2013-04-04 Border Field

Weekday visits to Border Field, at the extreme southwestern corner of the USA, requires a long walk. It is over a mile from the parking area to the sandy beach, and another ¾ mile north along the beach to reach the Tijuana River Mouth. I use a specially equipped fat-tire electric bicycle to transport myself and my heavy camera gear to these places. Best of all, I usually have the beach to myself on these excursions. In the densely populated part of southern California where I live, this is no easy situation to find.

Before I travel down to the beach, I like to inspect the brushy roadsides for passerines. Sometimes I am rewarded by this tactic. On this day I met the endangered Least Bell’s Vireo. Once my ride brings me to the shore of the great Pacific Ocean, meetings with shorebirds, gulls, terns, cormorants, pelicans, and waterfowl are possible.

The birds I met on this excursion were Least Bell’s Vireo, Willet, Black-Bellied Plover, Snowy Plover, Long-Billed Curlew, Whimbrel, Double-Crested Cormorant, Ruddy Turnstone, Western Sandpiper, Dunlin, Marbled Godwit.