December 18 and 19 -- Birds, Birds, Birds....

But first -- As I was driving (well ok, more like crawling; look at that traffic) down the 405 freeway the other day, on my way to have dinner in "The OC" with other Lance trailer/camper owners, I saw this fellow on a tricked-out-Xmas-wise motorcycle...Only in So Cal can a holiday be applied to our means of transportation in what may be thought of as a gaudy manner -- 

Though it's considered to be a highly developed suburb, the Palos Verdes Peninsula still has pockets of open space and areas where the natural vegetation has been restored to look somewhat like it did over a hundred years ago, before all the development. One of those areas in George F Canyon, which has a "perennial" stream running through it -- I put that in quotation marks because I haven't seen any flowing water in it for months, probably due to the ongoing drought. But there is still riparian flora there, and it's quite lush -- willows and lots more that I can't ID as I'm still botanically-challenged -- but living now in Portal, I'm slowly learning!  If you're interested in birds, it's a big help to know the plants, shrubs, trees, etc that you're seeing as, say, certain birds are attracted to certain shrubs. For instance, this Blue-gray Gnatcatchers flits among sagebrush and other similar flora,, looking for, well, gnats and other small insects --

And it's fanning its tail to attract those bugs; the sudden, flickering movement is supposed to do it. Similar behavior can be seen in, say, Painted Redstarts down in SE Arizona. 

I've gone to Averill Park in my former home town of San Pedro for years. It used to be popular for its "crawdads", with kids using branches and string to fish for them, but they haven't been seen there for years now. The  current inhabitants are Mallards and feral geese, and the people living in the area feed them mostly with bread, which is actually not healthy for them, and birds in general, as bread is a source of carbohydrates and, and is a type of "junk food" to them. Duckling malnutrition, overcrowding, pollution from the uneaten bread, diseases, are good reasons not to feed the birds. But, humans being humans, and thinking they're doing a good thing feeding the ducks, they'll keep right on doing it. OK, enough of that small rant. Sometimes there are "good" birds at Averill Park, and photo-ops are somewhat unique as, since the "creek" in the park is narrow, you can get closeups of the birds. Black-crowned Night Herons frequent it, and Belted Kingfisher, Green-winged Teal (a male spent the winter there) and Green Heron are sometimes seen there. And also Snowy Egrets on occasion, such as the other day --

I even got good looks at one of the ways Snowys use to attract its prey -- moving its feet around in the water, to stir up what's there. Hey, birds aren't "bird brains", that's for sure. Black Phoebes are residents at the park, and always provide flycatching entertainment, sallying out from a branch --

Yellow-Rumped Warblers are seen all over the place as they move in for winter. They can be quite pretty in their plumage; here's an "Audubon's" Warbler. Myrtle Yellow-rumpeds, a much more uncommon form of Yellow-rumpeds, have a white throat. BTW, the nickname for Yellow-rumpeds is "Butter Butt" (think of it as another term for "Yellow-rumpeds", as they have a rear yellow patch) --

I went to Averill Park on Friday for a short stop before doing errands for the rest of the day. Then on Saturday the birding continued when I met up with my friend Steve Dexter for a morning at the South Coast Botanic Garden on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. I've mentioned its history before -- how it is on top of a landfill. Steve and I were walking along (it was a good birding morning; we counted about 33 species) when I saw what looking like smoke rising from the ground. We looked closer, and it was coming from a small hole in the ground. I put a finger inside the hole -- and it was warm. There are gases still rising from the decomposing trash underneath, and it's probably related to that. But I've been going to the Garden since 2005, and I've never seen that before. So Steve said we were probably witnessing the birth of a volcano...

One of the neat things about photographing birds at the Garden is you can get them in colorful foliage, certainly colors that you wouldn't see outside of the Garden since most of the plants aren't native to the area. Here's a bright yellow female Common Yellowthroat in interesting colors --

I've been noticing more Fox Sparrows than usual in the area -- 

And the area also gets wintering Golden-crowned Sparrows -- 

Allen's hummingbirds are "residents" on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, meaning they're here all year long and don't migrate. Here's a brightly colored, glittery male --

And there are always those that eat other birds... Merlins winter here. As they're a bit uncommon, from a distance I assumed it was a juvenile Cooper's hawk, primarily because of the barred tail -- but the white eyebrow makes it a Merlin --

And Ruby-crowned Kinglets have a ruby crown that you usually don't see; it's only visible when they're excited or agitated. I guess this one was one or the other --

After spending the morning at the Garden, Steve and I went to Madrona Marsh. It's one of the last vernal marshes left in LA County, and the last in the South Bay of Los Angeles. The definition of a vernal marsh is a temporary pool of water that provides habitat for distinctive plants and animals. In Madrona Marsh's case, it's created by water collection from the runoff of the surrounding upland slopes; the water collects in a lower "sump", then is pumped back up. It's only a square block, surrounded by a Target, gas stations, mini-malls and condos, which may not sound attractive but it's a great resource for wildlife that otherwise would find no place to live, or stop by, in a heavily urbanized area. It's been getting some really good birds these past few months, out of proportion to its size. One of them has been an Eastern Phoebe, which is only found east of the Rockies. I'd "discovered" one a few years ago at Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park, a few miles to the south in Harbor City, so I was familiar with what it looked like -- quite different from the Black Phoebe which is found here. But the last time the bird had been seen at Madrona was over a week ago-- but Steve and I "re-discovered" it --

That's one of the things that makes birding so fun -- you never know what you might find. Usually it's just the usual suspects, but sometimes there's the odd rarity that makes all the being out in the field worthwhile.