Birding the Lower Back Bay Loop, Newport Beach.

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Birding the Lower Back Bay Loop

When: December 2018              Weather :  Cold 10-15C

Nikon P900 Leica MP10  35 Summilux

In between my meetings at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Jamboree Road, it was possible to take an hour long walk in the morning before 8am and in the afternoon before sunset…there is a back way out of the hotel via the car park which makes access to the Back Bay Loop easy…

 

Daybreak at 630am ….view from my room at the Hyatt Regency… in one of the palm trees on the right was the northern flicker I saw the first morning I arrived..



Northern Flicker

The sun rises at 630 am in December in Newport Beach; it’s a bit cold but the morning light is warm.
Walking from the back of the Hyatt regency heading north up the Back Bay Drive, there is a small road on the left leading to the Back bay Science Centre which is unfortunately not open to the public….

A Californian gull greeted me


House finch right outside the hotel
Forster’s Terns were actively fishing
an osprey watched over the land
bext to the science centre is this little hut which makes the mountains to sea trailhead
the rising sun lit up the promontory across the water


the ducks at sunrise


Forster’s Tern
a group of ducks started swimming in
ducks
The beautiful American Wigeon
American Wigeon with his mate
Marbled Godwit
Spotted sandpiper


spotted sandpiper
American Coot
the nearby John Wayne Airport also yielded some birds!
Oriental White eye
egret

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great blue heron

 

mallard
western grebe
the san diego creek


on another morning, I walked away from the science centre in the opposite direction towards the marina
A cedar waxwing bade me good morning

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cedar waxwing taking flight

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Ring billed gull

 

 

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and on a tree, this Allen’s Hummingbird perched willingly

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Allens’ HB

 

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Allen’s HB

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some little birds were flitting around the palm tree

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Immature Audobon’s warbler

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Palm trees in Newport Beach

 

This was my third visit to the BackBay Loop in Newport Beach and it’s always one of the highlights of my birding year…it didn’t disappoint this time either. Have a merry christmas folks!    Highly recommended

 

Acknowledgement: Thanks to Bob Kaufman for help in ID 

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