| Tejon Ranch Breeding Bird Blitz |
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Today I participated in the Tejon Ranch Breeding Bird Blitz. The group I was assigned to worked several canyons on the south side of the ranch in the Antelope Valley. The six of us started at 6AM in the first light of dawn. I couldn't see much in the low light, but heard many Horned Larks and a call the leader assured me was a Whimbrel. Tom explained they stage for migration at the base of the mountains here. Once they leave, they don't stop for hundreds of miles. After the Friday night rain storm, Saturday was extremely windy and cold. We battled a strong wind all day, and the hilltops were shrouded in fog. Despite these handicaps, I can't recall a better experience with warbler migration. We were seeing more warblers than any other birds! In several places we would stand beside a row of shrubby trees and watch as dozens of warblers streamed by - Wilson's, Orange-crowned, Black-throated Gray, Townsend's, Nashville, Hermit, Yellow-rumped and Yellow warblers. Other species migrating in large numbers included Western Kingbirds and Ash-throated Flycatchers, Warbling and Cassin's Vireos. The wind was a real challenge for us and the birds. They would whiz by pushed by the gale and dive into a bush, forever lost from view. Frustrating at times. When we managed to get under the canopy the birds were easier to see. Even with the weather challenge, the spring migration birding there on the south end of the Tehachapi Mountains was amazing - far better than the celebrated Butterbredt Spring has been for several years. Our leader, Tom, had been birding there the day before when the weather was perfect and said it was the best birding he's ever had in California! He cited his phenomenal count numbers for many different species. I can't recall the exact numbers, but it was something like 67 MacGillivray's Warbler - and all in rabbit brush along a riparian area, none in the trees. We didn't really do a Breeding Bird survey this year since we mainly saw migrants passing through. Next year they will do this event again, but hold it several weeks later in the season so they see resident species that are more likely to be breeding and not just passing through. I hope they also do a count of migrants - and give me a chance to participate again! It was definitely worth getting up at 3:30AM, driving an hour and a half to arrive at dawn, then freezing my ass off for the next 7 hours! Here's my incomplete list of sightings (59 species) - not the official list of everyone's sightings, just what I remember seeing or hearing that other's saw. Mallard
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Mary Dufrain
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Tejon Ranch Breeding Blitz Sounds awesome. I wish I had the chance to go. Thanks for making me feel like I was there. |
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