California - Part 4

Day 10 - Mojave Desert

What to do on a Saturday during vacation? Why, visit the desert of course! We went with Aunt Joan and Claire on a roadtrip to see some of the neatest places in our family roots. Kyle's and my grandfather, as well as Aunt Joan, grew up in Mojave and Randsburg, which is out in the middle of the Mojave desert. Not much birding, but I finally saw a California Quail, plus my lifer Greater Roadrunner! Thinking back now, I wish I had been more observant when I was there. I dipped on Black-chinned and Sage Sparrow, plus Sage Thrasher because I wasn't aware they would be there. However, the desert was filled with a bunch of great photo ops. Hopefully you won't get overwhelmed by the following HDR photos.

Scene seen from the Golden Queen, a gold mine my family used to own.

Red Rocks Canyon State Park

Red Rock Canyon State Park

Randsburg ore mill

Mojave

Road towards San Diego

Day 11 - Oceanside

First thing on Sunday, as always, was Mass. We visited a different church and it was far better than the previous week. Afterwards, Todd picked us up (we were to stay at Tina's house again) and the family took us to Oceanside where we spent the day on a family friend's Yacht in the Oceanside Harbor and the surrounding beach. Oceanside was a very neat beach! Birds observed here include: Double-crested Cormorant, Brown Pelican, Great Blue Heron, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Long-billed Curlew, Heermann's and Western Gull, Caspian Tern, Rock Pigeon, Great-tailed Grackle, and Long-billed Curlew. Other neat animals were Sandcrabs, California Sea Lions, and my very first wild Octopus!

California Sea Lion

Long-billed Curlew (immature)

Day 12 - La Jolla

Kyle is a big fan of cars, and I wouldn't say I'm completely clueless when it comes to them either, so Tina took us to La Jolla again to see all the dealerships and go swimming. We visited three, maybe four dealerships of the most prestigious companies (Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Maserati, Rolls-Royce, Maybach). Afterwards, we went to the beach on Marine St. and I went swimming for the first time in two years (pretty much wading previously). We walked on the beach to a rocky outcrop with tons of crabs and shells, where I found a Least Sandpiper, who looked tiny foraging next to a Western Gull.

By this time I was feeling dehydrated, so we headed back to Tina's. After eating Dinner, we left San Diego, for what we thought was the last time. We had another day with Aimee in Orange County before we were to leave for Georgia.

Lamborghini Gallardo

Day 13 

Back in Georgia, Bella and Kyle had gone bowling and Kyle had won, so Isabella challenged Kyle to a rematch. 

Therefore, we spent the morning bowling. Not to pat myself on the back, but I ended up winning both games. By a landslide. 

Anyhow, after bowling Aimee promised I could get some birding in. She took us to Caspers Wilderness Park, which is off of Ortega Hwy (74). Birds I saw there include: Turkey Vulture, Mourning Dove, Acorn and Nuttall's Woodpeckers, Common Raven, Cliff Swallow, White-breasted Nuthatch, California Towhee, House Finch, and my lifers Western Scrub-Jay and Oak Titmouse (lifer 250!). We hiked a for a while, but most of the birds we found at the visitor center, where they had a feeder. 

Acorn Woodpecker

Immature Turkey Vulture

Widdle baby Cliff Swallow :')

Lifer Oak Titmouse!

Days 14 and 15

Before sunrise, August 8, we headed to the John Wayne Airport in Orange County, and tried to get a stand-by flight to Atlanta through Denver. That flight was full, so we tried for another that went through Las Vegas, but that one was full as well. In the end, we wasted 3 and a half hours trying to get a flight, and we decided to try again later.

We got some Starbucks and went back to Aimee's where we spent part of the morning watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Have I mentioned it's an awesome show?

Anyway, we tried to get another flight to Atlanta at the John Wayne Airport, but failed once more. Another two hours wasted. Andrew, the cousin who works for Southwestern and gave Kyle and me the tickets, told us our best chance was to try again the next day in San Diego, so we headed down to San Diego once more. We stayed the night at Tina's, but Aunt Joan brought us to the airport the next morning. We managed to catch the 6:30am flight to Atlanta through Las Vegas just in the nick of time thanks to Aunt Joan.

I wasn't a fan of Las Vegas's airport. It was much too commercial for my taste. It was crowded and noisy. And unfortunately, we were stuck there for about three hours. However, we were lucky enough to get tickets on the flight to Atlanta. Even though we were able to squeeze into a couple window seats, I slept most of the way back. After getting up at 4:30 for the past two days, I was pretty darn beat.

30-thousand feet above what could be Oklahoma

We arrived in Atlanta around 4pm EST, where is was raining, hot, and humid. Apparently, it was an awesome storm system caused by a trough line, complete with rotating wall clouds, but by the time we landed, the storm had mellowed down to a drizzle. 

It is good to be back in Georgia, but I will miss everything about California like crazy.

An obligatory thanks goes out to: Aimee, Mike, and family; Tina, Todd, and family; Aunt Joan and Uncle Larry; Aunt Margie and Uncle Nils; and Andrew. Without y'all, the trip wouldn't have been possible and definitely not as fun. So thanks so much for the trip of my life!

Signing out for now. Who knows when you'll see another post from me, hopefully soon. ;)

California - Part 3

Day 6 - Balboa Park

We spent all afternoon at Balboa Park with our Great Aunt Margie and Siena, visiting random museums and gardens. I found my lifer Umber Skipper and a Fox Squirrel here. Afterwards we ate at Hometown Buffet (again) and spent the night at Aunt Margie and Uncle Nil's.

Day 7 - SeaWorld

Talk about a fun day! I woke up around 9am (thanks to my ninja EST skills) and the window was open. From my bed I heard Spotted Towhees and Lesser Goldfinches and from the window I found two Western Bluebirds - a lifer! And to top it off it was my 8-year birding anniversary, August 1! After breakfast, we went and picked up Siena and spent the whole day with her at SeaWorld San Diego. Ten hours at SeaWorld meant we saw a lot! The Shamu show was okay, not as great as I had heard, and I wasn't the biggest fan of the acrobat show, but I enjoyed the Sea Lion and Pet shows. Lots of the exhibits we visited twice, and Kyle and Siena rode on the Atlantis ride, but our favorite part was hands-down the SkyRide cable cars over Perez Cove. We rode the cable cars so many times I lost count and from them we had a great view of the sunset and the fireworks.
There were birds at SeaWorld too! Mostly pigeons, but Western and Heermann's Gulls, Snowy Egret, and Mallards were all around and some allowed for close approach.

Western Gull

Juvenile Snowy Egret

Probably one of the most enjoyable days of the whole trip. :)

Day 8 

Lake Hodges

Early Thursday morning, Aimee's family drove down to San Diego and took Kyle and me to Lake Hodges, which is south of Escondido. We parked at Del Dios Community Park and hiked the road to the lake shore. Along this road I found my lifer Cassin's Kingbird sitting out on an exposed perch, hawking for insects. Also present was a Red-tailed Hawk being mobbed by an American Kestrel. At the shore we found Black Phoebe, Red-winged Blackbird, Great-tailed Grackle, Forster's Tern, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, and my lifers Western Kingbird, Western Grebe, and Clark's Grebe. The Clark's and Western Grebes were one of my favorite things about California. Such cool birds! They were even vocalizing for me! I have a video here.

Clark's Grebe

Female Great-tailed Grackle

Afterwards, we hiked out to the Lake Hodges headquarters, where we found Acorn Woodpeckers, Black Phoebe, California Towhee, American Kestrel, Hooded Oriole, Black-crowned Night Heron, American Coot, and Lesser Goldfinch. I also found my lifer Acmon Blue with a Fiery Skipper.

Acorn Woodpecker

Acmon Blue

Fiery Skipper

On the hike back, I found Cassin's Kingbird, Red-tailed Hawk (doing its best White-tailed Kite impression), Cliff Swallow, California Towhee, and my lifer Bewick's Wren. We heard a California Quail, but since it was heard-only, I didn't count it on my lifelist.

Lakeside

The rest of the day we spent with Aunt Joan and Bella. Aunt Joan promised to take us to our Dad's old hometown, Lakeside, California. We drove around the town, saw my dad's old house and his old church, and decided to take a stroll at the local park, Lindo Lake Park, after I noticed a few Black-necked Stilts. Minus the Stilts, I found Wood Duck, Mallard, Western Sandpiper, Nuttall's Woodpecker, Mourning Dove, American Crow, Common Yellowthroat, Great-tailed Grackle, House Finch, American and Lesser Goldfinch, California Ground-Squirrel, and my lifer Tricolored Blackbird - another endangered species for the lifelist!

Tricolored and Red-winged Blackbirds with a Black-necked Stilt

Black-necked Stilt

Day 9

We went to Birch Aquarium around noon with Aunt Joan and both Tina and Aimee's family. All the different varieties of fish and jellyfish were amazing, and from the tidepools exhibit we had this great view of a weather front over the Pacific.

Afterwards, we drove to Encinitas to visit the San Diego Botanic Garden, also known as Quail Gardens. We had an enjoyable time, walking around and making mustaches out of fuzzy purple grass. There were some animals around, though.

Unidentified female Selasphorus sps. Allen's and Rufous are both present in San Diego in August, and a definite ID would not be possible from a shot like this that doesn't show particular retrice feathers.

There were mostly Western Fence Lizards, but this was the first Desert Spiny Lizard I had seen.

The rest of the day we spent with Aunt Joan, we took a look around Mission San Diego de Alcala to see if my grandfather's carvings were still there. We came out empty-handed, but it was a pleasant place.

That brings us to the end of Part 3, I know it was rather lengthy and pic-heavy.
Part 4 should come soon, and I believe that will be the final part of my California adventures.
Good birding!