After a quick stop to pick up some fast food and a much-needed latte, I headed to points south of the city. I arrived at the north parking area on the beach which provides access to Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Reserve. Next to a small observation boardwalk I encountered a SAY'S PHOEBE, WESTERN MEADOWLARK, and some fleeting looks at the local "Belding's" SAVANNAH SPARROW. It was low tide, and out in the channel I could see lots of waders, waterfowl, and shorebirds. Without my tripod, I used the railing of the boardwalk to scope the area and found lots of eye candy - MARBLED GODWIT, LONG-BILLED CURLEW, EARED GREBE, BUFFLEHEAD, WILLET, GREAT EGRET, GREAT BLUE HERON, and more. Just then, a reminder of coastal birding back home came flying up the channel and began to forage - a TRICOLORED HERON - which is scarce in the San Diego area. I walked down the beach on the top of a tall stone-covered sand dune which seems to have been constructed to protect the wetlands and tidal marsh of the delta of the Tijuana River, the main area the reserve was created to protect. I was ecstatic to find a large group of about 35 SURF SCOTER motoring up the channel, while more curlews foraged nearby. HORNED LARKS and SAVANNAH SPARROWS were plentiful in the low, sparse vegetation along the dunes below. Not quite as plentiful but cool to watch were “real life” California surfers out in the pounding waves. I began to pay attention to the gulls flying by and found most of them to be the abundant WESTERN GULL, which I had never seen, and a few RING-BILLED GULLS. Down in the surf I saw the tell-tale skittering action of several SANDERLINGS and a couple more WILLET. At the end of the long dune, I reached the extensive tidal mud flats at the mouth of the river and there were lots of birds! One of the first birds I came across was a REDDISH EGRET - another wader that is quite scarce in this area, and not always so easy to find back in Georgia, either! Several SNOWY PLOVERS and a single SEMIPALMATED PLOVER were hanging out in areas of dry sand, while a large group of BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS was taking a nap over on the flats; I attempted in vain to make one into a Pacific Golden-Plover. I sat down on the sand and tried as best I could to brace my scope on my knees to scan all the birds out there - wow! I saw my first adult HEERMANN'S GULL and several CALIFORNIA GULLS along with WESTERN GULLS, ROYAL TERNS, BROWN PELICANS, two AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS, a few Dowitchers and DUNLIN, and further in the back were lots of waterfowl and more waders, including a few REDHEAD and some pretty AMERICAN AVOCETS.

It was getting late in the afternoon and I really wanted to try one more area so I huffed it back to the car, stopped at the visitor’s center for a checklist and as a result of the aforementioned latte, then headed south through an area of stables and horse pastures to Monument Road. This road runs parallel to the US border with Mexico in the furthest southwest corner of the country you can set foot in. Though it leads to Border Field State Park, I didn’t want to risk getting gated in there when they closed so I chose a nice area of brushy habitat in the steep hills where a gravel road zigzagged up the slope towards Mexico, and parked on the shoulder. There were lots of border patrol vehicles in this area, and I was even passed by two pick-up trucks full of “Minute Men” border vigilantes, which made me a little nervous. Thankfully, I was soon distracted by the birds as a large flock of YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS turned out to contain a pair of WRENTITS, the ubiquitous CALIFORNIA TOWHEE, and a BEWICK’S WREN. A COOPER’S HAWK flew in to investigate the situation as I pished a little, hoping for a better photo opportunity. I climbed up the hillside road a ways, enjoying the neat cactus and flowering shrubs, and soon a CALIFORNIA THRASHER decided he needed to pop up and announce his presence in musical form. A very dark RED-TAILED HAWK swirled in the breeze overhead.

On my way to my last stop, it was getting dark but yet I was stopped dead in my tracks by a totally red bird in a bush up the slope to my right. I pulled off onto the shoulder, got the bird in binos for a moment and simply said to myself, “Oh, the first NORTHERN CARDINAL of the trip. Cool,” and kept driving. As it turned out upon later investigation, this bird is not supposed to be here. But instead of a great mega-rarity, I found out through the local message boards that there is an established population of these birds in the Tijuana River valley that are escapees from bird markets just over the border in Tijuana. It was still cool to see one out there!

I ended a long but exciting day of birding at a pond on Dairy Mart Road. Though I arrived much too late in the day for the possible Golden Eagle that reportedly patrols during daylight hours, I was able to make out many already-mentioned species of waterfowl out on the pond in the fading light, along with NORTHERN PINTAIL and one more life bird to end the day – a gorgeous pair of CINNAMON TEAL.

DAY 2
Sunday, February 17
Greg and I slept in a little bit, grabbed some obligatory Starbucks, and were headed north by about 7:00am. Our first stop was San Elijo Lagoon, a straight shot up "The 5" North. One thing that was immediately obvious, and convenient, about San Diego County birding was that everything was within a reasonable distance. If you are going to try to see high-elevation specialties and coastal birds in a single day in Georgia you better bank on a ton of driving and not very much birdwatching at all; out here this can be accomplished in any full day of birding if you so wish; you could even toss in a desert experience for good measure if you really pushed it, but I don't think you'd have time to enjoy the special locales or their birds to the fullest.

We arrived at San Elijo not long after first light, passing a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD on a wire on the residential Rios Street en route. Once we parked, I showed Greg how to use the binos harness and showed him the focus knob - not sure if he cared more about focusing the binos or making sure his coffee was close at hand, but he was very up-beat about spending a day birding together and I knew he would get bored and not enjoy it as much without any optics. We started out with a bunch of HOUSE SPARROWS, HOUSE FINCHES, LESSER GOLDFINCHES, and WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS at the trailhead. Just down the west trail, we heard an ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER singing followed by a MARSH WREN chittering away down on the edge of the marsh. I played CLAPPER RAIL on the iPod and immediately one bird sounded off, which set off a chain reaction of 1-2 more along with a SORA. Looking out across the marsh was gorgeous, and the water was dotted everywhere with hundreds of waterfowl! Once again bracing my scope against whatever was available (in this case a park bench), I picked out NORTHERN PINTAIL, MALLARD, GADWALL, NORTHERN SHOVELER, RING-NECKED DUCK, GREEN-WINGED TEAL, LESSER SCAUP, RUDDY DUCK, and I inspected every single AMERICAN WIGEON but could not discern a single Eurasian version among them. We worked our way out on a long spit of land that leads to a circle of benches out in the middle of the marsh, as a "Belding's" SAVANNAH SPARROW serenaded us along. I got closer looks at NORTHERN PINTAIL and AMERICAN WIGEON than I'd ever had, and we saw an OSPREY on a post in the distance as well as enjoying a fly-by of six BLACK-NECKED STILTS. Back on the trail, we witnessed a dust-up between two CALIFORNIA TOWHEES, who got all puffed up to show who was "The Man." We passed another birder/photographer who pointed us in the right direction for my primary target here - the California Gnatcatcher, so we headed back to the trailhead and then down the east trail.

We came across a group of docents that were on a training field trip, and interestingly found that one of them was fluent in French so I got a chance to chat with a local in her native tongue. She agreed that we were in the right place for the gnatcatcher, and that we would hear it before seeing it. Sure enough, only a quarter of a mile down the trail in a nice area of low, thorny scrub habitat we heard the call I had been listening to on the iPod the night before! Before long, we both enjoyed the flitting, active foraging behavior and unique cat-like sounds of both a male and female CALIFORNIA GNATCATCHER! Very satisfied to have found this declining species, we headed towards the car, passing a BLACK PHOEBE fly-catching from a stick above a group of GREEN-WINGED TEAL, busy dunking their heads for some unseen morsels underwater.

We headed to La Jolla next, where we cruised the whole strip from north to south before finding a parking spot. We started making our way along the picturesque rocky cliffs and palm trees among hundreds of tourists and families who were also out enjoying the gorgeous weather. We got to Childrens Pool and saw lots of Harbor Seals lounging, scratching, and paddling around in the bay. And there were birds, too! Within the first 30 minutes we saw BRANDT'S CORMORANTS flying by, HEERMAN'S and WESTERN GULLS everywhere, and Greg spotted my first WANDERING TATTLER on the rocks below! Not long after we also saw a BLACK TURNSTONE, WILLET, and WHIMBREL picking their way along the rock shelves, which were covered with all manner of seaweed, bi-valves, sea anemones, and barnacles. Not far away, a large congregation of BRANDT'S CORMORANTS and BROWN PELICANS was lounging on the cliffs. I got to see the pelicans doing their awesome head-rearing, bill-flapping displays - something I had never seen before. We visited the Cave Store and its namesake sea cave and later ran into a birder with a scope on the cliffs beyond, who showed us some White-sided Dolphins way out in the bay amidst flotilas of weekend warrior kayakers. Unfortunately, no shearwaters or alcids were on the menu today. Speaking of menus, we were both famished so we had a great lunch at a cafe right on the strip over-looking the water.

We made our last stop of the day at Point Loma, heading straight out to Cabrillo National Monument. The views of the city of San Diego were awesome, though a RED-TAILED HAWK was much more concerned with what might be lurking in the brush below. This bird gave us a real treat, as it was kiting perfectly still at one point no more than 30 feet overhead and made a dive on something within a few yards of our feet! We also found a BEWICK'S WREN, CALIFORNIA TOWHEE, and I heard a WRENTIT calling as well. Here was one of the last places on the trip I planned to visit where I might find them, so I did play a sparrow song a couple times in a large, easily-scanned area of habitat just downhill from the lighthouse. Almost immediately, a large grayish sparrow popped up in the brush nearly 50 yards away, stayed just long enough to get it in binos, then dropped back down! I kind of went into overdrive at this point and zipped down there on the trail/road to get to the other side of the bush and played the song once more. Sure enough, a GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW popped up in almost the exact same spot! I got a few horrible long-distance photos, but which allowed me to zoom in far enough to make the ID certain. As we left, a CALIFORNIA THRASHER burst into song downhill from the car.

We swung into Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery for a few moments to see WESTERN BLUEBIRDS, a BLACK PHOEBE, "Oregon" DARK-EYED JUNCOS, and swarms of YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS. Then we made a pretty stop at Sunset Cliffs for more BRANDT'S CORMORANTS (no Pelagic on this trip), and finally cruised by the San Diego River to end the day with a few more cool birds like RED-BREASTED MERGANSER, BUFFLEHEAD, AMERICAN AVOCET, GREATER YELLOWLEGS, LONG-BILLED CURLEW, MARBLED GODWIT, AMERICAN PIPIT, tons of ducks, and a pretty adult LITTLE BLUE HERON, another wader that the ABA Guide says is harder to see out here. Though Greg (and I) were pretty beat when we finally made it back to his place, he said he had a great time living the "life of a birder" for a day, and I had a great time enjoying hanging out with my friend on his home turf!

DAY 3
Monday, February 18
Today I was headed to the hills for my only day of mountain birding, so I made as little sound as possible getting packed up in the morning and was on the road by 6:15am. I again hit the Starbucks around the corner for a latte and a fruit cup (I should buy some stock so at least I feel like I'm getting something back), then headed east on "The 8" towards the Laguna Mountains.

As I made my way off the highway and north on Hwy 79, I stopped briefly for a quick photo of a BAND-TAILED PIGEON that was waking up on a snag, and then started to notice traces of snow here and there. A winter event had taken place about a week earlier, dumping an apparently rare 4-6 inches of snow in this area, which had yet to completely melt away. I was cool with this - it's pretty rare to see snow in Georgia, too! After scattering a group of WILD TURKEY from the road shoulder a couple miles previous, I arrived at the open fields at the intersection of Hwy 79 and Milk Ranch Road and parked just after passing a large foraging flock of BREWER'S BLACKBIRDS and a few RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS singing from the power lines near a marsh (I missed Tricolored on this trip, however). Right away, I heard the calls and song of WESTERN MEADOWLARKS and I knew I was in the right place - a locally rare Lark Bunting had been associating with these birds for at least the past week and a half. As I started slowly walking into the field, a large group of meadowlarks began bailing out - waaaay over to the fields on the other side of the road. Immediately I realized I could not get every one in binos to check it out so I started nailing each one with a quick glance of the naked eye just to see if it had a long bill (in which case it was safely not the bunting, and some darker birds with long bills were several EUROPEAN STARLINGS working the area as well). But more birds were still foraging on the hillside further up, along with WESTERN BLUEBIRDS and "Oregon" DARK-EYED JUNCOS in the brush beyond. Finally, the last contingent of meadowlarks bailed and I caught sight of a darker bird with white flashes in the wings, a blunt bill and white towards the end of the tail - the bunting! It flew all the way across the road and perched in a snag with several meadowlarks, allowing me for just a brief moment to get it in binos before sailing down from the tree and not stopping until I lost sight of it at least a quarter of a mile away in another field altogether! This development was very disappointing; though I knew I had seen the bird it is one of those classic "I couldn't count it because I could not definitively say it was not something else that I am unfamiliar with, and even the bunting would be a lifer." So I walked down the road shoulder, then plunged into a snow-spattered field where I thought it may have landed. A squeaky, happy group of PYGMY NUTHATCHES was working the pines nearby along with more juncos on the ground underneath, a NORTHERN FLICKER let out a "keeer!," and a raucous pair of WESTERN SCRUB JAYS chimed in from time to time. No grassland species, but I heard some meadowlarks sing further down the road. About 30 yards on the other side of the road, I detected the head-bobbing movement of the group of 10-15 WESTERN MEADOWLARKS foraging with the starlings up the hill. I froze, instinctively putting up the binos and waiting as I watched the group move through an area of shorter grass. Just as the birds started to seem wary of my presence, the LARK BUNTING came into view! I was able to watch it on the ground for about 5 seconds before all the birds starting bailing out and heading way back down the road. However, as if to reward my patience, this winter-plumaged male bird perched in the low branches of a tree for a nice long look before disappearing into the fields in the distance once again.

My next stop was nearby Paso Picacho campground to stalk some forest species, especially woodpeckers. I had no trouble immediately finding plenty of noisy, clown-faced ACORN WOODPECKERS and their granaries, and also got some nice looks at MOUNTAIN CHICKADEES and more juncos before suddenly noticing an all-gray bird with the chickadees - the common but first-for-me OAK TITMOUSE! Beautiful STELLER'S JAYS were looking for free tid-bits from the few occupied campsites, while a RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET and a few WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCHES were reminders of birding back home. I got out my print-outs from the San Diego birding message board and soon made my way to the area frequented recently by a Williamson's Sapsucker and started staking it out, enjoying the crunch under my boots of a few nice large, unbroken areas of snow here and there. However, my peace was shattered by a yapping dog, quickly followed by another one - neither on leashes. As the owners came to take care of the situation, they gave me a hard time as if I was ruining their experience just by being there with my optics, and called me "the paparazzi" - great. But I had to stick with it, just outside of the dogs' radar. For the next hour and a half every tiny sound in the trees was something to investigate, as the posts said the bird did not make any noise except a soft tapping. I did find a NUTTALL'S WOODPECKER, and after combing over another area for a supposed White-headed Woodpecker (nope), I heard some strong tapping and found a HAIRY WOODPECKER on a cedar tree. Just then, what I really felt was a sapsucker species (classic scruffy-looking flight profile, broad wings, big glides) wafted down through the canopy from behind me, and cruised through the tree-tops down, down, and seemingly coming to a stop... right smack in the middle of the area with the dog campers! I paced around, trying to get a read on where it had gone, but finally began to head back to the car a little dejected. But I happened upon a nice local female birder who, after hearing of the Hairy got very excited and wanted to see it. I said, "Well, you know you might just change my luck," and took her to the spot where he was still happily pecking away. She was delighted, and then we decided to give the sapsucker one more shot. Yes, the dogs barked again - but now I had another paparazzi to share the blame! Sure enough, as these things go, we had been stalking for less than 15 minutes when a gorgeous RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER landed on a tree about 40 feet up in a pine in front of us, hitched up a few times, changed trees, then glided away out of sight. Not the bird we expected, but a beautiful life bird for me and a rare treat for her! We left under the watchful eye of a pretty RED-TAILED HAWK in the parking lot, both very happy with the birds we had encountered.

I cruised some very scenic areas of Cuyamaca State Park and the Laguna Mountains for a while, stopping to find some COMMON MERGANSERS, DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS, and CANADA GEESE at Cuyamaca Lake on the way. In the surrounding open habitat I found an AMERICAN KESTREL and soaring TURKEY VULTURES. I did not stop much once I got onto the Sunrise Highway and into the Mount Laguna area, due primarily to literally hundreds of people all over the place who had brought their kids up there to play in the snow in bright sunshine and warm temperatures (it did admittedly look pretty fun, but not very birdy). I did stop for a breathtaking view of the deserts to the east that I'd like to explore on my next trip out here. I then looped around to my last stop at Kitchen Creek Road just east on "The 8."

Cibbett's Flat campground was pretty dead; it was just that dead time of day for birding and this arid habitat was actually getting kind of hot under the mid-day sun. In fact, the only birds I picked up here and down the road along the trail on Kitchen Creek itself were some COMMON RAVENS, OAK TITMOUSE, and WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCHES. But I would not be discouraged. I got out the iPod and played Mountain Quail 3-4 times, pointing its weak speakers in various directions but hearing nothing. Back at the car, I realized I had enough time to work in one more un-planned stop for the day so I turned on the engine, dropped the windows and started checking out the book. That's when I heard it the first time. I cut the engine and leaped out of the car, not sure if my ears had fabricated the sound. But there it was again, from far in the hills downstream! I turned on the iPod one more time, and right away one MOUNTAIN QUAIL and then two called back to me across the rocky, barren landscape! For a life bird, I know I want to eventually see one, but it was quite a satisfying experience to hear them call several more times. It was also very cool as I left the area and ran into my only LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE and LARK SPARROW of the trip just before getting back to I-8 to head back west to San Diego.

I ended my last full day of birding by working the waters around Mission Bay and the San Diego River again; I figured I didn't need to be at the rental car place until 6:00pm PST, so I could squeeze the last bit of light out of the day. I was very happy to have made this decision, as I added three more life birds in the last two hours of my trip - WESTERN GREBE (on left), CLARK'S GREBE (on right), and BRANT - along with last looks at the hundreds of wintering waterfowl, gulls, and shorebirds all over the San Diego River and its mudflats. Unlike the chaotic Atlanta airport, it only took me 35 minutes from turning in my rental car to sitting down at the gate so I had plenty of time to change into work clothes for the next morning, charge my cell phone, re-arrange my suitcase and camera bag for the trip, and decompress a little bit before starting a 7-hour overnight flight back home (with a lay-over in Las Vegas to put my list together!). I got back just in time to drive straight to a mind-numbing 9:00am EST county meeting, briefly nodding off here and there and starting to plan my next California Birding Odyssey in my dreams!

TOTAL SPECIES: 128

LIFE BIRDS:  23