Life in LA LA land…

I’ve been down in LA again, visiting family. This time, it’s because Dad was scheduled for an angiogram on Friday, and I felt it made sense to be here in case anything happened.

Well, the test found three arteries about 99% clogged, so he was immediately admitted into the hospital because the doctors felt he was too risky to allow home. Arrangements were made, and this morning, he went into surgery for a triple bypass. I’m happy to say that he came through fine and was in recovery and from talking to the doctor, there seemed to be no complications. If all goes well, he’ll be in the hospital another week or so, then I’ll head down to LA again to help get him home and settled.

The family (and myself) are all nicely de-stressing now, too.

So it’s been an interesting week or so especially the last couple of days. I’ve been using the down time to study up on some work stuff, and have gotten out when I can to go out and do some walking and birding (trying to, instead of stress eat, get out and get some exercise. So far, it’s worked)….

It’s been a positive trip for birding — spring migration is on, so the migrant traps are busy. I’m about five minutes from Tri-City park in Placentia, so that’s where I head when I don’t have much time. In researching orange county birding, I also ran across Lakeview Park, which is on the Santa Ana “river”, and happens to be literally next door to the kaiser hospital (on Lakeview in Anaheim) where dad had his tests (his surgery is up in San Bernadino at a place that specializes in heart surgery).

I also took some time out Sunday for a more extended trip, visiting Huntington Beach Central Park for the first time, and a return visit to Bolsa Chica and then a quick drive up Newport Back Bay.

All in all, I added 7 birds to my life list:

Warbling Vireo, Orange-Crowned Warbler, Plumbeous Vireo, Least Tern, Elegant Tern, Rufous Hummingbird and Ash-throated Flycatcher, taking the life list to 196 (with a goal of 200 for the year, I’ve probably set the bar too low. Maybe I’ll shoot for 200 species for the year list).

The year list added those 7, plus four more: Wilson’s Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Semipalmated Plover, and Bewick’s Wren, giving me 164 for the year.

I finally added two problematic birds to my list: Orange-Crowned Warbler and Rufous Hummingbird. OC Warbler isn’t all that difficult a bird, but even when I’ve been in a group and had it called out, I’ve had trouble pulling it out of trees and identifying it to my satisfaction. This trip, I finally did so, so I can check it off. It was with a large group (20+) flock of warblers wandering Tri-city park, mostly yellow and Townsend’s with some Wilson’s for spice. And — I think — at least one Hermit, but I never got a good enough look to be sure and no photos. The photos I thought might be a candidate are bad pictures of a Townsend’s that make it hard to see the facial coloration. Ohwell. I’m pretty sure a Hermit was with that flock, though, but not enough to call it out for sure.

And rufous? they’ve just been hiding from me, even in places like Ed Levin where they’re known to congregate. Adn twice I ran into birds down south that turned out to be Allen’s, but I finalyl hit an adult I could sit and study enough to be able to differentiate it from the Allen’s.

Here’s a hummingbird that looks to be a barely-fledged rufous or Allen’s (probably Allen’s) — you can see just the barest hint of the gold/orange on the sides starting to come out, and there’s almost no green yet. Teh orange makes it selaphorus, and the general lack of color makes it real young. Doesn’t hurt that I saw Allen’s at that location, so I’m fairly sure they were nesting there.

More enjoyable, though, was being able to pull out some of the vireos and get good enough looks and photos to get solid IDs. Those birds can be tough; I found a spot at Huntington Central Park where there were a lot of canopy birds and a snag that actually went into the lake, and the birds were using it as a staging point to get down to the water to drink.

Newport Back bay was really quiet, and I was running short on time, so I only stopped at the observation parking lot, and wandered across the street into the brushy area up in the hill rather than focus on the wetlands. It’s a hangout for swallows and sparrows and stuff, and I was hoping to run into a loggerhead shrike or a blue-grey gnatcatcher (both seen there in the past by people I know); no luck, and it was pretty quiet other than the song sparrows, until the rufous popped up and gave me a good look, and then this bird popped up into a bush and hung out for a minute or two. I immediately realized it was a flycatcher (“Say’s Phoebe. Boring. No, wait, not with that head!….”). Those two species made the side trip on the way home more than worthwhile…

I’d originally planned on either a run down to Salton Sea, or up into Carrizo Plain and Morro Bay, but of course, plans changed. maybe next trip, once dad is settled. But I don’t think I did badly at all, and I’m starting to get the hang of tracking and seeing canopy birds better, and getting some decent photos.

And I can’t not show off the ducks… Came back from the birding trip to the beach, only to say to mom “did you know you have ducks in the back yard?”. fortunately, while they like the idea of nesting in the garden and using the pool, Remy had other ideas, and they moved on…

On the other hand, the neighborhood is pretty birdy, if not exotic: two mockingbird nests, a black phoebe couple, and for some reason, a flock of bushtits have moved in and are systematically cleaning all of the bugs and stuff off my mom’s window screens….

My entire photo set is, as always, on flickr).

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