B4BC - Day 1

 Yesterday I spent most of the day hanging out with the family.  This means board games, putting away Christmas decorations, mimosas and yelling at our Alexa to play different music.  But while at home, Gavin and I spent time watching our feeders.  We have 3 seed feeders, 2 hummingbird feeders, and then I throw black oil sunflower seeds out on the pavement and watch the sparrows and finches feed from it. So while at home, mostly staring at our backyard, we were able to obtain:

Eurasian Collared-Dove

Anna's Hummingbird

Allen's Hummingbird

Black Phoebe

Cassin's Kingbird

American Crow

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Scaly-breasted Munia (becoming way more common)

House Sparrow

House Finch

Lesser Goldfinch

Dark-eyed Junco

White-crowned Sparrow

Song Sparrow

California TowheeYellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's)



At 8:30am, while on my way to get morning bagels for the family, I stopped by a known spot for an uncommon WHITE WINGED DOVE.  Lucky for me, one was hanging out on a limb it's been frequenting for the past few winters.  Even got a photo of it.  




Then boys indulged me and said we could go for a quick nature hike, so hustled in the car and went to the Ventura Settling Ponds just before lunch. This gave my wife the opportunity to listen to her audio book and continuing breaking down the christmas tree and putting away decorations.  Win-win.  At the ponds, we hustled around the ponds and obtained a total of 36 species, but dipped on the COMMON GALINULE and WOOD DUCK known to be there.  Biggest win was a pair of COMMON MERGANSERS who don't frequent areas near the shore often.  I've missed COME the past two years in the county, so having them on day 1 certainly helped.  




After the ponds, we had lunch, hung out and then at 3pm headed to Pt. Mugu (work) and met up with Sammy and Spenser who were kicking of their own year with a Big Day.  We hustled around the base to known areas and got 64 species.  Big help to Dave P for pointing out Greater White-Fronted Geese and helping with the ocean birds.  Here's that list.  


Greater White-fronted Goose

Brant (Black)

Blue-winged Teal

Northern Shoveler

Gadwall

American Wigeon

Mallard

Northern Pintail

Lesser Scaup

Surf Scoter

Bufflehead

Red-breasted Merganser

Ruddy Duck

Horned Grebe

Eared Grebe

Western Grebe

American Coot (Red-shielded)

American Avocet

Black-bellied Plover

Snowy Plover

Semipalmated Plover

Killdeer

Whimbrel

Long-billed Curlew

Marbled Godwit

Sanderling

Dunlin

Least Sandpiper

Western Sandpiper

Long-billed Dowitcher

Greater Yellowlegs

Willet (Western)

Lesser Yellowlegs

Short-billed Gull

Ring-billed Gull

Western Gull

Iceland Gull (Thayer's)

Glaucous-winged Gull

Forster's Tern

Royal Tern

Black Skimmer

Double-crested Cormorant

American White Pelican

Brown Pelican

Great Blue Heron (Great Blue)

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Reddish Egret

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 

White-tailed Kite

Red-tailed Hawk

Great Horned Owl (Great Horned)

Belted Kingfisher

Black Phoebe

Say's Phoebe

Vermilion Flycatcher

Cassin's Kingbird

Loggerhead Shrike

European Starling

House Finch

Red-winged Blackbird

Brewer's Blackbird

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's)


Missed the TRI-COLORED HERON, all the RAILS, RED-NECKED GREBE, SHEARWATERS, OSPREY and a few others which are possible on base.  But the amount of shorebirds was incredible.  Could have easily spent an hour going through them, but had to hustle to get the most birds possible for the Smash Brothers!  

So the total for Day 1 was 90 different birds.  A great start to this cause.  NO plans for Sunday, but Mon-Thurs I'll be back on Pt. Mugu so there will be opportunities to get some more shore birds.  Thank you all for reading and for your contributions to this cause.  

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