It’s been a while since we’ve had one of these posts. That’s one thing about being out here in the desert. The variety of birds seen is half or less of what we had in West Hills, and most of what we have are a subset of the West Hills common birds. Sparrows, finches, an owl (not two or three varieties), red-tailed hawks (not three or four species), crows and ravens, pigeons, and I’ve heard mockingbirds, but haven’t seen it yet.
But yesterday…
I had walked down to the corner to the community mailbox and on the way back, this little lady strutted out in front of me and headed across the street. Knowing what I know now, it’s probably that behavior where she was trying to act like a decoy to lead me away from her nest.
I was surprised to see her – she looks like a shorebird of some kind, and in fact is part of the plover family and related to terns, sandpipers, and willets. I have no idea what she’s doing here – we’re a LONG way from the beach!
But the (wonderful!) Merlin Bird ID app positively identifies her as a killdeer. Which immediately made sense, since the birdsong routine in Merlin had ID’d an unusual song that I heard ten days ago as a killdeer, so I knew there was at least one around. Well, now we can put two and two together and confirm its presence, for whatever reason.
Finally, when I can find time or make time to go exploring in some of the local wilderness parks and hiking trails, I may find some more new birds there. Someone in a local FaceBook group recently had a bunch of fantastic bird pictures, including bald eagles. I know that the Friends of Big Bear eagles are just about 15 miles away, but they’re also up a couple thousand feet more in elevation, in the pine forest. But we’ll see when we see!
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 