It was a gorgeous day. I got to go with Chet McGaugh, a recognized birding and biology expert in four counties. He and Gene Cardiff are great friends and are held in high esteem for their knowledge in this area throughout Southern California. Chet and I spent the day together.
Chet led the way and we began looking and counting at around 7:15 A.M. or so. Almost immediately we see two Red Tailed Hawks, (Buteo jamaicensis), flying from one high rock to another, sitting on the rock and watching us pass by. We saw a Merlin, (Falco columbarius), land on a rock between the two Red-Tails. By 8:15 or so, an adult Bald Eagle,(Haliaeetus leucocephalus), flew right over us. This was already a great day.
As we walked up the fire road into a kind of canyon, we kept hearing gunshots in front of us. We passed several signs saying in English and using the pictograph of a stick figure holding a rifle with a red circle and a line through this figure. Supposedly this is an international sign that depicts no shooting, hunting, or anything to do with a rifle in the area. Yet we heard several gunshots ring out as we cautiously approached. At the top of the road we saw several men off to one side dressed in hunting orange holding shotguns. From the other side walked three more hunters, dressed in hunter neon orange and carrying shotguns. Chet politely admonished them to pay attention to the signs and reminded them that hunting in the area was illegal. The man that appeared to be the father, looked right at us and with a straight face told us they were not shooting, it was someone else. Luckily, I don't have to deal with human crap like this anymore, and we left the issue at that and left. Once again, the worst thing out in the wild were the two legged animals with the biggest brains. Sad.
We went on to look at what was around the horse ranch in the valley. There we saw a Ferruginous Hawk, (Buteo regales), sitting in the field near the ranch. Soon a White Tailed Kite,(Elanus leucurus), landed nearby in the field. Both birds of prey are birds I haven't seen for years. While we watched these two, a flock of Red Winged Blackbirds, (Agelaius phoenixes), flew into three large trees in the ranch near the main house. In amongst the Red Wings, there were five or six Yelllow-headed Blackbirds, (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus), sitting on branches of the tree. Another bird I haven't seen in years.
As we walked through large fields we scared up flocks of American Pipits,(Anthus rubescens), and Western Meadowlarks,(Sturnella neglecta). We were surrounded by their calls. We walked the fields, returned to our cars, drove to another location, and walked some more. We took a break for lunch on the roadway, and watched a Great Egret,(Ardea alba), fly to near our lunch location and begin to hunt the flooded field.
After lunch, we walked along a muddy roadway and up the hillside into a stand of olive trees. Chet told me this was a good place for owls. He told me we should split up and walk through the trees in the hopes of scaring up something the other would see. We did, it didn't work. Nothing scared up. We didn't find any owls hiding in the trees.
We slogged our way back along the flooded roadway and fields. We did see Mountain Bluebirds,(Sialia currucoides), at the edges of the field, in a near riparian area along the irrigation channel. Chet announced it was time to go to the Chicken Ranch, (not the one in Las Vegas).
We drove over to the location and pulled off the side of the road. There was a large puddle in front and a good number of Ringed Billed Gulls, (Larus delawarensis). Now, I would have left it at that, but Chet pulled out his Kowa scope and began to scan the flock. There he pointed out a Thayer's Gull,(Larus thayeri).
Chet then led the way to the ranch proper where large bulldozer's were moving small mountains of chicken manure. Perched all over these mountains were an estimated 2000 gulls and Cattle Egrets, (Bubulcus ibis). Once again, Chet began scanning with his scope. Soon he was oohing and aaahing, and dancing like a small child needed to find a restroom. He looked, stepped away from the scope, and looked again. Then he made a phone call. I asked if he found something good, and he said oooohh yeah. He put the bird in the scope and explained to me what I was looking for, and there it was, a Lesser Black Backed Gull, (Larus fuscus), a much larger and darker gull compared to the many Ring Billed Gulls surrounding it. Chet knew it right away, this was a bird not seen in this Christmas Bird Count before. It was also a lifer for me. In fact, both the Thayer's and Lesser Black Backed gulls were lifers for me. Another good birder arrived and verified the find, and Chet was able to take a couple photos of the bird. My camera would not take a good photo of the bird as it was too far away for the lens I currently have. Later, we also found a Western Gull,(Larus occidentals), that was rare to find at this location, but not a new bird for the count. We spent some time at this place.
We looked at a couple other locations, then decided to go to the Coco's we all agreed to meet. There we met the other participants in the count, including Gene Cardiff and Dori Meyers who worked Lake Perris. After all was said and done, Tom Benson, (a co-compiler with Tony Metcalf), announced we had all seen a total of 154 species this day. This was a CBC record for at least the five years Tom kept the records. Nice day. We all went home with slightly sunburnt faces, a little tired, (having walked anywhere from 4 to 9.5 miles, Chet and I walked nearly 7 miles according to his wrist pedometer), and very satisfied.
You might be a birdnerd if...you walk toward people with guns holding only a pair of binoculars.
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