Southern
California with Geoff & Kitty
Oct 20
thru 24, 2003
Guides: Bob Miller and Henry Detwiler
Continuation of day
two with Bob and Geoff rolling into La Jolla!
La Jolla |
A two hour drive put us into La Jolla at noon so the light was
still good for looking seaward. A lone Pink-footed
Shearwater working the Kelp beds was unexpected. Lots of
Harbor Seals were hauled out on the rocks and the Western and
Heermann's Gull were everywhere. |
|
Wandering Tattler, Black Turnstone and Spotted
Sandpiper were in the mix of gulls and seals on these outcrops.
Elegant, Forester's and Caspian Terns were working beyond the Kelp
beds.
|
La Jolla
|
Gulls! |
Ruddy Turnstones turned up on the ledges directly beneath us as we
were studying the gulls up close. A flight of about 50 Brown
Pelicans came right over our heads. Not much lower than the
several law enforcement helicopters that buzzed by! |
| We moved over to the cliffs above La Jolla Cove and stuck our head
into the cave shop to get a whiff of moist sea air coming up through
the store from the tunnel below. We searched through the
Double-crested Cormorants perched on the cliffs and had about given
up on Pelagic Cormorant when one flew right beneath us and landed
just out of sight on the cliff! We soon had another for a good
look in the scope though. |
Heermann's Gull
|
Western Gull |
Looking north up the coast revealed the beginnings of a huge
column of smoke that did not sit easy on our minds as we pulled out
and headed up the coast to San Elijo Lagoon. |
|
|
House finch
|
House Finch goes away!
|
| San Elijo Lagoon held a good number of birds on the water and we
added several new ducks to our list but the land birding was the
slowest and held the fewest birds of any visit I have ever made
there. We did get nice looks at the local Savannah Sparrow
and the Black Saddlebags dragonflies were constantly catching our
eye as we scanned for the gnatcatchers, thrashers and quail
that never appeared. |
Black Saddlebags
|
|
|
|
Catching the rays
|
This little guy was enjoying the sun and paid us no mind as we
stopped to read the Toyon Berry marker. As the sun was setting the
Wrentits began calling and we had a brief look. We finally
got onto a Nuttall's Woodpecker just before it disappeared into a
cavity for the night! |
| The moisture in the sea air was heavy as we made our way back to
the vehicle to call it a day and start the drive back to La
Quinta. We were having such a good time birding that we had
not bothered to eat lunch so we both had one thing on our minds by
now. FOOD!
Going north in the darkness we could see a fire raging on the
hills that we had passed through earlier in the day and
wondered....
|
San Elijo Lagoon
|
| Henry picked them up in the afternoon of the next day and the
adventure continued for two more days! His pictures and the
tale of their trip are on the next page.
As I put this page together, Southern California is on
fire. A large portion of the area that we had driven through
to the south was burned. None of the places in the
photographs on these two pages has burned.
|
Back to page ONE click here!
On to Henry's portion of the trip click here! |
|
