Holiday Birding March 2018
Our American holiday this year took us to San Diego, Big Island, Maui and San Francisco.
San Diego
In San Diego we found a rather splendid site at Imperial Beach, San Diego Bay. We actually ran into a few birders who were looking for a (locally rare) Flamingo. They gave us some pointers and helped us identify some tricker birds – well, at least from our point of view.
We had excellent views of Ospreys and also got a Northern Harrier. We also got Eastern Phoebe, Morning Dove,and Black-chinned Hummingbird but most of the birds were ducks and waders. We saw lots of Marbled Godwits and Willets, both new birds to us as well as Black-necked Stilts and American Acovets, American Wigeon and Green-winged Teal. Among theother birds we got were Snowy Egret and – I thought – Elegent Terns though the llocals seemed to suggest that we could expect Foster’s Terns.. We also got Great Egret, Pied-billed Grebe, Red-breasted Merganser and a host of other birds. Elsewhere in San Diego we also got Brown Pelican at the pier and Surf Scoter at Coronado Beach.
Big Island
Over in the Hawaiian Islands; on Big Island we saw the usual range of birds but added Orange-cheeked Waxbill, Yellow-fronted Canary, Kalij Pheasant and Muscovy Duck to the normal collection of Cardinals, Saffron FInches and Waxbills.
Maui
On Maui we had the familiar birds of the hotel grounds, Mynah and Pacific Golden Plover and the usual Cardinals etc. We added to this list at Kaloko Honokohau National Historic Park with Ruddy Turnstone and Sanderling – both new to us on Maui. The best two additions, though, were at Napili where we gt our first views of African Silverbill and Scaly-breaseted Munia (aka Nutmeg Mannikin)
San Francisco
San Francisco was pretty much as before though we did get a huge raft of Western Grebes on the bay by the Maritime Museum.
The list for the whole holiday was as follows –
Birds seen in San Diego, Hawaii and San Francisco
26th February- 18 March 2018
| 1 | Hawaiian Goose (Branta sandvicensis) |
| 2 | Muscovy Duck (Cairina moschata) |
| 3 | American Wigeon (Anas americana) |
| 4 | Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) |
| 5 | Hawaiian Duck (Anas wyvilliana) |
| 6 | Common Teal (Green-winged) (Anas crecca carolinensis) |
| 7 | Surf Scoter (Melanitta perspicillata) |
| 8 | Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator) |
| 9 | Grey Francolin (Francolinus pondicerianus) |
| 10 | Kalij Pheasant (Lophura leucomelanos) |
| 11 | Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) |
| 12 | Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) |
| 13 | Western Grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis) |
| 14 | White-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus) |
| 15 | Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) |
| 16 | Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) |
| 17 | Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) |
| 18 | Great Egret (American) (Ardea alba egretta) |
| 19 | Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) |
| 20 | Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) |
| 21 | Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) |
| 22 | Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) |
| 23 | Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus) |
| 24 | Hawaiian Coot (Fulica alai) |
| 25 | Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus) |
| 26 | Black-necked Stilt (Hawaiian) (Himantopus mexicanus knudseni) |
| 27 | American Avocet (Recurvirostra americana) |
| 28 | Pacific Golden Plover (Pluvialis fulva) |
| 29 | Willet (Tringa semipalmata) |
| 30 | Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) |
| 31 | Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa) |
| 32 | Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis) |
| 33 | Herring Gull (American) (Larus argentatus smithsonianus) |
| 34 | Black Noddy (Anous minutus) |
| 35 | Elegant Tern (Thalasseus elegans) |
| 36 | Rock Dove (Columba livia) |
| 37 | Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis) |
| 38 | Zebra Dove (Geopelia striata) |
| 39 | Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) |
| 40 | Black-chinned Hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri) |
| 41 | Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) |
| 42 | Sky Lark (Alauda arvensis) |
| 43 | Japanese White-eye (Zosterops japonicus) |
| 44 | Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis) |
| 45 | Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) |
| 46 | Red-crested Cardinal (Paroaria coronata) |
| 47 | Saffron Finch (Sicalis flaveola) |
| 48 | White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) |
| 49 | Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) |
| 50 | House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) |
| 51 | Yellow-fronted Canary (Serinus mozambicus) |
| 52 | House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) |
| 53 | Orange-cheeked Waxbill (Estrilda melpoda) |
| 54 | Common Waxbill (Estrilda astrild) |
| 55 | African Silverbill (Euodice cantans) |
| 56 | Scaly-breasted Munia (Lonchura punctulata) |