2015-07-02 Tijuana River-Border Field

On this day I ventured down to Tijuana River Valley looking for the reported Yellow-Throated Vireo I’d heard of there. I struck out on the vireo, but there was a dozen or so Black-Throated Magpie Jays at the Bird and Butterfly Garden to keep me entertained. Later I drove down to Border Field and took my bike out to the beach and the Tijuana River Mouth where I bumped into my friend Billy who performs predator control to protect the  nesting species here and at the Saltworks (too bad there’s nothing he can do to fend off the Gull-Billed Terns from decimating the Least Terns and the Snowy Plovers. Ironically it IS his job to protect the Gull-Billed Terns.

After visiting with Billy I continued to the beach to see what might be lurking along the shores. Most of the Least Tern babies had grown their flight feathers by now, and they’d moved on. The Snowy Plovers were present, but they never leave. There were Long-Billed Curlews, Willets, Marbled Godwits as usual, and Black Skimmers near the river mouth.

All-in-all a very nice day at the beach. Images Below