This is another in a series of distraction diaries. This one is a bit of a departure from the usual Hawaiian subject matter. I was in Los Angeles visiting friends and family last weekend and I took the opportunity to do some bird photography at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve.
Dawn
Update: I am changing the ID on one of the Terns from Caspian to Forster's.
Bolsa Chica covers approximately 1,700 acres of land bounded by Pacific Coast Highway and the beaches of north Huntington Beach on one sides and active oil fields and housing developments on the others. A few years ago a major restoration project was completed to return 880 acres of dry land to an active tidally-influenced wetlands. They excavated a large amount of soil, build berms and shelves, and finally connected the area to the Pacific Ocean and let it flood. It appears that the project was a succesful. For more information visit the Bolsa Chica Land Trust.
I believe this is an Elegant Tern (I now formally ask assistance in identifying the birds in this diary). I don't have a Bird of the Pacific Coast book and I haven't found a website that really gives me good ID info on the many terns and other shorebirds. If I make a mistake please let me know.
Brown Pelican
Great Egret
Great Blue Heron
The thing that really motivated me to visit was a chance to get some photos of Black Skimmers doing their thing.
They are beautiful and graceful birds.
Cottontail
Tern with small fish
Great Egret
Black-Necked Stilt. A close cousin to our own Hawaiian Stilts (also known in these diaries as the pink-legged silly bird).
Red-Tailed Hawks
Looking to the east you see many of these oil pumping "grasshoppers".
Great Egret
Long-Billed Curlew (I think)
Snowy Egret
Forster's Tern (updated)
Least Tern, this small bird is the rarest tern at Bolsa Chica.
Thanks for visiting. As always feel free to post your photos and please be good humans.
Aloha