Date: 3/21/2020
Location: Manhattan Beach On the beach, from 1st street to the pier
Site Description: It was sunny with a few clouds the high 65 degrees F. It felt like in the 70s with the sun out. The beach was crowded but with social distancing. I was still surprised to see so many different people out.
Species Account:
So this bird was strolling on the beach and just walking. He seemed very proud to be walking and I saw him when I went out on March 13th. Then I see him again walking north and I pay slowly to see where he goes. He then ended up resting in the position you see below. The bird was not scared of people at all I got a picture of him about 1 yard away from it. My guess is this is a juvenile since adults are more black mainly you can see the difference in the belly area. Not pictured but this bird took a nap on one leg with was cool to see. This is mainly a diving bird, this day I did not see it diving but I did just see it when I surfed on March 26th which was cool to see. I was looking out on the horizon as one does when surfing. It pops out of nowhere about 15 yards away. I am not sure if it is the same exact bird but it was our double-crested cormorant again. So it seems like to me it is living around the pier for now. It is found in flocks or on its own. And it weird because Ebird said it is found inland so I am probably wrong about the ID of the bird. It swims like a duck when underwater.
Common Name: Double-crested Cormorant
Species: Phalacrocorax auritus
Family: Phalacrocoracidae
Order: Suliformes
Observations: 3,672,034
Area: North America
Narrative:
So, I began my journey on the strand on 7th street in Manhattan Beach, CA. The strand is the walkway that is right next to the beach separating houses and the beach. The strand goes all the way from the 1st street of Hermosa beach with is south to El Porto which is the northern beaches of Manhattan Beach. I walk all the way to the pier and then down to 1st street and back to 7th which overall was about 1.42 miles according to E-bird. So, I saw a decent amount of birds I have seen a lot more on the beach when I go surfing because gulls, wrens, or pelicans are in groups and today I saw a lot but not as many as I am used to. I first saw a gull flying and the way it soars along the beach was fabulous. It did not flap its wing a lot until it began its landing. There were a couple of birds just chilling on the beach and people going over to them and they flew away but once the people left, they flew back to the same spot. I believe these are the wrens.
Then I saw some gulls, but I cannot for sure ID the specific pictures, but I believe this single gull.
It is very difficult to ID specific gulls, but I believe this a Western gull since it has a bright yellow beak and pink legs and its colored eyes.
So, I believe there was some kind of gull wars going on. The reason why I think this is because a group of gulls was chilling on the beach and then another group is coming from Northwest and all of a sudden they get maybe 100ish yards away and then the group chilling on the beach start to fly and the group come together and circles. Then I see the two group branch off and I don’t know which group took the spot but that was cool to see.
Then I saw my Double-crested Cormorant friend again I saw him in the other previous trip for another ebird list.
I went around the pier and this is where I saw some pigeons.
They were climbing the stairs, which was fun to see, and some people walked down, and they flew away onto the sand and just started walking around.
Lastly, I saw two different shorebirds that I was not too sure about their Identification, but I believe it this and this.
Please let me know what you think. Left Picture maybe a willet Right – marbled willet?
https://ebird.org/checklist/S66875484
Bird List:
40 royal wrens?
15 Western Gulls and others
3 Crows
4 Shore Birds
1 shorebird
2 Small quick birds that were different than the above but didn’t get a good glimpse of