Another Morning at Shoreline

    This morning (1/18/14) I birded in Shoreline Park, going from Charleston Slough to the kite-flying area, then back. I arrived around 7:50 am at the Slough. With the low tide, hundreds of birds were out but conveniently enough, the black skimmer that I had seeked for the past few weeks just happened to not be present on the mudflats or the island.

A female Northern harrier surveys her surroundings by Salt Pond A1

     I then went to Shoreline Lake to find my main bird of interest for the day: the BARROW'S GOLDENEYE. The lovely pair by the lake's northern shore was nice enough to separate themselves from the many common goldeneyes around and be close enough to photograph.

    Males of this species have a crescent-shaped patch in front of their (golden) eyes as opposed to the circular patches in common goldeneyes. Additionally, Barrow's males have mostly black scapulars with white spots as well as a short bar extended partially down the side of the breast. Female Barrow's have steeper foreheads compared with the rounded heads of the commons and often have fully orange beaks (really hard to see in this backlit picture).

Common goldeneye male

Note the greenish sheen on their heads. Male Barrow's tend to have a more purplish sheen when seen in the light.

This is the kingfisher's boat now

Male surf scoter in full breeding plumage. These ducks are sometimes known as "skunk-headed coots", for their comical coloration

Glaucous-winged gull

    As I left the Lake, I saw a small, white bird flying on the other side. It flew in a "graceful" manner and I assumed Bonaparte's gull. Upon looking with binoculars however, I found out that it was a Forster's tern! Although these birds are exceedingly common in the area during summer, this was my first tern seen at Shoreline for the winter, so that was exciting. I then headed for the small creek by Terminal Avenue flowing into the Coast Casey Forebay. 

    For the past few days, a female hooded merganser was reported in the area. The bird was very cooperative and was actively swimming right as I arrived. Unfortunately, the diving duck was too far away and obscured by cattails to get a good picture. My next order of business was attempting to find the resident American bittern. I had seen this secretive bird in the same place last October but not yet for this year. Thankfully, a group of birders with scopes arrived as soon as I was about to give up and they found the bird sleeping behind some reeds. As with the merganser, the bittern was too far away and obscured to get a picture. 

Believe it or not, this is the hooded merganser (her head is tucked in)

    I then biked to the kite-flying area in attempt to get the juvenile greater white-fronted goose and cackling geese. As my luck would have expected, all I got was a large flock of Canada geese. However, there was an interesting goose growing white feathers out of the black portion of its neck.

I still would have preferred either cackling or greater white-fronted geese...

Lesser goldfinches on fennel

    When I biked back to the Slough area, the skimmer was still not there. I decided to visit the marsh next to Terminal Avenue and heard a sora (it is the "sora spot"). Then, a colorful male common pheasant suddenly flew out of the cattails, moving surprisingly quickly for a mostly ground-dwelling bird. The spectacle was stunning, but I did not get a chance to take out my camera. 

    I headed back home at 10 am with 66 bird species on my day list, 5 of them being new for the year and 13 of them being ducks (blue-winged teal, green-winged teal, mallard, gadwall, surf scoter, canvasback, common goldeneye, Barrow's goldeneye, hooded merganser, lesser scaup, greater scaup, ruddy duck, and Northern shoveler). Hopefully, I'll get that skimmer soon.