White-faced Ibis at the Salton Sea Photo: Steve Howell
Without leaving the country Southern California is one of the most bird-diverse regions to spend a few days outside in January. Though often known popularly for its traffic and movie-star antics, most of Southern California is striking coastline, rugged mountains, and epic desert vistas. Christmas Bird Counts in the area consistently tally many of the highest totals in the US complete with regional specialties and wintering rarities. Although nights and early mornings can be cold, days are pleasantly mild and wintering birds are everywhere. Our short tour will begin in the coastal habitats of the Los Angeles area, it will move over the Laguna Mountains through the Anza-Borrego desert to the Salton Sea and the Imperial Valley before returning to conclude in the coastal lowlands of San Diego. The great variety of habitats sampled within this small geographic area will produce an impressive list of birds; approximately 200 species is likely.
The tour begins in Los Angeles and ends in San Diego and can dovetail nicely with continued birding or sightseeing in the area.
Day 1: The trip begins at 6:00 pm in Los Angeles. Night in Los Angeles.
Jon Feenstra is an excellent leader and and knows all the birds in the area and where to find them. The trip couldn’t have been better.
Marlene Schumm January 2012
Day 2: We’ll spend the day in coastal Los Angeles and Orange Counties exploring the tremendous diversity of habitats, from rocky coastlines to tidal marshes and coastal sage scrub, looking for many Pacific coast species and California specialties such as “Black” Brant, Black-vented Shearwater, Pacific Loon, Clark’s Grebe, Brandt’s and Pelagic Cormorants, Black Oystercatcher, Surfbird, Wandering Tattler, Heermann’s Gull, Thayer’s Gull, Allen’s Hummingbird, Tricolored Blackbird, and the endangered California Gnatcatcher. A number of winter rarities are almost always present in the area as well. Night in Oceanside.
Day 3: After a final morning in the coastal lowlands looking for coastal scrub specialties like Wrentit and California Thrasher and perhaps an over-wintering rarity or two, we’ll drive inland over the mountains, stopping in pine-oak forest to search for Acorn and possibly White-headed Woodpeckers, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Band-tailed Pigeon, Steller’s Jay, Mountain Chickadee, Oak Titmouse, and Western Bluebird. We’ll take a crack at LeConte’s Thrasher in the Anza-Borrego desert and in the late afternoon we’ll bear witness to an awesome wildlife spectacle as thousands of Ross’s and Snow Geese and dozens of Sandhill Cranes settle in to roost near the southern shore of the Salton Sea. Night in Brawley.
Day 4: We’ll spend the entire day around the south end of the Salton Sea, a huge desert lake created when the Colorado River overflowed in 1906 and for two years poured into the Imperial Valley. This region is rich in birds and a globally significant Important Bird Area. Along the edge of the sea we might see as many as a hundred thousand waterbirds including thousands of Eared Grebes, American White Pelicans, White-faced Ibis and possibly a Yellow-footed Gull. In adjacent agricultural lands we should find the rare and declining Mountain Plover as well as Long-billed Curlew and Burrowing Owl, while the fringing scrub and treed areas hold Greater Roadrunner, Gila Woodpecker, Abert’s Towhee and “Large-billed” Savannah Sparrow. The town of Brawley is usually worth a look too as Costa’s Hummingbird and wintering passerines frequent gardens and Western Screech-Owl is resident. Night in Brawley.
Day 5: This morning we will head south toward the Mexican border stopping in some residential, wetland, and agricultural areas for more local specialties like Crissal Thrasher plus any wintering rarities (with Neotropic Cormorant and Vermillion Flycatchers as regular suspects) before heading back toward the coast of San Diego. If we haven’t yet had good enough looks at Rock Wrens or Rufous-crowned Sparrows we may stop en route. We will use the remaining daylight in San Diego to look for Snowy Plovers and Pacific Golden-Plovers or maybe hunt down a goodie wintering locally. Night in San Diego.
Day 6: On this final day of the tour we will range around in the San Diego area searching for any coastal specialties we may have missed. We may spend a little time at a coastal promontory to scope for seabirds like Black-vented Shearwater and check the coastal marshes for Reddish Egret or other unusual waders. Further, the urban parks scattered around San Diego are excellent for birds that have opted to spend the winter in the pleasant climate thick with lush vegetation and flowering and fruiting trees. Birds that normally spend the winter further south are often around: Western Tanagers, Bullock’s Orioles, Townsend’s and Hermit Warblers are possible as are a few of their stray eastern counterparts, often sought-after vagrants for local birders. Night in San Diego.
Day 7: The tour concludes this morning in San Diego.
Updated: 14 February 2012
Prices
- 2013 Tour Price : $1,650*
- Single Occupancy Supplement : $320
Notes
Maximum group size seven with one leader.
* Tour invoices paid by check carry a modest discount. Details here.