 13 Broad-winged Hawks, 3 Red-tailed Hawks, 2 Eastern Wood-Pewees, 9 Common Ravens, 9 Tree Swallows, and 18 Cedar Waxwings.
On the way back home, I checked out the Regency Boulevard retention ponds where I found 6 Wood Ducks, 4 Green Herons, and a Hooded Merganser among 16 Mallards in the south pond.
The merganser likely is the same bird that I saw here back on August 18th.
A Cooper's Hawk circled over the cove area, which held a Pied-billed Grebe and 4 American Goldfinches and a Northern Yellow Warbler in the nearby brush.
The Trio Farms Boulevard retention ponds held 3 Double-crested Cormorants and a Pied-billed Grebe.
Another cormorant was at Green Pond with the 7 continuing Snow Geese, 2 Barn Swallows, a Gray Catbird, an Eastern Bluebird, and 2 Baltimore Orioles.
I also got this photo of a male American Redstart.
Birds seen from the hawkwatch included 2 Chimney Swifts, 2 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, a Black Vulture, 2 Sharp-shinned Hawks, a Cooper's Hawk, 3 Bald Eagles, 13 Broad-winged Hawks, 3 Red-tailed Hawks, 2 Eastern Wood-Pewees, 9 Common Ravens, 9 Tree Swallows, and 18 Cedar Waxwings.
On the way back home, I checked out the Regency Boulevard retention ponds where I found 6 Wood Ducks, 4 Green Herons, and a Hooded Merganser among 16 Mallards in the south pond.
The merganser likely is the same bird that I saw here back on August 18th.
A Cooper's Hawk circled over the cove area, which held a Pied-billed Grebe and 4 American Goldfinches and a Northern Yellow Warbler in the nearby brush.
The Trio Farms Boulevard retention ponds held 3 Double-crested Cormorants and a Pied-billed Grebe.
Another cormorant was at Green Pond with the 7 continuing Snow Geese, 2 Barn Swallows, a Gray Catbird, an Eastern Bluebird, and 2 Baltimore Orioles.
Friday, September 4, 2026
Far Eastern Curlew in Quebec, Canada! ~ September 3, 2026
Tuesday, September 2, 2026
I got a text from Jason Horn around 10:00 AM stating that a Far Eastern Curlew, the largest shorebird in the world, had been found in Quebec on Tuesday, the 1st, and had been refound this morning. Jason knew that I had missed seeing this bird in Alaska by about a week, so he knew I'd be interested in it. He also contacted his friend, Marjorie Keefe, who also had not seen this bird. The bird's location was "Blanc de Carleton" on Chaleur Bay in the town of Carleton. "Blanc de Carleton" translates to the "Carleton Sandbar" in English. I looked on Google Maps at the location and realized that it would be at least a 14-hour drive to get there. There was no way I'd be able to try doing this drive by myself, but it would be doable with the three of us sharing the driving. I checked the weather for that area and found that rain was supposed to move in around noon, so we wanted to get there in the early morning. In order to do that and despite the short time to prepare, we all agreed to meet at my house at 3:30 that afternoon where we started the 850-mile drive.
Wednesday, September 3, 2026
As it became Wednesday, we headed up through Maine and crossed the border into New Brunswick, Canada at Houlton, Maine. We still had another four hours to go, plus we would lose another hour because of entering the Atlantic Time Zone. Sunrise came a little while before we crossed the bridge into Quebec. We finally arrived at the "Carleton Sandbar" around 7:00 AM. We grabbed our gear and headed towards the point. Luckily, a group of birders had already found the bird out near the southern end of the spit. I started taking photos of my life Far Eastern Curlew!
It occasionally flew around to different parts of the area.
A Hudsonian Whimbrel was its 'sidekick'. They were often seen together. I got a nice comparison photo of the two, which showed the huge curlew dwarfing the whimbrel in overall size and bill length.
The two eventually flew up the spit towards the parking lot, allowing me to get some flight shots of this rare visitor.
We spent about a hour-and-a-half there. It was tough to leave such a fantastic bird, but we got great looks at it and we knew we had a long drive back home. Even as we left, it was feeding in the longer grass next to the entrance road.
We left Quebec and New Brunswick and went back through customs at Houlton. We had a nice conversation with the border patrol officer about the bird. He had another car of birders pass through earlier and was interested in what the bird looked like, so Jason showed him one of his photos. We drove back through Maine, New Hampshire, and into Massachusetts where we stopped to eat and took an hour "power nap" before continuing down through Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Thursday, September 4, 2026
We cleared the rest of Connecticut and checked off New York and New Jersey, getting back to my house at around 2:30 AM. We drove around 28 hours, covering roughly 1,700 miles. The curlew's appearance was the first record for eastern North America! It was a 'life bird' for Marjorie and I and a 'Canada bird' for Jason, who had seen one previously in Alaska.
I got a text from Jason Horn around 10:00 AM stating that a Far Eastern Curlew, the largest shorebird in the world, had been found in Quebec on Tuesday, the 1st, and had been refound this morning. Jason knew that I had missed seeing this bird in Alaska by about a week, so he knew I'd be interested in it. He also contacted his friend, Marjorie Keefe, who also had not seen this bird. The bird's location was "Blanc de Carleton" on Chaleur Bay in the town of Carleton. "Blanc de Carleton" translates to the "Carleton Sandbar" in English. I looked on Google Maps at the location and realized that it would be at least a 14-hour drive to get there. There was no way I'd be able to try doing this drive by myself, but it would be doable with the three of us sharing the driving. I checked the weather for that area and found that rain was supposed to move in around noon, so we wanted to get there in the early morning. In order to do that and despite the short time to prepare, we all agreed to meet at my house at 3:30 that afternoon where we started the 850-mile drive.
Wednesday, September 3, 2026
As it became Wednesday, we headed up through Maine and crossed the border into New Brunswick, Canada at Houlton, Maine. We still had another four hours to go, plus we would lose another hour because of entering the Atlantic Time Zone. Sunrise came a little while before we crossed the bridge into Quebec. We finally arrived at the "Carleton Sandbar" around 7:00 AM. We grabbed our gear and headed towards the point. Luckily, a group of birders had already found the bird out near the southern end of the spit. I started taking photos of my life Far Eastern Curlew!
It occasionally flew around to different parts of the area.
A Hudsonian Whimbrel was its 'sidekick'. They were often seen together. I got a nice comparison photo of the two, which showed the huge curlew dwarfing the whimbrel in overall size and bill length.
The two eventually flew up the spit towards the parking lot, allowing me to get some flight shots of this rare visitor.
We spent about a hour-and-a-half there. It was tough to leave such a fantastic bird, but we got great looks at it and we knew we had a long drive back home. Even as we left, it was feeding in the longer grass next to the entrance road.
We left Quebec and New Brunswick and went back through customs at Houlton. We had a nice conversation with the border patrol officer about the bird. He had another car of birders pass through earlier and was interested in what the bird looked like, so Jason showed him one of his photos. We drove back through Maine, New Hampshire, and into Massachusetts where we stopped to eat and took an hour "power nap" before continuing down through Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Thursday, September 4, 2026
We cleared the rest of Connecticut and checked off New York and New Jersey, getting back to my house at around 2:30 AM. We drove around 28 hours, covering roughly 1,700 miles. The curlew's appearance was the first record for eastern North America! It was a 'life bird' for Marjorie and I and a 'Canada bird' for Jason, who had seen one previously in Alaska.
Thursday, August 13, 2026
Southern California Trip ~ August 6, 2026
A couple decades ago, my goal was to see 700 species of birds in the American Birding Association (ABA) area, which includes the United States and Canada, without ever going to Alaska. That was achieved in 2005. My next goal was to see 800 species in the ABA area. That occurred in 2016. Obviously, the higher my life list gets, the tougher it is to see something new, so '900' is a very tough level to acquire. My list is currently around the mid-880's. I'm hoping that I can reach my '900' goal before I "kick the bucket". That said, I was researching where I could go and have the chance to see new birds. Since my motion sickness often keeps me from doing boat trips, I haven't seen several of the "expected" Atlantic and Pacific Ocean's birds. I saw that the Buena Vista Audubon Society was running back-to-back pelagic trips out of San Diego, California on August 8th and 9th, led by expert birder Paul Lehman and several others. There were also a few San Diego-area landbirds that I had not yet seen. Plus, since I keep a "photo list", there were several other species that I didn't have photos of from that area. Realizing all of this, I decided to plan a 6-day trip with two days of landbirding on either side of the boat trip weekend.
Thursday, August 6, 2026
I headed for the Newark Airport at 3:00 AM for my 6:35 AM non-stop flight to San Diego. Thankfully, it took off on time and actually landed a little early.
I got my rental car by 9:45, grabbed something to eat, and headed south on I-5 to the Tijuana River Valley Regional Park's Bird & Butterfly Garden, located about a mile from the Mexican border. Walking the trails there, I found a group of Lesser Goldfinches and a few Allen's Hummingbirds.
Soon after, I heard and then saw my first 'life bird' of the trip, an introduced Swinhoe's White-eye.
Other birds seen there included Red-tailed and Cooper's Hawk, Common Raven, Cliff Swallow, California Towhee, Orange-crowned Warbler, Northern Yellow Warbler, and Black Phoebe, which is about as common as our Eastern Phoebe.
I headed back north to National City, which had two areas where Burrowing Parakeets were occasionally being seen, although there hadn't been any recent sightings there in the past couple weeks. The most reliable spot was an intersection at E. 2nd Street & 'D' Avenue where a lady had feeders on her front porch. Unfortunately, when I got there, there was a construction crew working at that exact spot. I spent about a half-hour there with no luck, so I continued on to Harry Griffen Regional Park.
Harry Griffen Park has some ball fields, a dog park, a large open field area, and a natural area along its western edge. The park was presently the best spot to look for Pin-tailed Whydahs, which have now been established in a few areas of southern California. They are brood parasites similar in action to Brown-headed Cowbirds, often laying their eggs in the nests of Scaly-breasted Munias, another established exotic. I walked the trails through the area and found a group of about 25 Bushtits, grabbing these photos as they fed.
It is believed that the females have pale eyes while the males have dark eyes.
Dark-eyed Juncos of the "Oregon" race were also present. It seemed weird seeing Juncos in 80-degree weather since our "Slate-colored" form heads north for the summer to breed.
A young Western Bluebird was seen dropping down to feed from a tree along the eastern edge of the park.
Other birds found in the park included an Anna's Hummingbird, 5 Red-masked Parakeets, 3 Black Phoebes, 2 Cassin's Kingbirds, a Bewick's Wren, 11 Lesser Goldfinches, 3 California Towhees, a Hooded Oriole, an Orange-crowned Warbler, and a Western Tanager, but I didn't see any Whydahs.
I drove into nearby El Cajon and checked into my motel, which was the 'Super 8' located just off I-8 along Magnolia Avenue. It wasn't "super", but it was very reasonable compared to many of the San Diego motels and did the job for me since I wouldn't be there from sun-up to sun-down anyway. It was my "nightly apartment" during my stay.
After settling in, I drove over to the Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve, a series of small lakes with picnic and camping facilities. Found on the lakes were Wood Duck, Mallard, American Coot, Western Gull, Pied-billed Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, Great and Snowy Egret, and Common Gallinule.
Additional birds seen in the park included Eurasian Collared-Dove, Black Phoebe, Cassin's Kingbird, and Hooded Oriole.
I went back to the room and chilled out since it had been a very long day.
Thursday, August 6, 2026
I headed for the Newark Airport at 3:00 AM for my 6:35 AM non-stop flight to San Diego. Thankfully, it took off on time and actually landed a little early.
I got my rental car by 9:45, grabbed something to eat, and headed south on I-5 to the Tijuana River Valley Regional Park's Bird & Butterfly Garden, located about a mile from the Mexican border. Walking the trails there, I found a group of Lesser Goldfinches and a few Allen's Hummingbirds.
Soon after, I heard and then saw my first 'life bird' of the trip, an introduced Swinhoe's White-eye.
Other birds seen there included Red-tailed and Cooper's Hawk, Common Raven, Cliff Swallow, California Towhee, Orange-crowned Warbler, Northern Yellow Warbler, and Black Phoebe, which is about as common as our Eastern Phoebe.
I headed back north to National City, which had two areas where Burrowing Parakeets were occasionally being seen, although there hadn't been any recent sightings there in the past couple weeks. The most reliable spot was an intersection at E. 2nd Street & 'D' Avenue where a lady had feeders on her front porch. Unfortunately, when I got there, there was a construction crew working at that exact spot. I spent about a half-hour there with no luck, so I continued on to Harry Griffen Regional Park.
Harry Griffen Park has some ball fields, a dog park, a large open field area, and a natural area along its western edge. The park was presently the best spot to look for Pin-tailed Whydahs, which have now been established in a few areas of southern California. They are brood parasites similar in action to Brown-headed Cowbirds, often laying their eggs in the nests of Scaly-breasted Munias, another established exotic. I walked the trails through the area and found a group of about 25 Bushtits, grabbing these photos as they fed.
It is believed that the females have pale eyes while the males have dark eyes.
Dark-eyed Juncos of the "Oregon" race were also present. It seemed weird seeing Juncos in 80-degree weather since our "Slate-colored" form heads north for the summer to breed.
A young Western Bluebird was seen dropping down to feed from a tree along the eastern edge of the park.
Other birds found in the park included an Anna's Hummingbird, 5 Red-masked Parakeets, 3 Black Phoebes, 2 Cassin's Kingbirds, a Bewick's Wren, 11 Lesser Goldfinches, 3 California Towhees, a Hooded Oriole, an Orange-crowned Warbler, and a Western Tanager, but I didn't see any Whydahs.
I drove into nearby El Cajon and checked into my motel, which was the 'Super 8' located just off I-8 along Magnolia Avenue. It wasn't "super", but it was very reasonable compared to many of the San Diego motels and did the job for me since I wouldn't be there from sun-up to sun-down anyway. It was my "nightly apartment" during my stay.
After settling in, I drove over to the Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve, a series of small lakes with picnic and camping facilities. Found on the lakes were Wood Duck, Mallard, American Coot, Western Gull, Pied-billed Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, Great and Snowy Egret, and Common Gallinule.
Additional birds seen in the park included Eurasian Collared-Dove, Black Phoebe, Cassin's Kingbird, and Hooded Oriole.
I went back to the room and chilled out since it had been a very long day.
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