On Saturday, 5/21, 23 stouthearted birders toured Lindo Lake in Lakeside. A major construction project to one of the basins limited our normal birding range, but we still managed to tally 52 species (plus four other taxa) over a three-hour period. Black-crowned Night Herons were ridiculously plentiful, but, alas, Tricolored Blackbirds were not seen. The construction, plus heavy pedestrian and canine traffic, probably caused our loss. (As a footnote, Cornell reports that, in the 1930’s, there were an estimated two to three million Tricolored Blackbirds in the state. Today’s population has dwindled to an estimated 300,000 birds. See https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Tricolored_Blackbird/overview.)

Thanks again to Steve Ellis for his meticulous record of our sightings. To review Steve’s eBird report, accompanied by excellent bird photos, go to https://ebird.org/checklist/S110869868