While most of the month was spent packing and moving my mother from New York City to live with us in California, we arrived back home in time for the Audubon Christmas Bird Counts (CBC). As usual, I participated in two. First was the El Dorado Audubon CBC. I covered Signal Hill. It was a little slow, but I found what I believe to be an Orchard Oriole. I have only brief bad photos, not enough for positive ID, so it is not posted. The Second CBC was for Palos Verdes/South Bay Audubon. My friend and I covered Bixby Marshland and Banning Park. Again, both a bit quieter than in previous years, and nothing truly special. At Bixby Marshland I encountered a red shafted x yellow shafted intergrade Northern Flicker. Birders will understand. For non-birders, it is a pretty woodpecker. At Banning Park Indian Peafowl roam the surrounding neighborhood. I always enjoy a Christmas Bird Count when the birds pose with Santa and other lawn decorations.

In preparation for my upcoming big birding event on January 1st, I scouted a few locations. At Marine Stadium I found the Long-tailed Duck that has been recently reported. It was happily swimming with a flock of Mallards. Speaking of Mallards, on my monthly Los Cerritos Wetlands survey, we encountered an unusual Mallard. Dare I say, everyone is familiar with Mallards, those ducks with shiny green heads and curlicue tail feathers. Those are the males. There are often brown drab ducks with them that are typically the females. What non-birders generally don't know is that males can also be drab brown and are hard to tell apart from the females when they are young or are in non-breeding plumage. Notice the color of the bill. Males have yellow bills and the females orange. Sometimes you see weird or 'funny' ducks at the duckpond that look like Mallards but are just off. They are usually highly inbred domestic mallards of questionable parentage. So back to our unusual Mallard. This one was a female (orange bill) but is considered 'intersex', or in drake-plumage. Some of her plumage resembles a male. This is less common but does occur in wild populations. While Mallards are not always that interesting, we saw a pair of White-tailed Kites on the survey. When they show up, I always consider it a good day.

Wishing peace and happiness in 2024 for all the humans and the critters too.
 

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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.

Local Stuff:    https://kimssight.zenfolio.com/new_dec-2023

Los Cerritos Wetlands Bird Survey:    https://kimssight.zenfolio.com/hellman_dec_2023