Whitewater Preserve

Mike woke Chris up early to go to Whitewater Preserve near Palm Springs. We thought it would be warm but it was a bit chilly.



The best bird we encountered and photographed was the California Thrasher, a new one to us.



There were many ring-necked ducks. Here's a female.


We also saw a road runner and several California Quail, but they were too fast to photograph.

Hermit Thrush

Hermit Thrush

We went to the UCR Botanic Gardens in hopes of finding the verdin or the green-tailed towhee, but all we saw was this Hermit Thrush.

Lacy Park: Painted Redstart and Red Whiskered Bulbul

Painted Redstart




Red-whiskered bulbul


Townsend's Warbler

We went to Lacy Park on Thanksgiving to see if we could find the painted redstart that has been reported. No luck then, but we returned early Saturday and found it in the exact tree it had been reported visiting. It was quickly chased off by a red whiskered bulbul singing loudly from the same tree. We also spotted a townsend's warbler in the same tree.

More Ducks

Common Goldeneye


Common Merganser


Female Hooded Mergansers


Male Hooded Mergansers


Ring-necked Ducks


Female Common Merganser and Ring-necked Duck


Ring-necked Duck and American Widgeon


The migrating ducks are starting to arrive nearby. We always enjoy the hooded mergansers, but really appreciated seeing the common merganser female. The common golden eye was a neat find.

Hooded Mergansers

Hooded Mergansers

The Hooded Merganser was the bird that got us most interested in bird watching. They would come by our home on a small lake in New Jersey every fall. We are thrilled that they are nearby in California, too.

San Jacinto Wildlife Area

Say's Phoebe

White-tailed Kite


Canvasback


Northern Pintail

We went on the Audobon sponsored birdwalk at San Jacinto Wildlife Area. Here are a few of the better photos.

Phainopepla: Peck Road Water Conservation Park

Phainopepla

Hummingbird

We went to the Peck Road Water Conservation Park in Arcadia this morning.
The fall migration in California is a bit different than New Jersey. First, it's sunny and warm. Second, we have birds like the Phainopepla. The approaching storm seems fairly bad for New Jersey (which CNN refers to as the area between New York City and Philadelphia).

Birding at Glen Helen Regional Park

The fall migration is picking up so we are heading out to find some migrants. This wekeend, we made it to Glen Helen Regional Park. Here are some highlights:



Red-shouldered Hawk



Black-throated Grey Warbler


Black-crowned Night-Heron

Bird on a Flower

House Finch

Another weekend, another bird by an orange flower. Oh, and a mountain chickadee too.

Orange-crowned Warbler

Orange-crowned Warbler

We went on UC Riverside's birdwalk and breakfast and here is the best photo

Hummingbird

Hummingbird

We bought a new home and have begun remodeling it. Right now HGTV has priority over Animal Planet in our lives, but we can do some birding from our new yard.

Here's a hummingbird from our garden.

Prado Regional Park

Vermillion Flycatcher


Vermilion Flycatcher (juvenile)


Belted Kingfisher



Peacock

We went back to Prado today. We saw a belted kingfisher, our first since moving from a lake in NJ to California. You can tell this is a California bird by the blue sky in the background.

Brown Chinese Goose

Brown Chinese Goose

While out on our morning walk, we encountered two Brown Chinese Geese along Riverwalk.

We have been encountering quite a few wild birds that are not native to the area: Pin-tailed Whydah from Africa, Parrots from South America, Chinese geese.

Pin-tailed Whydah: Huntington Beach, California.

Last year, We visited South Africa and saw many birds as well as the African mammals. We were impressed with the pin-tailed whydah with its long tail.

At the time, we didn't know it but there are several areas in the US where they breed including Huntington Central Park. Their origin is from escaped cage birds who have survived in the wild. We saw a female (with a short tail) as well as the male with its long flowing tail.

Huntington Central Park

We thought we'd try a new birding spot on Labor Day before heading to the beach. We decided upon Huntington Central Park because a yellow-throated vireo had been spotted there. We found it after a while but ran into the pin-tailed whydah first.







We also added the bullock's oriole and white faced ibis to our life lists (since we are new to birding in California) and saw the western wood peewee and western bluebird too.






Bullock's Oriole




White-faced Ibis




Western Wood Peewee



Western Bluebird

San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, Irvine

After Huntington Beach, we stopped for breakfast and then checked out the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary in Irvine. The highlight was a baby Clark's grebe, but we also were impressed with the size of the American White Pelican.



Clark's Grebe with juvenile


American White Pelican

Acorn Woodpecker

Acorn Woodpecker

Birds and Bugs

Mockingbird with an insect

Orange-crowned Warbler with a spider