27 December ’09 – Malibu Lagoon Trip Report & July – December 2009 Results

The few, the happy few, the band of brothers & sisters on St. Crispin's Day (C.Almdale 12/09)

Cool and cloudy weather greeted those who ventured out, but the birding was great and the weather warmed up to be quite pleasant. Loads of gulls, shorebirds and ducks. Surfers were out in force as the waves were great (storm warning issued for 3 p.m.) but the water was very cold. I found this out when I waded across the outlet stream to count Snowy Plovers – 59 birds, including the banded bird “brown, orange : white, white” now spending his/her 3rd month at the lagoon. The tide was far out with more rocks showing than I can previously recall.

Adult Heermann's Gull (C.Almdale 12/09)

They were mostly covered with California Gulls but 4 Black Oystercatchers were among them, only the 8th time we’ve had them at the lagoon. (They’ve been there since Christmas Day, apparently.) One Glaucous-winged Gull among the Western Gulls. Those who stayed to the end got scope views of the distant Long-tailed Duck (aka Oldsquaw) hanging out with a small flotilla of Surf Scoters over by the Malibu Pier. This was a life bird for some and a new bird for the lagoon area. After counting plovers, I headed towards the pier to photo it, but it headed out to sea. Altogether we had 2,638 birds in 63 species. See the chart below for the details.

Here is a record of the period July-December for the lagoon. Six visits, 105 species total with 6,791 individual birds counted. Not too shabby!  Link to January-June 2009 sightings.

Malibu Bird Census	2009	2009	2009	2009	2009	2009
For 2009	Jul 26	Aug 23	Sep 27	Oct 25	Nov 22	Dec 27
Temperature	68-75	65-75	72-80	60-74	60-72	50-60
Tide Height	+0.4	+5.7	+3.9	+3.5	+4.6	+0.2
Low/High & Time	L:0704	H:1201	H:0731	L:0941	H:1137	L:1241
Wood Duck				1
Gadwall		4	11	4	7	23
American Wigeon			8	10	6	26
Mallard	25	35	22	24	15	16
Northern Shoveler			8	25	5	15
Northern Pintail			1			1
Green-winged Teal				4	6	8
Greater Scaup			1
Surf Scoter						50
Long-tailed Duck						1
Bufflehead					5	25
Red-brstd Merganser					1	3
Ruddy Duck	1			18	20	25
Red-throated Loon						3
Pacific Loon						5
Common Loon				1	1	2
Pied-billed Grebe	6	7	4	10	5	5
Eared Grebe				6		1
Western Grebe			2	20	15	4
Brown Pelican	40	185	12	8	12	56
Brandt’s Cormorant				1	2
Dble-crstd Cormorant	15	12	14	25	29	35
Pelagic Cormorant			3		1	3
Great Blue Heron	3	7	5	4	3	4
Great Egret	5	5	3	1	1
Snowy Egret	40	17	14	15	8	20
Green Heron			1
Blk-crwnd N-Heron	2	3	4		1
Cooper’s Hawk			1
Red-shouldered Hawk						1
Red-tailed Hawk	1	1		1	2
Merlin					1
Peregrine Falcon				1
Sora			2	4	6	2
Virginia Rail			1		1
American Coot	20		147	266	295	403
Blk-bellied Plover		71	102	114	89	45
Snowy Plover	1	36	33	61	48	59
Semipalmated Plover		10	2
Killdeer		3	4	5	3	4
Black Oystercatcher						4
Black-necked Stilt		2
Lesser Yellowlegs		1
Willet	1	16	33	40	18	12
Spotted Sandpiper		2	1	4	2	2
Whimbrel	1	29	6	6	5	4
Marbled Godwit		2	4	25	14	14
Ruddy Turnstone		11	4	12	13	18
Black Turnstone		1		2
Sanderling		105	41	145	155	115
Western Sandpiper	1	8		5
Least Sandpiper		3	3	12		35
Pectoral Sandpiper			2
Dunlin			2	4
Short-billd Dowitcher		3	6	20
Wilson’s Snipe						1
Heermann’s Gull	12	21	14	12	13	24
Ring-billed Gull		2	2	14	50	360
California Gull	2	1	15	123	58	1060
Herring Gull				1	1
Western Gull	30	132	84	82	67	68
Glaucous-wingd Gull						1
Caspian Tern		1		1		1
Royal Tern		3
Elegant Tern		1	5	11	1
Forster’s Tern						1
Least Tern		1
Rock Pigeon	1	6	4	6	6	4
Eur. Collared-Dove	1
Mourning Dove	1	4	2	10	3	2
Anna’s Hummingbird	1	1	3	1	4	3
Allen’s Hummingbird	3	2	2	2	2	2
Belted Kingfisher	1		1		1	1
Black Phoebe	6	6	7	6	6	5
Say’s Phoebe				1	1	2
Western Kingbird		2
American Crow	1	3	6	5	6	2
Tree Swallow				1
Rough-wingd Swallow	2	3
Cliff Swallow	24	2
Barn Swallow	12	25	2
Oak Titmouse				1
Bushtit	6		7		40
Bewick’s Wren				5	1
House Wren			3	1
Marsh Wren				2	1	2
Wrentit	1
Northern Mockingbird	3	2	3	3	1	1
European Starling	6	8	8	12	6	10
Ornge-crwnd Warbler			1
Yellow-rumpd Warbler		2		3	6	12
Common Yellowthroat	2	1	3	3	5	5
Spotted Towhee						1
California Towhee	2		2		2
Savannah Sparrow			2	8		3
Song Sparrow	1	4	4	6	4	4
White-crwnd Sparrow				4	4	1
Red-winged Blackbird	2	1
Western Meadowlark			4	1
Brewer’s Blackbird			1
Great-tailed Grackle			2		3
Brwn-headed Cowbird	1		1
Hooded Oriole	2
House Finch	24	5	4	4	6	6
Lesser Goldfinch			1			7
Totals by Type	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Waterfowl	26	39	51	86	65	193
Water Birds – Other	81	204	185	341	367	519
Herons, Egrets & Ibis	50	32	27	20	13	24
Quail & Raptors	1	1	1	2	3	1
Shorebirds	4	303	243	455	347	313
Gulls & Terns	44	162	120	244	190	1515
Doves	3	10	6	16	9	6
Other Non-Passerines	5	3	6	3	7	6
Passerines	95	64	61	66	92	61
Total Birds	309	818	700	1233	1093	2638
Total Species	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Waterfowl	2	2	6	7	8	11
Water Birds – Other	4	3	8	9	10	11
Herons, Egrets & Ibis	4	4	5	3	4	2
Quail & Raptors	1	1	1	2	2	1
Shorebirds	4	16	14	14	9	12
Gulls & Terns	3	8	5	7	6	7
Doves	3	2	2	2	2	2
Other Non-Passerines	3	2	3	2	3	3
Passerines	16	13	18	17	15	14
Totals – Species	40	51	62	63	59	63