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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