Category: Birding
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Lewis’s Woodpecker and Other Things
[Featured image: Lewis’s Woodpecker at Bette Davis Picnic Area, Burbank, Los Angeles County on October 26, 2016] As today was not a running day, I decided to make it a birding day. There was a report on the LaCoBirds listserv yesterday of a Lewis’s Woodpecker at Bette Davis Picnic Area near Griffith Park. As that…
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When Public Lands Aren’t Really Public
[Featured image: Blooming rabbitbrush at Hungry Valley OHV Area with the Topatopa Mountains in the background.] I woke up early this morning unsure what I was going to do. Today was not to be a running day. I did not, however, want to spend my whole day watching football, which is exactly what I would…
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After the Rain
[Featured image: a Yellow-rumped Warbler feeds on laurel sumac berries] I had outdoor plans for early this morning, but upon awaking to the first rain of the fall, I decided I’d rather get some work done on the computer and enjoy my coffee. At around 9am or so, the clouds cleared over Mt. Washington and…
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Morning at Hahamongna
[Featured image: Subadult Cooper’s Hawk] I had a little time this morning, so I decided to head over to Hahamongna Watershed Park by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and do a little birding. I parked on the west side of the park, an area that was formerly called “Oak Grove Park”, proceeded southward over…
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Kayaking Upper Newport Bay
While losing the ability to train for this year’s Angeles Crest 100 has been upsetting to me, I am enjoying the time that has suddenly become available to me to do other things. Some of these things are things that I have wanted to do for quite some time, but never really found the time…
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One More to Go
One of my stated 2016 goals from a birding perspective was to get the Elyria Canyon Park bird list to at least 100 species. As of this morning, the bird list for the park stands at 99. Because of adverse weather conditions in the San Bernardino Mountains this morning, I had to cancel a planned…
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Waterman Mountain and the Morbid Art of Dead Giants
Yesterday was 22 miles in beautiful weather on what I will call the Waterman Mountain Loop. My previous experience on this mountain was limited to birding on the trails on its lower reaches. On this day, I climbed up the trail starting on the northeast side near Buckhorn Day Use Area and took the out-and-back…
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The SG Trails Website is Dead. Long Live the SG Trails Project!
After cogitating on it for awhile, I decided today to kill the San Gabriel Trails Project website. The San Gabriel Trails Project is my effort to run every trail, or at least close to every trail, in the San Gabriel Mountains. I have a few reasons for undertaking the project: I have an obvious tendency…
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Birding Elyria Canyon Park: Anatomy of a 50 Species Morning
One of my emphasis points this year as a birder is a heavy focus on covering my home area, or what birders refer to as a “patch”. The most important part of my home patch is Elyria Canyon Park, a 35-acre park right next door to my house that is managed by the Mountains Recreation…
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February 2016 in Review
Another monthly update on the goals I’ve set for myself for 2016. Birding Birding has been mostly productive, with a large number of Los Angeles County life birds observed during my pelagic trip on February 28. As of this writing, I’m at 139 for the year and 277 for life in Los Angeles County, with 149…