Malibu Lagoon Field Trip Report: 28 April, 2013

A foggy morning at the lagoon, outlet closed, the water high, colored flags marking the small plants, an occasional unflagged weed and, frankly, not many birds. See the charts below and on our Lagoon Project Page for the statistics.

Channel area view from Las Virgenes Rd. (L. Plauzoles 04/13/13)

 The ducks are dwindling as springtime calls them north. It was an off day for the shorebirds, with only five “peeps” present: two Western Sandpipers, a single Ruddy Turnstone, two Spotted Sandpipers now sporting breeding breast-spots. The gulls continue to be fewer than average: we didn’t find any Ring-bills among the few California and Western Gulls, but Heermann’s, absent since January, begin to return from their breeding grounds on islands near the tip of Baja California. A single Clark’s Grebe was out past the kelp with a small group of Western Grebes.

“Elegant, my foot! He tries that with me, Marge, and he’s going to be the least tern you ever saw.” (C.Bragg 2011)

The Elegant Terns returned, resting en route to breeding grounds farther north. They looked great and they knew it, breasts rosy from a crustacean diet, with fine black crests. Many attempted mating. A Black-crowned Night Heron hid in the trees by the Adamson House beach fence, a White-tailed Kite searched the perimeter, eight Semipalmated Plovers combed the beach wrack, two Black Oystercatchers worked the low-tide rocks, six Caspian and three Royal Terns kept the cacophonous Elegant Terns company, and a young male Hooded Oriole – yellow, not orange – was a nice treat near the picnic table corner.

The tidal clock was working – 8 ft. 4 in. was the time, I think. A good high tide with some wave action may well open an outlet near Adamson House.

Tidal Clock at work, ticking away (J. Kenney 4/16/13)

Our next three field trips:  Morongo Valley Preserve, 4-5 May; Malibu Lagoon, 26 May, 8:30am; Malibu Lagoon, 23 June, 8:30am.
Our next program:  Tuesday, 7 May., 7:30 pm. Eight-legged Science: The Spider Lab at Loyola Marymount University, with Dr. Martin Ramirez. The usual reminders will be emailed from the blog.

NOTE: Our 10 a.m. Parent’s & Kids Birdwalks have resumed.

Links: Unusual birds at Malibu Lagoon
Aerial photo of Malibu Lagoon from 9/23/02.
Prior checklists: July-Dec’11, Jan-June’11, July-Dec ’10, Jan-June ’10, Jul-Dec ‘09, and Jan-June ‘09.

Comments on Bird Lists Below
Total Birds:   March total birds of 666 are 34% below average; low numbers are mainly in the Brown Pelicans (-158) and Gulls & Terns (-197).
Species Diversity:  April 2013 with 56 species was 2% below the 57.2 6-year average, a minor variance.
Summary of species diversity from the 6-year average so far:  June -10%, July +10%, Aug. -6%, Sep. -20%, Oct. +5%, Nov +2%, Dec -4%, Jan +2%, Feb -8%, March +9%, April -2%. Still, the only constant is change.
10-year comparison summaries are available on our Lagoon Project Bird Census Page.    [Chuck Almdale]

	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
	27-Apr	26-Apr	25-Apr	24-Apr	22-Apr	28-Apr
Temperature	75-90	60-70	62-70	59-68	60-65	57-68
Tide Lo/Hi Height	L +0.5	H +3.7	H +4.57	L +0.19	H +3.67	L -1.10	Ave.
Tide Time	1000	1128	0744	1014	1106	0609	Birds
Brant		1	3			3	1.2
Gadwall	15	6	12	24	14	12	13.8
American Wigeon		4			9		2.2
Mallard	25	16	20	22	16	30	21.5
Northern Shoveler					12		2.0
Surf Scoter	30						5.0
Red-brstd Merganser	4		3		5	3	2.5
Ruddy Duck		10		3	9	20	7.0
Pacific Loon	2	2	4	20	3	1	5.3
Common Loon	1		3	1			0.8
Pied-billed Grebe	4	4	1		2	6	2.8
Eared Grebe	6				2		1.3
Western Grebe	50		35	2	1	28	19.3
Brandt’s Cormorant	8	1		3	1	7	3.3
Dble-crstd Cormorant	25	14	22	19	65	22	27.8
Pelagic Cormorant	2	1	1	2		1	1.2
Brown Pelican	35	78	182	740	80	34	191.5
Great Blue Heron	2	1		4	1	2	1.7
Great Egret	2		2		2	2	1.3
Snowy Egret	8	7	13	11	9	9	9.5
Blk-crwnd N-Heron	1			1	1	1	0.7
Red-tailed Hawk		1		2			0.5
Sora	1		1		1		0.5
American Coot	65	38	35	32	95	58	53.8
Blk-bellied Plover		30	7		11		8.0
Snowy Plover	1				3	6	1.7
Semipalmated Plover	15	15	13	25	3	8	13.2
Killdeer	4	2	4	8	4	2	4.0
Black-necked Stilt					4		0.7
Spotted Sandpiper	1	3	3		1	2	1.7
Willet	4	4	1			1	1.7
Whimbrel	1	6	5	3	5	8	4.7
Marbled Godwit		10	4		8		3.7
Ruddy Turnstone	5	25	2		1	1	5.7
Black Turnstone	1				2		0.5
Surfbird			3				0.5
Western Sandpiper	15	10		12	16	2	9.2
Least Sandpiper	4	2	30	25	5		11.0
Boneparte’s Gull			5	2			1.2
Heermann’s Gull	3	1	45	3	1	14	11.2
Ring-billed Gull	8	4	4	52	20		14.7
Western Gull	35	85	105	160	85	112	97.0
California Gull	65	6	108	450	75	25	121.5
Glaucous-wingd Gull		3	1	2	1	3	1.7
Caspian Tern	13	41	30	61	25	6	29.3
Forster’s Tern		2		1			0.5
Royal Tern	4	2	1			3	1.7
Elegant Tern	245	700	40	12	65	134	199.3
Rock Pigeon	6	4	4	4	3	12	5.5
Mourning Dove	2	2	6	4	2	2	3.0
Anna’s Hummingbird	2	1	2	2	2	1	1.7
Allen’s Hummingbird	3	4	3	2	2	4	3.0
Black Phoebe	6	10	10	8	4	7	7.5
American Crow	4	5	4	5	5	4	4.5
Rough-wingd Swallow	4	3	10	16	6	10	8.2
Barn Swallow	8	4	2	10	1	6	5.2
Cliff Swallow	20	4	2				4.3
Bushtit	6	2	6		2	4	3.3
Bewick’s Wren				2	1	1	0.7
Northern Mockingbird	4	1	2	2	2	5	2.7
European Starling	6	6	4		4	4	4.0
Cedar Waxwing			20				3.3
Yellow-rumpd Warbler			2	4			1.0
Common Yellowthroat	1	2		6	3		2.0
Spotted Towhee	1	1	4				1.0
California Towhee			3			2	0.8
Song Sparrow	8	6	12	10	8	15	9.8
Red-winged Blackbird		2	1	1	6		1.7
Great-tailed Grackle		1		2	8	5	2.7
Brwn-headed Cowbird	1	2	1		2		1.0
House Finch	6	4	6	10	6	8	6.7
Lesser Goldfinch			2	1	2		0.8
Totals by Type	27-Apr	26-Apr	25-Apr	24-Apr	22-Apr	28-Apr	Ave.
Waterfowl	74	37	38	51	65	68	56
Water Birds-Other	200	138	284	820	250	160	309
Herons, Egrets	13	8	15	16	13	14	13
Raptors	0	2	0	3	1	1	1
Shorebirds	52	109	73	74	63	32	67
Gulls & Terns	373	844	339	743	272	297	478
Doves	9	6	10	9	5	14	9
Other Non-Pass.	6	5	5	4	4	5	5
Passerines	80	53	92	83	60	75	74
Totals Birds	807	1202	856	1803	733	666	1011
	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Total Species	27-Apr	26-Apr	25-Apr	24-Apr	22-Apr	28-Apr	Ave.
Waterfowl	4	5	4	4	6	5	4.7
Water Birds-Other	12	7	9	9	9	10	9.3
Herons, Egrets	4	2	2	3	4	4	3.2
Raptors	0	2	0	2	1	1	1.0
Shorebirds	11	12	11	6	12	9	10.2
Gulls & Terns	7	9	9	9	7	7	8.0
Doves	3	2	2	3	2	2	2.3
Other Non-Pass.	3	2	2	2	2	2	2.2
Passerines	17	15	18	17	15	16	16.3
Totals Species	61	56	57	55	58	56	57.2