Finally June is in full swing with post-pandemic life (if you haven't gotten your vaccine yet, what are you waiting for?). I participated in several in-person group outings: Wetlands Bird Survey, Rancho Los Cerritos Bird Survey, Dragonfly Survey, Whale Watching, Pelagic Birding, and the month started with an 'owl prowl'. Some friends and I went to Irvine Regional Park to bird for Nighthawks and Owls. With darkness it is hard to see, much less photograph birds. But we did hear them.  I heard my first Western Screech Owl. Since there are no photos, you'll just have to take my word for it. I did take some evening landscape photos.

I am continuing to see fledgling birds. I saw my first young Yellow-breasted Chat at the wetlands. I have seen the adults in the area, usually in the Spring. It is good to know that they are breeding there. In my local parks, I saw many familiar birds, but they were in baby-size. They sound different also as they exercise their newly found voices with high pitched squeaks and chirps.

But life is not all about birds. Two days in a row I saw coyotes at two different locations. At Rancho Los Cerritos there were a pair of young coyotes. Coyotes always have large ears, but somehow they look even larger on the young pups. A large raccoon was there also. The next day I was at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve to look for terns (ok, I know, terns are birds, but bear with me). The large Elegant Tern population had abandoned their nests after a drone crashed into the preserve. NOT GOOD and not legal. I saw no Elegant Terns at Bolsa Chica, but did see them nesting in Long Beach on two large barges in the harbor a few weeks later. Also at Bolsa Chica, there were Least Terns whose nests are monitored and protected by fences, because they are endangered. Since it was very low tide, a young bold female coyote was able to walk around one of the fences and walk into the nest area. Fortunately several people yelled at it and it finally left without a meal of eggs nor chicks. Don't worry, there is plenty of non-endangered food in the wetlands for the coyotes. 

Continuing on the endangered species theme, a juvenile Short-tailed Albatross was found just off the coast. A group put together a boat to look for it the next morning and I signed up. We found it again hanging out near commercial fishing boats. These birds are very rare, numbering only in the few thousands in the North Pacific. They occasionally show up in Alaska and less often in northern California. So having one show up in southern California is rare indeed. It was a massive bird. It followed our boat as we were trying to attract gulls with popcorn. It loped across the water in gawky strides with an occasional glide low to the water. It was a banded bird. I couldn't read the tag, but several others on the boat got good photos of it, so the bird will be well documented.

So after the summer solstice, the days are getting shorter. The rest of summer is sure to whiz by and soon winter is coming.

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Watch the slideshows or click on the links to look through at your own pace. Links open in a new tab.

Enjoy the show! I always appreciate corrections to ID's.

Local Stuff:    https://kimssight.zenfolio.com/new_jun_2021

Los Cerritos Wetlands Bird Survey:    https://kimssight.zenfolio.com/hellman_jun-2021

Albatross:    https://kimssight.zenfolio.com/pelagic_jun_2021