Juncos: The same, but different

In 1973 a half dozen forms of juncos, formerly all treated as separate species, were all lumped as one: and thereafter known as the Dark-eyed Junco. Because they look quite different from one another, birders often report the various forms with their previous names--even after 45 years.

Recently I found a flock of juncos in San Diego County that contained several forms: Oregon, Slate-colored, Cassiar, and Gray-headed. If I looked longer I may have been able to find Pink-sided, too, to complete all the forms expected in the county. The Oregon form is a resident of the San Diego mountains and a common winter visitor throughout the county. The other forms mentioned above are numerically rare, but regular annually in winter.

I was able to successfully photograph the Oregon, Slate-colored, and Gray-headed forms on a recent morning visit to Oak Hill Memorial Park Cemetery in Escondido. I was not able to get a photo of the Cassiar Junco that was also present. It is a disputed form, some think it a hybrid between Oregon and Slate-colored, others disagree. [See: Not a Slate-colored Junco! The Cassiar Junco.]

"Oregon Junco"

"Slate-colored Junco"

"Gray-headed Junco"

"Gray-headed Junco"

My favorite form right now is the Gray-headed Junco, because it is a form I have rarely seen before. It breeds from southern Idaho and Wyoming to northern Arizona and New Mexico. It is resident in the Grand Canyon area. It is regular, but rare in winter here in the San Diego area. In fact, the only Dark-eyed Junco forms north of Mexico that aren't regular here in winter are White-winged and Red-backed.

California Towhee

Here are a couple of photos of an obliging California Towhee from a couple of weeks ago. The dark background on the second photo is especially pleasing, I think.

California Towhee. Imperial Beach, California. November 30, 2016. Greg Gillson.

I'm trying to envision how to draw this lower photo with its brown bird against the stark black background with graphite pencil. It has good contrast so I'd have to push the black as deep as it will go. I want to try it, but don't have the confidence in my abilities right now. I think that with more practice on other drawings I will have the necessary technique and confidence to tackle this challenge in the future. Of course, there's no reason not to redraw this bird several times to get better and better. Hmm...., but not today.

Update: December 30, 2016. I decided to give it a try...

Ruddy Duck sketch

It's been a dozen year since the last time I did any drawing. I've never had any training, but did some acceptable pen-and-ink drawings and pencil sketches in the past. For the past month or so I've been watching videos by Jack Laws and bought some pencils and a sketchbook and have been following the drawing techniques that Mr. Laws discusses on his blog posts and videos.

I did some drawings last week based on photos I took last month, but think I've followed the directions more closely in this recent drawing. I'd never done shading before. Still need some practice with water....

Here is the result (a photograph of my drawing--the original is on white paper, not gray).

Here is the original photograph on which the drawing was based.

Ruddy Duck. Dixon Lake, Escondido, California. November 30, 2016. Greg Gillson.

Oddly, I tipped the bill towards the viewer too much. And I need help with the eye. But it's a start. The rest is practice. I need to draw more to get better, not necessarily learn more techniques. "Each drawing is just practice for the next one," as Laws says.

Black and yellow

Well, I went looking for a reported rare Pine Warbler, a bird I've never seen before. I still have never seen a Pine Warbler...

But I did manage several photos of a bright Townsend's Warbler. These birds breed in the pine mountains of the West. Most winter in Mexico, but not this one.

Townsend's Warbler. Imperial Beach, California. November 25, 2016. Greg Gillson.

Black and red

A very few Vermilion Flycatchers are resident in San Diego's North County. Otherwise they are rare annual winter visitors. One winter location they are regular is in the Tijuana River Valley. There are four birds that recently arrived for winter at the Sunset Avenue ball fields in Imperial Beach.

These are small flycatchers, phoebe-like in behavior. Their winter habitat is large lawns--golf courses, cemeteries, ball fields. They frequently perch on lone saplings and fence posts, and sally out to chase flying insects at lawn-level.

Adult males are a hurt-your-eyes reddish-orange on the crown and under parts. They have a black mask, nape, back, rump, wings, and tail.

Vermilion Flycatcher. Imperial Beach, California. November 25, 2016. Greg Gillson.

Paler male, likely one year old.

There were two birds that appeared to be young females.

American Pipits in Imperial Beach

A rare Red-throated Pipit had been spotted at the baseball fields on Sunset Avenue. Several birders had searched unsuccessfully the next morning. I joined them for a while. And while no Red-throated Pipit, with their strongly striped backs, was present I did have an opportunity to photograph American Pipits. These turned out to be some of the best photos of these birds I've yet taken of these hyperactive birds.

Breeding on mountaintop snowfields, in winter pipits feed by chasing insects on the bare ground or short grass fields or shorelines. They merge and split into flocks of various sizes on the ground, but easily take low flight together when approached too closely or alarmed by a bird of prey flying overhead--when they may flush high and away completely.

Here, however, they've grown accustomed to dog walkers and others using the fields when no games or practices are occurring. As they walk quickly forward with horizontal posture they jerk their head forward with each step and constantly bob their tails. Thus, many of my attempted photos have been blurred by the movements of head or tail.

Sometimes, though, they pull up suddenly, raise their heads erect, and freeze--but just for a second.

American Pipit. Imperial Beach, California. November 25, 2016. Greg Gillson.

Grackle bath time

I recently came upon a Great-tailed Grackle taking a bath in the lagoon formed at the San Luis Rey River mouth.

He had waded belly-deep into the shallows and spread his tail widely...

Great-tailed Grackle. Oceanside, California. November 6, 2016. Greg Gillson.

He made an amazing splashing...

How? He opened his wings slightly, rocked side-to-side and flapped his mostly-closed wings, dipping his head underwater, bringing it out and shaking it. Notice the nictitating membrane covering his eye...

Now, not quite so violently; letting the spray settle...

Resting before starting again...

It feels so good!

Great Horned Owl at San Elijo Lagoon

On a recent hike at San Elijo Lagoon, on the Nature Center trail, I was alerted to this sleeping Great Horned Owl by a couple of hummingbirds buzzing around it like mad bees.

Great Horned Owl. San Elijo Lagoon, California. November 6, 2016. Greg Gillson.

Great Horned Owls begin their nesting season early--often by late December. They are frequently heard calling during this period. They don't build their own nests, but use the old nests of Common Ravens, Red-tailed Hawks, and Red-shouldered Hawks.

These owls are uncommon but spread out over the entire county--even in the cities. People in general are more tolerant of birds-of-prey than in the past. Thus, ravens and hawks are thriving in urban and residential areas, and the old raptor nests that the Great Horned Owls need are readily found.

In the chaparral around Dixon Lake

I went out birding for the morning on November 20th in the chaparral north of Dixon Lake on the edge of Daley Ranch.

The two primary plant species in this area are chamise and laurel sumac, with yucca (our Lord's candle), and mission manzanita, with scrub oaks and coyote brush in the ravines. So it seems to fit the sparse waist to chest-high chamise chaparral habitat type tending toward the thicker southern mixed chaparral in the wetter ravine bottoms.

I took the 1/2 mile long and unlabeled Chaparral Nature Trail starting at Jack Creek Picnic Area of Dixon Lake Park and found the typical chaparral species--California Towhee, Wrentit, California Thrasher, Bewick's Wren, Spotted Towhee, House Wren, Rufous-crowned Sparrow, California Gnatcatcher. I was also looking for wintering Fox Sparrows. There are three forms possible: Sooty, Thick-billed, and Slate-colored. I don't have any photos of the local Thick-billed Fox Sparrows (stephensi?). I heard a half dozen Fox Sparrows, but didn't get good looks until I saw a Slate-colored form at the Jack's Creek picnic area--the most common, based on my relatively few personal winter sightings.

Inquisitive Oak Titmouse in scrub oak, Dixon Lake, California. November 20, 2016. Greg Gillson.

California Thrasher

Hermit Thrush

eBird list for the morning.

Birding site guide to Dixon Lake.

Birding Site Guide: Los Jilgueros Preserve in Fallbrook

At the edge of the town of Fallbrook is a small hiking park called the Los Jilgueros Preserve (eBird Hotspot here). The preserve follows a little creek alongside South Mission Rd. There is a pond or two and some drier upland areas and oaks.

It wouldn't be a birding destination in itself--it's smaller and is not known for unusual birds. But it's worth a stop for an hour or two if you are in the Fallbrook/Bonsal area.

Here are some birds I photographed in August 2016.

Bewick's Wren

Bushtit

Orange-crowned Warbler

Costa's Hummingbird

Bell's Vireo

Western Meadowlark

A sunny yellow bird to brighten your rainy day! (Yes, even here in San Diego.)

Western Meadowlark. Ramona, California. October 30, 2016. Greg Gillson.

Western Meadowlarks were once much more common than they are today. They are most common in native grasslands in North America--a habitat that is mostly gone. Such grasslands have been converted to strip malls, cattle ranches, and agricultural lands. As ground nesters, they need larger tracts of grasslands to hide their nests from coyotes, foxes, dogs, and cats, or being stepped on by cows and sheep. They can breed in most grasslands--it doesn't have to be native--as long as it is undisturbed from March to August. So fields of grain harvested in May or June as well as urbanization eliminates these pretty birds from former breeding areas.

In my lifetime I have seen these wonderful birds with their loud and joyously bubbly songs virtually eliminated as breeding birds from the Willamette Valley of western Oregon. I know this is true because even the European Starlings in western Oregon don't imitate Western Meadowlarks any more as they frequently did in the past--the last starlings to have heard meadowlarks have evidently all died of old age.

Meadowlarks can be found breeding still in the sagebrush and open ranch lands of eastern Oregon, and found in western Oregon in winter.

Here in San Diego they breed in some native grasslands in the foothill. Such is the case at the Ramona Grasslands Preserve where I photographed this bird. Admittedly, though, this bird is likely a visitor from elsewhere that had joined the large flocks gathered here for winter. Birds in the center of the continent migrate south into Mexico, but many more move west to winter in milder areas, such as coastal dunes and lowland pastures along the West Coast.

So even though they are less common now, you can still see them if you drive the roads through open farm country, especially in winter.

Index to my bird identification articles

I'm getting enough bird ID articles in this blog now, to warrant an index to find them. Plus I've written some other ID articles in various blogs over the years that I think are worth pointing out. As I add more identification articles to my Greg in San Diego blog, I'll add them to the top of the list.

Yellow Warbler fanning her tail at Kit Carson Park May 2019

Eurasian Wigeon in Borrego Springs (Female ID) March 2019

Rare Lesser Black-backed Gull at Coronado February 2019

Oregon and Slate-colored Juncos November 2018

Clay-colored Sparrow at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery October 2018

ID: Hybrid California x Gambel's Quail January 2018

Little Blue Heron Hunting Posture January 2017

Vireo frustrations ("Solitary" Vireos)  October 2016

A Costa's Hummingbird at my window August 2016

ID: Leach's Storm-Petrel split: Ainley's, Leach's, and Townsend's  July 2016

Red-crowned Parrot  June 2016

ID Challenge: Mew Gull NOT!  November 2015

Winter Sage Sparrow dilemma: Sagebrush or Bell's Sparrow?  December 2014
Winter Sage Sparrow identification redux  November 2016
Sage Sparrows in Borrego Springs  March 2019

ID: Elegant, Royal, and Caspian Terns  November 2014

Large-billed Savannah Sparrow  September 2014

Belding's Savannah Sparrow  April 2014

Hybrid Audubon's x Myrtle Warbler  April 2014

ID: Western, Cassin's, and Tropical Kingbirds  March 2014

Storm Wigeon  March 2014

ID: Gnatcatchers of California  February 2014

ID: Female Blue-winged and Cinnamon Teal  January 2014

ID: Long-billed Dowitcher and Short-billed Dowitcher in winter  January 2014


You may also be interested in my bird identification articles I wrote from 2009-2013 in my Pacific NW Birder blog (no longer updated). These were tailored for the beginning birder identification challenges of Oregon and Washington, but also apply to southern California in most cases.

Juvenile Spotted Sandpipers masquerading as Solitary Sandpipers!  September 2013

ID: Brown Swallows  July 2013

Telling Swallows from Swifts  June 2013

No Swainson's Thrushes before May!  April 2013

Song Sparrow or Fox Sparrow?  January 2013

Western Sandpiper or Dunlin? Winter ID challenge  November 2012

Empid ID in 3 easy steps  June 2012

Separating first year Thayer's Gull from "Olympic" Gull  January 2012

Not a Slate-colored Junco! The Cassiar Junco  April 2011

Greg's white-cheeked goose rant... I mean, primer  February 2011

Dabbling Duck silhouette quiz  January 2011
Dabbling Duck silhouette quiz: Answers  February 2011

ID: Little green bird: Kinglet or Vireo?  December 2010

ID Challenge: Horned and Eared Grebes in winter  December 2010

ID: Yellowlegs  September 2010

Identification: Clark's and Western Grebes  July 2010

Lincoln's Sparrow ID  April 2010

A tale of two White-crowned Sparrows  April 2010

ID Challenge... Western Sandpiper and Semipalmated Sandpiper  August 2009


Oh, here's one that I think you'll like: a guest post I wrote for the Birding is Fun! blog (this blog is also retired).

Ten most misidentified birds in the Pacific Northwest  February 2013

Northern Mockingbirds at Borrego Springs

After Phainopeplas, Northern Mockingbirds are the second-most obvious birds at the Borrego Springs waste treatment ponds in winter. They are constantly singing and chasing through the mesquite there. And even if there are less than 10 total birds in the immediate area, they make themselves known by their loud calls, songs, antics, and penchant for perching up high and exposed.

Northern Mockingbird at dawn. Waste treatment ponds, Borrego Springs, California. October 29, 106. Greg Gillson.

Mockingbirds are pretty much found throughout San Diego County except the unbroken chaparral of the foothills and above 4000 feet in the higher mountains. Thus, the range in the county is cut in two by the north-south running mountains.

West of the mountains these are common resident birds in urban and agricultural areas throughout the coastal lowlands.

East of the mountains they breed widely throughout sage, scrub, and cactus habitats, as well as oases and towns. Interestingly, they breed noticeably less widely in the desert in drier years, retreating into desert towns then (Unitt, 2004). And they are less widespread in winter--concentrating near settlements and oases.

Another thing that is interesting about Mockingbirds is that they have a prolonged breeding season. They may breed twice, or sometimes thrice, in a single breeding season. Nests with eggs have been noted in California from late February to the beginning of September.

Phainopepla at Borrego Springs

My favorite desert bird...

Phainopepla. Borrego Springs, California. October 29, 2016. Greg Gillson.

Rock Wren at Borrego Springs

I visited the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park visitor center late one afternoon on a recent hot day. I came away with a Costa's Hummingbird, a migrant Black-throated Gray Warbler, a heard-only House Finch, and this Rock Wren. The bird activity was definitely slow.

The wren was crawling around on these granite boulders and these two photos turned out pretty well.

Rock Wren. Borrego Springs, California. October 29, 2016. Greg Gillson.

Photographic Nature Journaling: Part 2

In my previous post (click here) I discussed Nature Journaling basics and how I altered it for photography rather than drawing. How did I do in actual practice? Let's find out. For convenience the journal entry proper will be with black font and my self-critique will be with this blue font.

Birding and nature around Lake Hodges
November 13, 2016

It was jacket weather when I started at 7:20 am--55F and wispy clouds covering the sun, but nowhere else. I knew it was going to warm up fast, so I birded near the Rancho Bernardo Community Park and near the car to start. That way I could shed the coat for my longer hike.

Looking south. A view of the partly hazy sky. Cirrus clouds? My meteorology studies in high school were long ago.

Black Phoebe on parallel bars. Rancho Bernardo, California. November 13, 2016. Greg Gillson.

Slightly out-of-focus male Townsend's Warbler. It spent most of its time in the pines and shade.

Orange-crowned Warbler

Olive-colored chevrons on undertail coverts are exclusive to the Channel Islands breeding race of Orange-crowned Warbler-- Oreothlypis celata sordida.

Okay, a decent start. I provide the metadata--date, time, location and the weather--photo and description.

I provide some bird photos, two "pretty," two of lesser quality equivalent to quick sketches with comments on behavior, plumage and identification, habitat. Is a jungle gym in a park habitat? I guess it is.

The leaves on the native sycamore trees were turning golden yellow, orange, and brown and beginning to shed. So I decided to look a bit more closely.

Playground with sycamores. Many of the leaves have already shed.

Sycamore bark is a mottled collage of white, brown, and gray patches.

A minority of sycamore leaves are still green. The three to five pointed lobes remind some of maple leaves.

The spiky seed balls of sycamore

This native tree looks superficially like a widespread ornamental, the sweet gum or liquidambar that is native to the SE US, but planted widely in California. The sweet gum has ridged bark and even spikier seed pods--and, a more colorful red fall leaf display.

The above section does well with a habitat photo, zooming in on the bark, leaves, and seeds. Then I talk about another tree that it reminds me of. This is very definitely what I had in mind as similar to natural history drawings.

The clouds gone and temperatures rising, I left my jacket in the car and continued on.

Looking west from the parking area. Coastal sage scrub habitat.

It has been very dry, with only a couple of brief showers since April. Now that we've reached mid-November, most plants are dead or showing signs of stress from prolonged drought. A few bushes have drying flowers.

One bush was especially proliferous with its cottony flowers. After some research I think it may be Coyote Brush.

Coyote brush?

Close up of flowers

Landscape, bush, flowers--varying the focus on the same item. And I may have identified the previously unknown-to-me shrub.

An archeological discovery here are boulders covered with 500 year old doodles. I couldn't make out any designs, but could see the red ochre color added to the rocks.

500 year old rock "chalk board."

I found a natural piece of colorful art.

Colorful lichens on a rock.

Not everyone considers archaeology part of natural history. But there are some traces here of organisms to pass this way long ago--people. The lichen is a comparison--native rock art versus natural rock art.

Here is a giant thistle-like plant, chest tall and 4 inches across or so.

Unknown flower gone to seed

I noticed and recorded this. I don't know what it is, other than big. Something to watch for later.

I didn't have the trail to myself, but that was okay.

Tracks

I was purposely looking for an example of beauty in nature--light, color, pattern, shapes. I found them here on the trail.

So, here's a question. What's with the microscopic clam shells? This is an old river bank and new lake. Is this dredge spoils from the lake and the clams only are here since the lake was formed? Or are the shells from elsewhere?

Teeny, tiny shells. 1/8 to 1/4 inch.

Ooh, ick! My sand has clams in it!

Jimson Weed? The flower bud is 3 inches long.

Questions are definitely the first part of eventually understanding nature. "A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but without a name it is simply a flower" (Jim Wright and Jerry Barrack, In the Presence of Nature). The correct identification and naming is also essential to understanding nature. Did I name the plant correctly? Perhaps, and I'm building a catalog of plants and other items I've never noticed before. Or perhaps I did notice, but never wrote it down, and soon forgot.

There are patches of prickly pear cactus on the hillsides. But recently several slopes have been planted with prickly pear. In a year or two it may grow thick enough for Cactus Wrens to colonize on this side of the lake the way they have on the north side.

Prickly pear cactus alongside the trail. Looking west across the Bernardo Bay arm of Lake Hodges.

Prickly pear cactus

A Mourning Dove was sitting along side the trail here. Perhaps I interrupted its feeding, but it just sat and looked at me.

Chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum) California Buckwheat is a common plant of the chaparral. It appears dark reddish brown from a distance now, as the flowers are mostly dried up and the plant nearly dormant.

Chamise California Buckwheat

Chamise California Buckwheat

The endangered California Gnatcatcher is frequently found in the heavier chamise along the Bernardo Bay section of the trail.

I observe spider webs. Do the gnatcatchers eat the spiders, or do the bird and spider compete for the same insects? Such questions lead to science happening!

California Gnatcatcher actively crawling and fly-hopping through the bushes, the long tail flipping about. The undertail is black with thin white edges on the side and tips. It is a diagnostic field mark for identifying this gnatcatcher species--one of three species in San Diego County.

I found a couple more California Gnatcatchers down the trail a ways. This time in other weeds.

These weeds look like barbed wire!

By varying the view I have observed a connection from the landscape/cactus patch on through to the dove and chamise buckwheat and then to the gnatcatchers and spider webs. From there I went on to a species account with poses, identification, and behavior. Most of the gnatcatcher photos are not pretty pictures that could stand by themselves. In the past I would have thrown them away (deleted). But as diagrams that illustrate behaviors and plumage characters, they tell an interesting story. And leave many unanswered questions.

Farther down the trail I came upon several oak trees. These are live oaks, either coast live oak or canyon live oak. They are very similar. A list of plants here (see reference footnote) lists only coast live oak.

Live oak along the shore of Lake Hodges.

The leaves are about 1-1/2 inches long, twice as long as they are wide, and rather oval, with sharp points along the edge.

The bark is gray and rough and the trunk gnarled

At another live oak tree I noticed an adjacent smaller oak shrub with little tiny fingernail-sized round leaves. Is this, perhaps, a scrub oak?

The live oak in the center of the frame is about 25 feet tall. The scruffy little bush to the right, barely 8 feet tall is another kind of oak, perhaps scrub oak.

Tiny little round oak leaves. Scrub oak?

Here's another set of tree, bark, leaves including a scenic landscape/habitat view for context.

All along the trail I had been seeing these little piles....

Scat. Feces. Excrement, Poo...

This particular pile of coyote scat included fur, perhaps of rabbit or ground squirrel, plus these fruit pits. Every pile included lots of these pits. But I couldn't see any plants with berries that these could be from. Finally, after hiking about 2 miles, I found such a bush along the riparian edge. Superficially the bush looked like a willow, but with leathery, thick, serrated leaves,... and the berries. Still don't know the name. [11/27/16--This plant is toyon Heteromeles arbutifolia.]

I cut open the fruit with my thumbnail and tasted. It had no real taste that I could discern. Many non-edible fruit are very bitter. This was not. So, this is what the coyotes are eating this time of year... whatever it is. [11/27/16--The shrub is Toyon.]

There are many signs of animal presence in nature without actually seeing the live animal. Tracks, trails, scat, browsing or kill signs, marking signs, dens, shed antlers, dead bodies--all these and more indicate that an animal has passed this way. The dog-like droppings with fur and berries? Coyote. The undigested parts gave a clue, and the fact that it was widespread, yet the source was not immediately evident, made it a mystery to be solved.

So that's it. Or so I thought. I had walked about 3 miles and was back to the car 3-1/2 hours later just about 11:00 am. It was up to 92F, about where the temperature would peak for the day. Then I saw the flowerbeds at the parking lot when getting into my car. I had seen a sign on my hike about endangered local plants. One of them was a kind of mint. Could these flower beds be cultivating endangered mint? I mean, when's the last time you saw mint as a flowerbed ground cover?

This ends with more metadata--distance traveled, time, temperature. And then ends with a mystery: is this mint a deliberate planting of a local rare endangered plant, or just a coincidence?

That's the end then. I thought several of the ideas and photo series lent themselves very well to the Nature Journaling theme and practice. The post is more interesting than simply a single pretty picture or two, but likely too long for a single post. I'm sure it could be broken up into themes. Then again, I won't always devote 3-1/2 hours in the field to this Nature Journaling idea. But I can take a nature break any time when I'm out--especially when I notice nature telling me a story. I now have a methodology to use photography as the main art form for Nature Journaling.

References:

Plants of Piedras Pintadas Ridge, Lake Hodges. James Dillane, May, 1997.

My eBird list for the hike.

My previous site guide to this part of Lake Hodges.