Birding with Bill, Becca, Mom and Dad

We spent some time birding with our family over Christmas time, which was fun. We saw lots of neat birds.

On Tuesday the 22nd, I took the day off work and we went down to Crystal Cove State Park together to look for some of the cismontane southern California specialties in the sage scrub there. It was blowing up a gale, but we persevered and did manage to eventually find a California Gnatcatcher, though we only saw it briefly.

Most remarkable, though, was the sad case of an Eared Grebe we found cast ashore. It was obviously in bad shape - its feathers were wet all through, it was emaciated, and was completely helpless to move itself at all. It just rocked in the surf's wash. We took it out of the water to see if we could find help, but in a couple of minutes its neck arched, legs extended, and then it relaxed completely. It died, right in front of us.

That wasn't pleasant to watch, but it served as a plain reminder of our own mortality, and the inherent thinness of the cord tying us to this world.

I have put up pictures from the day. One is of the Grebe.

There are also pictures from the Balboa Pier, where we had lunch as a family.

I don't have any other pictures from the birding trips we took, but we hit a lot of great places. We visited the Whittier Hills and found Hutton's Vireo and Phainopepla, Creek Park for the Dusky-capped Flycatcher, which cooperated swimmingly, Nutmeg Mannikins at Biola, and a Townsend's Warbler and Red-breasted Sapsucker from a stake-out at La Mirada Park.

One day we headed out toward Riverside, so we made a short stop at a very chilly Prado Regional Park for Vermilion Flycatchers and even a tame Ross's Goose that made me wish I had my camera (which was forgotten in our own car in Santa Ana at the time), and Oak Canyon Nature Center where we found Cactus Wrens and had smashing looks at California Thrasher. Bill and Becca got to pick up a lot of new birds, and we had fun doing one of the things we like to do with them!