Since my flight was a 'red-eye' flight, I had most of the day to look for some other interesting birds that I hadn't run into yet. I still hadn't found a Burrowing Parakeet, so I decided to head back to E. 2nd Street & 'D' Avenue again, getting there at first light. This time, after waiting 45 minutes, I heard some squawking. I got out of the car and finally spotted two Burrowing Parakeets on the wires near the intersection!
With all of my targets 'in the bag', I drove down to the Tijuana River Valley Regional Park's Bird & Butterfly Garden to see if I could find the Black-throated Magpie-Jays that were often found there. These birds are "uncountable" since they are considered escaped, not wild birds. Walking the trails produced Allen's Hummingbird, Cooper's Hawk, Northern Harrier, Nuttall's Woodpecker, Bushtit, Swinhoe's White-eye, Scaly-breasted Munia, Lesser Goldfinch, Song Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Orange-crowned Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, and Northern Yellow Warbler, but there was no sign of the Magpie-Jays.
I went over to the adjacent "community gardens" area and walked through there. When I got to the northern end of the gardens, I heard the call of the jays, but I couldn't find them. They were somewhere inside one of the gardens where they weren't visible. Eventually, I saw four of them take off and fly over to the Bird & Butterfly Garden, but I only managed to get a crappy photo of one before they disappeared into a tree.
After some searching back over at the Bird & Butterfly Garden, I finally got good looks at the Black-throated Magpie-Jays in one of the tall trees. Their black ear tufts and extremely long tails were so distinctive.
They then moved to the trees right next to the parking lot where they were so close at times that I couldn't keep their whole tail in the frame.
Successful again, I headed north to a Texas Roadhouse near National City and sat down to a nice, relaxing Ribeye steak dinner. After eating, I still had some extra time before I had to return my rental car, so I made the short drive again to E. 2nd Street & 'D' Avenue where, this time, I found 6 Burrowing Parakeets, which were in better light allowing for better photos.
I drove the short distance up I-5, dropped off my rental car, got shuttled over to the airport, and boarded my non-stop flight back to Newark, catching up on some much-needed sleep along the way.
Wednesday, August 12, 2026
After my plane landed in Newark around 5:30 AM, I took the shuttle to my car, and drove back home, getting there around 7:30.
I saw 98 species during my 6-day stay. In addition to adding 6 life birds, I saw 2 "uncountable" exotics and got 'life photos' of 15 total species in the process. This trip was all done in the vicinity of San Diego and the majority of two of the days were spent on a boat out in the Pacific Ocean, so I only put a total of 435 miles on the Nissan Versa that I rented. This was the least amount I've ever driven on an out-of-state trip. For those interested in seeing many more photos from this trip, you can go to my California Adventures Photos Album.
Southern California Trip List - August 6-11, 2026
1) Canada Goose
2) Wood Duck
3) Mallard
4) California Quail
5) Rock Pigeon
6) Eurasian Collared-Dove
7) Mourning Dove
8) Anna's Hummingbird
9) Allen's Hummingbird
10) Common Gallinule
11) American Coot
12) Hudsonian Whimbrel
13) Red Phalarope
14) Red-necked Phalarope
15) Willet
16) Pomarine Jaeger
17) South Polar Skua
18) Cassin's Auklet
19) Scripps's Murrelet*
20) Sabine's Gull
21) Heermann's Gull
22) Western Gull
23) Least Tern
24) Caspian Tern
25) Black Tern
26) Common Tern
27) Elegant Tern
28) Pied-billed Grebe
29) Western Grebe
30) Clark's Grebe
31) Laysan Albatross
32) Black-footed Albatross
33) Leach's Storm-Petrel
34) Townsend's Storm-Petrel*
35) Black Storm-Petrel
36) Pink-footed Shearwater
37) Sooty Shearwater
38) Black-vented Shearwater
39) Cocos Booby*
40) Masked/Nazca Booby
41) Brandt's Cormorant
42) Double-crested Cormorant
43) Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
44) Black-crowned Night-Heron
45) Snowy Egret
46) Great Egret
47) Great Blue Heron
48) Brown Pelican
49) Turkey Vulture
50) Cooper's Hawk
51) Northern Harrier
52) Red-tailed Hawk
53) Acorn Woodpecker
54) Downy Woodpecker
55) Nuttall's Woodpecker
56) Red-crowned Amazon
57) Lilac-crowned Amazon*
58) Burrowing Parakeet^
59) Red-masked Parakeet
60) Black Phoebe
61) Cassin's Kingbird
62) Western Kingbird
63) Bell's Vireo
64) Black-throated Magpie-Jay^
65) California Scrub-Jay
66) American Crow
67) Common Raven
68) Northern Rough-winged Swallow
69) Cliff Swallow
70) Bushtit
71) Wrentit
72) Swinhoe's White-eye*
73) Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
74) California Gnatcatcher
75) Bewick's Wren
76) California Thrasher
77) Northern Mockingbird
78) Western Bluebird
79) Scaly-breasted Munia
80) Pin-tailed Whydah*
81) House Sparrow
82) House Finch
83) Lesser Goldfinch
84) Dark-eyed “Oregon” Junco
85) Song Sparrow
86) California Towhee
87) Rufous-crowned Sparrow
88) Spotted Towhee
89) Hooded Oriole
90) Red-winged Blackbird
91) Brown-headed Cowbird
92) Brewer's Blackbird
93) Great-tailed Grackle
94) Orange-crowned Warbler
95) Common Yellowthroat
96) Northern Yellow Warbler
97) Western Tanager
98) Lazuli Bunting
* Denotes a 'life bird'.
^ Denotes an "uncountable" exotic.
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