Birding the OC: Eurasion Widgeon at Tewinkle Park and swallows at San Jaoquin wildlife refuge.

A Eurasian Widgeon had been reported at Tewinkle Park in Costa Mesa and that would be a life bird for us. Mike had to fly out of John Wayne so he stopped by before his flight. The bird was easy to spot in the "cement pond" and easy to photograph.

Eurasian Widgeon


American Widgeon

There's not much to do at Tewinkle other than see the Eurasian Widgeon, so there was a little time to drop by San Jaoquin Wildlife Refuge where the tree swallows were out in force.


Tree Swallow

More at the Palm Tree

When we lived on the east coast we never imagined that Robins or Waxwings feasted at Palm Trees.


Robin


Cedar Waxwing

Birdy Weekend

On Saturday, we noticed some rare visitors, bluebirds and cedar waxwings, coming to our bird bath. So, on Sunday we took the camera out with us.



Here's a photo of this unusual pair, a Western Bluebird and a Cedar Waxwing.



Cedar Waxwings usually travel in large flocks. Here's three at the bath.



The Scrub Jay is also a infrequent visitor to our yard.



The Nutmeg Mannikins have been making nearly daily, often brief visits. We are hoping for a nest somewhere.



We're not sure how much longer the Dark-eyed Junco will stay before heading to Oregon for the summer.




We eventually found the reason for the Waxwings, Bluebirds (and robins). A nearby palm tree was providing them with food.

A Clean Clapper Rail

We went to Bolsa Chica in Huntington Beach. The most interesting find was a light-footed clapper rail bathing in front of the footbridge.

Yucaipa Regional Park

We dropped by Yucaipa Regional Park on the way to a nursery. We got some good views of red-breasted sapsuckers. The female hooded merganser eating a fish was interesting too.

Say's Phoebe

We stopped by Andulka Park and the Say's Phoebe was posing.

Irvine Lake: Painted Redstart

We went to Irvine Lake to find the bald eagles that had been reported. No luck there, but the painted redstart was nice. We would have gone just for that if we hadn't seen some in Arizona recently.


The western bluebird was nice too.