Some Inland Birds In San Diego County

Great White Egret or Common Egret

You may see me often posting coastal birds here, such as the pelicans, cormorants, marbled goodwit, least terns, sand pipers, sea gulls, etc, that is because probably it is a lot easier to spot birds along the coast than inland. Along the coast, these birds are more exposed and always go by huge flocks, whereas inland, they are hidden in the bushes or in the trees, and they are seldom seen in huge flocks unless during their migration early in the morning or after sunset. Some of the birds here are not exclusive to inland only, because some, like the egrets can also be seen right along the coast, fishing in the beach.

Can You See the Poor Little Fish in Egret's Beak?

Along the coast, egrets can be seen mostly in the tidepool area or the beaches. However, they can be found in huge flocks inland such as in lakes or lagoons. I often see them in Los Penasquitos Lagoon, San Elijo Lagoon, and huge flocks of them migrating Lake Hodges after sunset, or in other inland lakes. They are actually almost everywhere, as long as there is water I guess. 

Cattle Egrets with Eggs

Unlike the common egret above, I still have to see the cattle egrets getting near the coast or near the water. Cattle egrets are not as water loving as the white egrets. They have been called cattle egrets because they mostly follow cattle in farms to feed on the critters that had been disturbed by cattle as they walk. The cattle egrets are also smaller than the water loving common egrets. 

Baby Snowy Egret

Mom Snowy Egret Feeding Babies

If common egrets are seen from the coast to the inland valleys to the mountains to the desert, the snowy egrets are oftentimes seen in farms going to the mountains and desert. However, they can also be richly found in Wild Animal Park, which they have adopted as their breeding and nesting home. 

Egrets and cattle egrets belong to the heron family, so I will introduce you next to another bird often seen in inland lakes, the heron.

 Heron

Actually, like the common white egret, herons can also be found along the coast especially in tidepool area and like the white egret, they are also found inland. The heron is a large species of bird that inhabits wetlands and areas that are close to lakes, ponds and rivers. Herons can be most likely found in La Jolla tidepool, or in lagoons close to the ocean such as Los Penasquitos and San Elijo. However, they can be seen as far as Lake Cuyamaca in the San Diego mountains.

Black Crowned Night Heron

Another specie of heron that are found much inland in San Diego County are the black crowned night heron.

Black Crowned Night Heron

The black crowned night herons are mostly seen in inland lakes such as Lake Murray, however, it seems they are most abundant at Wild Animal Park. 

Next to the herons, another huge bird sometimes seen in inland lakes are the white pelicans.

White Pelicans in Flight

White pelicans are mostly seen in inland lakes. I sometimes see them in Lake Poway, Lake Dixon, and in San Elijo Lagoon.

White Pelicans

Unlike the California brown pelicans which are very much coastal and dive for fish, the white pelicans are much seen inland and fish from the surface. The white pelicans are large aquatic birds and rivals the trumpeters swan as the longest bird native to North America. Its wingspan could be up to 12 ft, the second longest average wingspan of any North American bird, next to California Condor, a critically endangered bird. It is still my wish to see California condor in the wild, which at some point was at the brink of extinction. The condor is the largest North American bird. At one point in 1987, there were only 22 condors left in the world, so a conservation plan was put in place which captured the 22 remaining condors in the wild and were bred here at San Diego's Safari Park and LA Zoo, thus, most of my condor pictures are from the Safari Park. The breeding had been successful and condors had been re-introduced in the wild, and they can now be seen flying high in Utah, Arizona, Mexico and California. The California Condor is one of the world's rarest bird species: as of May 2012, population counts put the number of known condors at 405, including 226 living in the wild and 179 in captivity.- source: Wikipedia

Since this post is about inland birds that I had seen in the wild, though I am excited to share some pictures of one of the world's rarest birds, the CA condor, however, I will probably have to do that in one of my later posts. Meantime, let me share with you a more common vulture seen in the San Diego's wild instead, the turkey vulture.

Turkey Vulture

Turkey Vulture atop an oak tree

Turkey vultures are commonly seen in flight in inland valleys and mountains of San Diego County. Oftentimes, when I share pictures of turkey vulture from my hikes, I would get a comment of, " I would be too scared to be close to them!" Or, "are you not scared of vultures hovering above you?" I do understand these comments, maybe because people perceived the vultures as scary because most find them ugly. But truth is, vultures are probably very beautiful inside, because of their kindness. Despite being so strong and powerful, they won't harm any live animals. Vultures such as turkey vultures and condors may not be classically beautiful, but their existence do serve us a great purpose of cleaning the world of decayed matter. If you see them, they can't harm you. The black crowned night heron above may look so handsome, but you may be disgusted seeing it eat a baby live bird. Vultures to me are beautiful in such a way that despite being so strong and powerful that none preys on them, yet, they do not prey on anyone. They reserve their strength and powers in cleaning the world and speaks of beauty in humility!

However, I do understand the prey-predator relationship that despite the ugliness of seeing a predator terrorize its prey, such as a hawk killing and eating a squirrel, though I cringe on seeing it, but I accept that there is a beautiful purpose and reason for everything. Thus, whenever I see a hawk, despite I have seen also how it mercilessly killed its prey, I still find it a beautiful bird of strength and power.

 Hawks

Hawk In Flight

Hawks are commonly seen in inland San Diego, and they prefer mostly open spaces since it is easier for them to see their prey. A hawks diet include a variety of smaller animals such as rabbit, squirrels, snakes, lizards, mice, etc. Occasionally, they are also seen along the coast, by Torrey Pines area. The picture below of the hawk chasing the paragliders was taken by my hubby.

Hawk Chasing Paragliders :)

Another common bird seen in San Diego are the hummingbirds, they are simply everywhere. 

Hummingbirds

I get so used to hearing hummingbirds that when I hear flapping of wings so fast that it creates almost like a music, I stay still so that I can take it a picture. :)

It is easiest for me to find hummingbirds around red and orange flowers, though I saw them also enjoying just any color of flowers. 

Though there are still more birds that I saw inland of San Diego, however, I still have to find them in my photo archive, so, let me end this post with one of the most entertaining birds to watch, the woodpecker.

Woodpecker with an acorn in its mouth :)

It is hard to miss a woodpecker since they create so much noise in creating a hole in the tree so they can hide or bury their acorns. :) whenever you are in the woods area and hear someone so busy knocking on the wood, look up, chances are, you will see a busy woodpecker. Woodpeckers are mostly seen in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park in the San Diego Mountains area. 

♥♥