A Hodge Podge of Light Birding

  Today was a hodge podge of light birding, sight-seeing, eating fish and people-watching. Our first stop after leaving the hotel was the Buena Vista Lagoon. It is a freshwater lagoon adjacent to the Pacific Ocean approximately 35 miles north of San Diego. The docent there knew nothing about birds. The push-pull issue there is whether to allow the sea to salinate the lagoon and, if so, how much. At the Buena Vista Lagoon, we saw several small black birds busily pecking the ground of a muddy patch of soil. As we examined them, one cool bird we saw was the Slate Colored Junco (Junco Hyemalis) .

  Leaving the lagoon, we continued north up the coast, visiting the Oceanside harbor and finally making it to the San Clemente pier. We had a quite lovely lunch at the Fisherman’s Restaurant in San Clemente. Berry had the Seafood Pasta. Robert had a Caesar Salad, the White Sea Bass and some Sourdough Bread. We shared a piece of Strawberry Shortcake. After lunch, we avoided the freeway problem by taking a divergent route back to our hotel, going up and down the mountain sides of the Cleveland National Forest and driving on the variously cluttered Highway 365.

  As we continued north, we walked along a slough in a city park. There we saw six Black Necked Stilts (Himantopus Mexicanus) foraging in the mudflats along with the American Coot (Fulica Americana) and Mallards (Anas Platyrhynchos). Black Necked Stilts are dapper birds with their long pink legs, long thin black bill, and their black and white tuxedo.

 . At the Oceanside Harbor we saw a group of Seals sunning themselves on a pier. They were all piled up on each other and appeared to be sleeping. After seeing Brown Pelicans (Pelecanus Occidentalis) almost everyday on this vacation, we finally saw an American White Pelican (Pelecanus Erythrorhynchos). Unlike the Brown Pelican, the American White Pelican does not crash dive precariously for its food. Instead, it catches food by swimming forward, churning their feet and dipping their bills in the water.

  Southern California is crowded and the teeming human population is very dependent on the freeway system. To go almost anywhere, one must get on the freeway. On the freeway near San Diego the fast lane is $0.60 for five minutes, which was fine for all that, but we did not see that lane going much faster than our own.

  Robert and Berry

  Photos courtesy of wikipedia and fosterandsmithmd