San Jacinto Wildlife Area

I have been absent in posting much this week because I took a quickie trip back to the desert of Southern California. What a fantastic four days! Lots of friends, great birding and good food. Can't ask for more.

On my last day in CA, I had the great opportunity to go on a birding field trip with the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve bird group to San Jacinto Wildlife Area. I had been there before with the group last winter, but I was still looking forward to it. I am always looking forward to new species, and anyway, the Area is just beautiful.

Loved the early morning haze.

I ended up with one official new species, a Vesper Sparrow and one unofficial new species, the Scaup. I'm calling it unofficial because we could not identify whether it was a Lesser or Greater from afar. So I guess it doesn't really count.


Anyhoo, the best part of the day was seeing at least a dozen or so Wilson's Snipes. I've only ever seen one in my whole life (cause, well, they are rarely seen, hence the whole Snipe hunting thing,) so getting to see a dozen all hanging out together was a real treat. I'm so thankful for my friends' scopes. They make my birding much better! :)

This is the AWESOMEST woman on the planet, Patty. Patty is BC survivor like myself, so I consider her a sister at heart. Love you Patty!

I only stayed for the morning session because I had to catch a flight back to StL, but I ended up with about 57 species. Pretty darn good day, I think! It felt really great to be back with the old CA group again. I miss you guys!

This is the only bird photo from the day. The pond is filled with Black-neck Stilts and few Yellowlegs. I did not bring my "biggy" camera because American Airlines sucks for charging for checked bags. Didn't have the room. Sorry....