Hi Birders,
San Jacinto Wildlife Area, the number one birding spot in Riverside County, did not disappoint yesterday. The weather was perfect, our large crowd managed to stay together, and we found a good number of birds.
Highlights for me were great views of an adult Ferruginous hawk and a Merlin, in bright morning sunlight, both perched for a long time, giving us good views through our bins, scopes, and cameras. I checked out Merlin in Sibley’s big guide and believe it to be an adult female of the taiga population. The Ferruginous looked like a light morph adult.
Ducks were hard to find, perhaps since Saturday was a hunting day.
Black-necked stilts with their bubblegum long legs were everywhere, American pipits and Western meadowlarks were abundant along Davis Rd.
All in all, a perfect day.
Thank you, Steve Ellis, for keeping the list, and all of you for helping to find and identify the birds.
ebird.org/checklist/
Keep on birding,
Sally Sanderson
Trip Coordinator
