We both left the park. Josh was heading to the Los Angeles area to do some birding up there. I was still trying to get a photo of a California Gnatcatcher, but I wasn't finding any. I went back to Sunset Cliffs Natural Park where Josh and my friend Jason had both seen them. I got there around 8:30 and walked the trails again, only finding Bewick's Wren, Northern Mockingbird, and California Towhee.
I had Lake Murray listed as another possible site for the gnatcatcher, so I drove there and walked the Lake Murray bike path on the northwest side of the lake. There was a Caspian Tern flying over that corner of the lake. Eventually, it landed beside another young Caspian.
A Cassin's Kingbird was perched along the path.
I kept watching the scrubby hillside along the path since it contained the best-looking habitat at the lake. I walked out to where there was a locked gate with no luck, so I had to turn around and head back. That's when I noticed a small, dark gray bird fly up and land in the fencing. When I also saw that the tail was mostly dark, I knew it was a California Gnatcatcher. I quickly grabbed some photos of it before it dropped down into the scrub.
I returned to the car, drove a short distance to another parking area, and walked the path out to where there was a view of the northeast section of the lake. That's where I found seven grebes. Four of them were Western Grebes and three of them were Clark's Grebes. I was able to get these two comparison photos showing the dark cap going just below the eye on the Westerns whereas the white on the face goes above the eye on the Clark's. Also note the dingy olive-colored bill of the Western compared to the much brighter yellow-orange bill of the Clark's.
Other birds found there included Anna's and Allen's Hummingbird, Western Gull, Pied-billed Grebe, Snowy Egret, Red-tailed Hawk, Wrentit, Scaly-breasted Munia, California Towhee, and Common Yellowthroat.
I drove around to the Lake Murray Recreation Area, located near the southeast side of the lake. There, I found Canada Goose, Mallard, American Coot, Western Gull, Pied-billed Grebe, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, Brewer's Blackbird, and Great-tailed Grackle.
It was the middle of the afternoon, so I went back to Rolando Park and did a parakeet watch from the top end of the park. I got a little excited when I saw a group of eleven parakeets flew by heading west, but they turned out to be Red-masked Parakeets.
Also seen there were Anna's Hummingbird, California Scrub-Jay, Common Raven, a group of around 25 Bushtits, and Northern Mockingbird.
When I was at the El Cajon Courthouse three nights ago, I noticed that the groups of parrots were flying off to the northeast. It looked like El Cajon City Park was the likely location they were heading for, so I drove over there about an hour before sunset. When I got out of the car, I heard distant squawking and followed it a half-block east to N. Mollison Avenue where about twenty birds were lining the wires with more birds arriving by the minute.
As I got closer, I saw that the majority of the birds were Red-crowned Amazons, but there were also some Lilac-crowned Amazons mixed in among them.
As it got closer to dusk, the birds moved from the wires over to the trees in the southeast corner of the park. I estimated about 100 Red-crowneds and around 25 Lilac-crowneds came in to roost there for the night.
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