The Harriet M Wieder Park where the birding started

One of the most active birds was the yellow rumped warbler which was chirping continuously

Yellow rumped warbler

Western bluebirds were common in the car park

Female western bluebird

Song sparrow

Possible juvenile golden crowned sparrow

white crowned sparrow

Male housefinch

Lesser goldfinch

and then this beauty appeared ..a green tailed towhee

green tailed towhee with its reddish chestnut crown

A california thrasher shouldn’t be in this location but it was!

Allen’s Hummingbird

flashing his gorget this way

and then that way exposing the brilliant orange gorget

Downy woodpecker

A flight of Canadian geese overflew us

after an hour or so, we drove over to the famous wooden bridge of bolsa chica to resume the birding

Ring billed gull on the bridge

A willet waded in the reeds

snowy egret also on the bridge

A Caspian tern and a demanding chick

Caspian tern and chick

Pipit in the enclosed nesting area

Killdeer in the same area

Killdeer with its typical two black bands

and the Vic pointed out this bobbing head just over the ridge of the nesting area…..a mountain plover

The Mountain plover showed itself very briefly from afar

A red throated loon with his breakfast

red throated loon

A pretty least sandpiper presented itself

Least sandpiper

We then arrived at a promontary overloooking this island with lots of gulls on it…

Western gulls with an immature gull and dunlin in foreground

Single herring gull among the western gulls with darker backs

California gulls with first winter gull

A ruddy turnstone

Semi palmated plovers with a dunlin

pintailed ducks male and female

pied billed grebe

single black bellied plover on the island doing its best to blend in with the background

Pair of brants

white pelican

brown pelican

male red breasted merganser

female red breasted merganser

marbled godwit

western sandpipers in a huge flock were on a sandbar in the distance

and then Vic pointed out a reddish bird chasing a brant

I thought it was a reddish egret but Vic has just pointed out that it’s a Marbled godwit

Walking back to the bridge and the car park, we saw the lesser scaup

Long billed curlew

Horned grebe

Male bufflehead

Female bufflehead

surf scoter

surf scoter up close next to the wooden bridge

Anna’s Hummingbird greeted us

and flashed us

A red tailed hawk from afar

and a splendid white tailed kite flew overhead

Northern Shoveler

Northern shoveler with his broad beak

A ruddy duck

Gadwall

Blue winged teal

American Widgeon

And the final bird of the day was this Snow goose in the bush

Snow Goose

and to end the morning’s ramble, one of the lady’s on the walk brought me to the Norma Gibbs Butterfly Garden where the Monarch butterflies migrate to every winter….