With my energy levels still low, I decided to bird the West Street Basin and the adjoining sports ball field here in Garden Grove. This is a place I haven’t birded until recently and I’ve made some fascinating discoveries. The basin is sadly neglected by the city of Garden Grove. What could be a really beautiful (although small) nature preserve is filled with trash.
Here are the birds I was able to ID. Note: My Birdathon count really isn’t all the birds that I will SEE. It’s all the birds I will either see or hear, and that I can ID based on sound or visuals (or both). It’s really exciting to see how my ID skills are progressing.
The most interesting discovery was the Savannah Sparrows. Sparrows are notoriously difficult to identify. The Merlin app picked up their calls, but I discarded this as false, based on the improbability of SAVS being in a densely populated area.
Then, I saw a flock of a dozen sparrows foraging in the grass. Before I could get a pic of them, a kid chasing a goose made the flock scatter. But I managed to see that a few of the birds had a bit of yellow over the eye, light beaks, and white chests with distinct brown streaks. As far as I can tell by reading the eBird data, SAVS have never been reported in the city of Garden Grove. Hopefully, my ID will pass the eBird reviewer with the Merlin recording and no photos.
Here they are! Only 270 more to go.
16. Mourning Dove
17. Anna’s Hummingbird
18. Killdeer
19. Black-crowned Night Heron
20. Snowy Egret
21. Say’s Phoebe
22. Cassin’s Kingbird
23. Hutton’s Vireo
24. European Starling
25. Savannah Sparrow
26. Mitred Parakeet
27. Song Sparrow
28. House Sparrow
29. Northern Mockingbird
30. Double-crested Cormorant
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