No double-dipping

Now that migration has been going on for a while, the vagrants are turning up and finally last weekend the number of rarities within striking range reached critical mass and I was forced into action.

Return to Old Bar

Reports from two familiar sites between 4-5 hours north of Sydney had indicated 4 possible ticks for the list and so we headed out on Saturday to the sand-flats at Old Bar. This is where I twitched the Aleutian Terns last summer but this time, after wading out across the shallow water and being careful not to stand on the stingrays, there was no bird in sight. A helpful returning birder happily informed us that he'd just photographed it half an hour before. Gripped!

Nothing unusual at Jerseyville

Next morning I dropped Emily off in Port Macquarie and headed further north to what used to be a damp field at Jerseyville where I actually twitched a Lesser Yellowlegs years and years ago. The place has been completely changed since then and is now a conserved and maintained wetland with a bird hide and apparently a Buff-breasted Sandpiper, a Broad-billed Sandpiper, and a Ruff. I searched the various ponds for a few hours with no joy and had to give up and return south. Double-dipped!

Blue Soldier Crabs

There was still a bit of time and so a chance back at Old Bar on the way home and much to my relief the Little Stint #501 was running about in the exact spot that we'd searched the day before. And so a successful trip in the end with the three possible ticks up in Jerseyville seemingly moved on as no-one has seen any of them since.

Little Stint

If nothing else happens over the next week or so and I don't get another post out,

Merry Christmas to you all!

     

California

At the beginning of last month I was sent over to our San Diego office to carry out some training for the troops over there.

Memjet San Diego

I was basically stuck on an industrial estate for a week but industrial estates in San Diego are full of hummingbirds so it wasn't too bad.

 

I spotted two species but by far the most common was Anna's Hummingbird. The male has a tremendous bright pink throat patch which suddenly flashes when the angle of the light is right. They also tended to perch up now and again which allowed me to get some pictures.

Anna's Hummingbird

Catching them in flight was an altogether more difficult task.

I timed my flight over there to give me a full weekend to recover from the jet-lag and so I was able to spend a few hours on the Saturday over in the desert by the Salton Sea looking for Burrowing Owls and on the Sunday I popped up to LA to catch a football game.

 Burrowing Owl

Salton Sea is a large inland lake in the desert which attracts all sorts of wildlife. The Snow Geese had just turned up for the winter and there was a Roadrunner doing what it should be doing and running on the road but I was there for the Burrowing Owls. They are a very cute little owl that take over burrows and make hissing and rattling sounds to mimic (poorly!) a rattlesnake which is apparently very effective at scaring off would-be predators.

'Real' burrow

Around Salton Sea they're encouraged to live in certain areas where burrows are protected with pipes which doesn't make for the most natural look but I did also manage to find one that had a real burrow but it disappeared down the hole before I could get close.

California Ground Squirrel

I managed to get 3 birding sessions in over the course of the week which left me with a list of 61 species for the trip. Apart from the hummingbirds and Burrowing Owls, my other favourite was the Acorn Woodpecker.

Acorn-filled tree trunk

A comedic looking bird with a clown face that drills holes into tree trunks and then proceeds to stuff an acorn into the hole.

Acorn Woodpecker at work

They appear to be very social and so a group of these woodpeckers will be hanging out together filling every available tree trunk with acorns. I've no idea why!

Rams' House

The football fans in San Diego are a bit lost at the moment as their team was recently moved out of the city leaving them with no-one to support anymore. I therefore had to go up to LA to see a game and ended up at the LA Memorial Coliseum (the 1984 Olympic stadium) to see the LA Rams take on the Seattle Seahawks.

Olympic flame

In the event it was an excellent high-scoring game of football which went down to the very last play with the hometown team holding on for the win.

Refreshments

For such a big crowd, however, there was no atmosphere. The punters only really revved up when implored by the stadium announcer to do so. But then I'm used to that living here in Australia.

California Sealions

Before catching the plane home I popped down to the coast at La Jolla which is well known for it's seals and sealions and where I also picked up a couple of Least Sandpipers and a Black Turnstone!