Wee Blue Heron

I know it's been awhile, but it's worth recording that last weekend we took a summer trip to Bolsa Chica. We hadn't been there since December, and the birds had mostly completed the transition to summer-time. Not a duck to be found- the only bird bobbing around in the water was a single Pied-billed Grebe. Terns were everywhere, though. The raucous calls of Elegant Terns, especially, filled the air. Least Terns were also nesting in their protected habitat, and Forster's Terns came right up to us on the boardwalk. I put up some pictures and videos at my Flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/rowleypics/. I was happier than normal with the pictures. The terns really did come very close to us, and some of the pictures and one of the videos was taken without any zoom. The only drawback was the harsh light; they did come out grainy.

Little Blue Heron at Bolsa Chica
http://flickr.com/photos/rowleypics/2540240986/in/set-72157605394003781/

The terns were a lot of fun to watch, but the best moment came right after we arrived. A helpful birder came up to us and pointed out a Little Blue Heron feeding a few hundred yards away. Heat waves inhibited even our scope, but we hurried over and get some very good views of the rarity. I even got a couple of pictures. This was our first for-sure wild Little Blue Heron. I remember seeing one in a distant exhibit at the San Diego Zoo a few years ago, but we didn't count it because we weren't sure whether or not it was wild. Now we have one that certainly was, and we saw it quite well. Little Blue Herons are a warmer-water Egret. The only breeding population in California is at Sea World, but they're quite common further south and over on the east coast.

We also finally saw our first Red Knots. We're not shorebird aficionados, but Red Knots were one of the common winter shorebirds at Bolsa Chica that we'd somehow overlooked in the past. Since this is probably the low point of the shorebird population in So Cal, it was easy to pick a few of them out among the few Lesser Yellowlegs, western Willets and Marbled Godwits that were foraging in the mud. I got some pictures of those too, but they were too grainy and I'm not going to post them.

Anyway, a two-lifer day in Orange County of all places! Not too shabby.