B4BC - Day 2 (100 total birds!)

 January 2nd I was able to get out for about 90 minutes and went to the Camarillo Regional Park, also known as the Scary Dairy because of this historical buildings located there.  There are also 3 large reclamation ponds which have been a good source of water birds in the past.  The location requires a self-registration for parking of $6.



The recent rains have left great snow in the mountains and my birding camera was able to capture it well by compressing the image with it's long zoom.

After nearly a mile walk from the parking area, you make it to the ponds where there's a small vantage point by the gate entrance (blocked to the public), but you're able to look through the fence at the first pond.  

A short walk down the path will also allow you to view the ponds from above the shrubs to get a better luck at the birds in the ponds.


In the ponds there was:

Northern Shoveler

Gadwall

American Wigeon

Mallard

Canvasback

Ring-necked Duck

Hooded Merganser

Ruddy Duck

Pied-billed Grebe

White-throated Swift

Anna's Hummingbird

Allen's Hummingbird

Double-crested Cormorant

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Turkey Vulture

Red-tailed Hawk

Say's Phoebe

Cassin's Kingbird

California Scrub-Jay

Bushtit

Wrentit

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Hermit Thrush

American Pipit

House Finch

Lesser Goldfinch

Dark-eyed Junco

White-crowned Sparrow

Song Sparrow

California Towhee

Spotted Towhee

Orange-crowned Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's)





Overall it was a good out-and-back.  I usually ride my mountain bike from home to this location, but it was about 55F out, and that's just too cold for this spoiled SoCal suburbanite.  Getting the Canvasback was a big win, because they're uncommon in this area and not a slam-dunk for the year.  Getting them so close to home was even better.  

No real birding plans during the week as I have a day job and it's dark by 5pm.  But maybe I can spend my lunch break at work on the ocean and pick up some new stuff this week.  Maybe that TRICOLORED HERON will show itself in its usual spot as well.

Stay healthy


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