When you are in Southern California (specifically Venice Beach) in the wintertime you don’t look for “California girls,” you look for California birds! I was amazed by the many types of birds sighted near sunset (around 4 o’clock in the evening). There were two types on the pier, four types paddling (and one diving) on the waves, and two or three running in the shallow surf on the sand.
Unfortunately my iPhone photos did not turn out too well for the distance shots of birds floating on the waves. One photo that I did not post was of a black duck-like pair with bright orange beaks. The unusual coloring made me wonder if this was the bird that inspired Daffy Duck!
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Brown Pelican / on waves below Venice Fishing Pier / December 2015
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Western gull / on Venice Fishing Pier / December 2015
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Snowy Egret / on Venice Fishing Pier / December 2015
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I loved the soft looking feathers blowing in the wind of the Snowy Egret! And the interspecies mingling of the perching birds.
Identification Egret Identification The lone gull photo I believe is of a Western gull. I did not know there were so many types of gulls and with such fine distinctions between species. PDF of California beach bird guide
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Shore bird (possibly sandpiper) / below Venice Fishing Pier / December 2015
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| Shore birds (two types of sandpipers) / below Venice Fishing Pier / December 2015 |
A possible identification of the larger shore bird, with which I was fascinated was a whimbrel or a curlew. Bird identification I am confident it was in the Sandpiper family, Scolopacidae. More about the classification of this Family This is a great website about phylogeny (link to definition) if you are interested in that. It is nice because you can click on the classification group like Order and Family, all the way down to the Species names, to see photos of the individual animals. I didn’t check to see if it does the same for “flora.”
I was frustrated by my inability to identify the specific species of the shore birds. As I searched it made me realize, that when sighting a bird I need to pay attention to: eye area coloring; leg coloring; feet; beak structure; coloring, and markings; wing structure when flying; and calls. And I thought I was so observant!
For the larger sandpiper I saw I felt like the beak was down curved and in the photo the feet look webbed… Webbed feet in Shorebirds?
The next time I go to Southern California beaches in winter, I need to bring my telephoto-lens- camera!
When my husband and I travel, in the summer, along the coast from Northern California to Washington, we spend a lot of time on the shoreline. As we walk on the many different beaches, I have not ever seen so many types of birds all at once. Seeing so many types of birds in a small area made me, of course, ask questions!
1) Are there that many birds through all seasons or are there more when there are less people around?
2) Would the coast of Northern California to Washington have that many species in winter?
3) Are there more birds because it is warmer (relatively speaking) in Southern California?
4) Are these all migratory birds?
SOURCES for searching for the bird types:
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