Hi Good Friends,

On Saturday December 21, twenty-two birders walked around the Tijuana Estuary and adjacent trails in Imperial Beach. It was a beautiful day, cool with overcast sky.

Our birding group included visiting birders from New Hampshire and Germany. Birding this location, it’s always a treat to see the Yellow-crowned Night-Herons, Ridgway’s Rail, and the ever present Northern Harriers. A surprise bird was the Common Goldeneye. We found 59 bird species.

Here is our species list for the day:

American Wigeon
Canvasback
Lesser Scaup
Surf Scoter
Common Goldeneye
Ruddy Duck
Pied-billed Grebe
Eared Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Cooper’s Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Ridgway’s Rail
American Coot
Black-bellied Plover
Killdeer
Willet
Whimbrel
Long-billed Curlew
Marbled Godwit
Ring-billed Gull
Western Gull
California Gull
Royal Tern
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Anna’s Hummingbird
Allen’s Hummingbird
American Kestrel
Black Phoebe
Say’s Phoebe
Cassin’s Kingbird
American Crow
Common Raven
Bushtit
House Wren
Bewick’s Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
European Starling
American Pipit
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-rumped Warbler
California Towhee
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
House Finch

JIM BECKMAN, trip leader