Black-throated Magpie-jay

Today we went to Tijuana River Valley Regional Park: Bird & Butterfly Garden. It's in San Diego about a mile from the Mexican border. Occasionally some birds from Mexico are seen in this region. The black throated magpie Jay had been reported the past week, so I thought we'd make a run for the border.

Chris spotted one first hanging on a window of the visitor center. We found a few others as we walked around the park.

Location:Black-throated magpie-jay

Waxwing Invasion

If you have an invasion, it's not so bad if it's cedar waxwings compared to ants, termites, red shoulder bugs, fleas, aliens, which they sound like - well, you get the gist.
Pardon us for posting so many waxwing photos. It's just that we have been so entertained by them all day! We have probably 50 to 100 gorging on different berries, mostly toyon, visiting the palm trees, and even coming to the bird baths which we hadn't seen them do in previous years. A California towhee was bathing and several times chased off a waxwing - hey, you're not a regular here! They look like little superheroes with their masks, and today we feel very honored to have them spend the day with us.

Bonelli Park Birding

We've always been meaning to drop by Bonelli Park and had time this weekend.

There were just your typical water birds in the main park. It was a nice day to be outside after our cold spell.


Great Egret


Belted Kingfisher


In the north, Mike spent a lot of time photographing the acorn woodpeckers.

Wheeler Park in Claremont

We stopped by Wheeler Park in Claremont in hopes of seeing purple finches. We had no luck, but the Red-masked Parakeets were interesting and the male and female Nuttall's Woodpeckers were very active.



Red-masked Parakeet




Nuttall's Woodpecker