@Socialprogressive Skimmers are surely around San Diego Bay. These Skimmer pics were from either Newport Bay or Bolsa Chica I think. They were not found in socal in the 60's, the first few showed up in the latest 70's maybe. They have been breeding at coastal terneries since the 90's, if not a bit earlier. I think there is a ternery along the Silver Strand area? Anyway some stay the winters now so you can find them year-round. They roost with gulls and terns along edges of bays and lagoons. Fairly strictly saltwater, and which must be calm flat water so they can skim along with lower mandible in water and snap up fish when they hit them.

#4
You are correct, the seed head is an Artichoke. There is a field of them about a 20 minute walk from my house.
Thanks for the shots of the coots and skimmers. Interesting color pattern on the skimmer. I wish we had them around here.

@Socialprogressive

First CA sighting I know of was 1962; 8 September 1962 at the mouth of the Santa Ana River in Orange County, ( https://www.birdforum.net/gallery/black-skimmer.680077/ ). Ebird has them in the Hayward Shoreline (East SF Bay) as early as 1994. They are definitely in San Diego, check eBird for locations.

be well and have a good one

#4
You are correct, the seed head is an Artichoke. There is a field of them about a 20 minute walk from my house.
Thanks for the shots of the coots and skimmers. Interesting color pattern on the skimmer. I wish we had them around here.

@dystopian

not to be a bird brain but
what is a temery?

Hi EL and SP,

If of interest some historical perspective on the socal skimmers... I followed these a bit...

I think that 62 Orange Co. skimmer record was a one-day bird, and not sure any more were in OC 62-72 the decade I lived there birding Bolsa Chica and Newport Bay many hundreds of times. My folks compiled OC CBC's then. We were pretty tuned in, and would have chased any local report. The Sta. Ana River mouth bird was the first socal record actually. Probably why someone (likely OC birders) put it into ebird.

Also I think all records in Dunn & Garrett, Birds of Southern California: status and distribution, 1980, were entered into ebird, as it is the bible for everything prior and up to that date.

Unfortunately most of the copies of that printed were lost in an arson fire at LA Audubon's Audubon House in Plummer Park, in W. Hollywood, shortly after printing. Maybe a couple months? I forget. A buddy got one at auction in the 1990's for $500. I got mine for $20 the week it came out.

Black Skimmer in socal was an accidental vagrant occurence in '62 and remained such coastally a decade at least. The first Salton Sea birds were 3 in 1968, colonization there for nesting began in 1972. The San Diego Bay nesting started in 1976 and was at 75 or so birds present in summer 1979.

But in the 70's a few more had started to show upcoast, mostly from late spring to late summer, as when Elegant Tern and Heerman's Gull move north from Mexican nesting grounds. And where the closest to socal nesting and source birds of all three were.

For skimmer as of 1980 there were maybe 5 or so Sta. Barb. Co. records, double that in Ventura Co., only a very few in LA and Orange Counties. LA Co. had no habitat left. OC had lots with Bolsa Chica and Newport Bay. As of 1980 any OC report would have had all the top local birders chasing it to see one in the county.

Nesting began in Orange Co. at Bolsa Chica in the 1980's, in LA Co. in the 1990's. Again, in both cases associated with new Elegant Tern terneries, as with the first coastal colony at San Diego Bay. The Elegant Tern did not nest in socal in the 1960's either, it was only a late summer visitor from Mexico. All this stuff moving north as breeders, by hundreds of miles, started in earnest about 50 years ago or so for the first pioneers of those three species.

In the 1990's as co-compiler of Palos Verdes Peninsula CBC, the first count records (winter) were early 90's. There, the way to get the best count of them (and Mew Gull - now Short-billed Gull) was to be at the southmost tip of San Pedro at the Pacific Ave. overlook before the sun came up. Which I did for alcids and shearwaters with scope anyway. As long as it was not windy overnight, immediately after sunup, a parade of Mew Gull and Black Skimmer would pass by Pt. Fermin going south in about the first half-hour of light. They proceeded to Cabrillo Beach or Terminal Island (maybe or maybe not visible later in day) where they slept the day off. Yes as long as there is no wind and the sea glassy (night) they feed at sea overnight. And sleep on the beach all day. Not all skimmers do this, but our local birds did in winter. I had been watching those Mew Gulls for decades trying to figure out how they were makin' a living sleeping on the beach all day.

Since the 90's skimmers are resident in socal, with a number of well-established breeding populations in Elegant Terneries. Smaller numbers winter around bays or lagoons, mostly near where they nest.

The Bolsa Chica ternery is one of the great spectacles you can experience with a ternery at fairly close range, and drive right up to. Besides the skimmers, nesting Least, Forster's, Caspian, Royal, and Elegant Terns. Ten thousand or more birds. It is incredible. You ought to hear it when a Peregrine visits. But put all in trunk, leave nothing in sight in your car at the parking lot there. Some birders have lost their camera gear the last decade or two.

Did you see the hardware/jewelry (band) on the bird behind the front bird in last pic? One leg I see a band on it. That is from my friend or one of his students at Bolsa Chica, Dr. Charlie Collins. He is the worlds leading authority on swifts. Named one recently. CSULB. Birded a fair bit with Charlie. Once I was following him way out in the middle of nowhere, to climb Clark Mtn. in eastern Mojave, a peak at about 8000' with firs, in the desert. He hit a jackrabbit, and when we stopped I asked if he knew. He said we would check it in a couple days on way out, he was trying to bait in what would then have been California's first Black Vulture. Charlie was funny.

Somewhere I have skimmer pics with the lower mandible in water, skimming. Whaddabird!

anyway, more than you wanted to know I'm sure... so with apologies...

@dystopian

Hi EL and SP,

If of interest some historical perspective on the socal skimmers... I followed these a bit...

I think that 62 Orange Co. skimmer record was a one-day bird, and not sure any more were in OC 62-72 the decade I lived there birding Bolsa Chica and Newport Bay many hundreds of times. My folks compiled OC CBC's then. We were pretty tuned in, and would have chased any local report. The Sta. Ana River mouth bird was the first socal record actually. Probably why someone (likely OC birders) put it into ebird.

Also I think all records in Dunn & Garrett, Birds of Southern California: status and distribution, 1980, were entered into ebird, as it is the bible for everything prior and up to that date.

Unfortunately most of the copies of that printed were lost in an arson fire at LA Audubon's Audubon House in Plummer Park, in W. Hollywood, shortly after printing. Maybe a couple months? I forget. A buddy got one at auction in the 1990's for $500. I got mine for $20 the week it came out.

Black Skimmer in socal was an accidental vagrant occurence in '62 and remained such coastally a decade at least. The first Salton Sea birds were 3 in 1968, colonization there for nesting began in 1972. The San Diego Bay nesting started in 1976 and was at 75 or so birds present in summer 1979.

But in the 70's a few more had started to show upcoast, mostly from late spring to late summer, as when Elegant Tern and Heerman's Gull move north from Mexican nesting grounds. And where the closest to socal nesting and source birds of all three were.

For skimmer as of 1980 there were maybe 5 or so Sta. Barb. Co. records, double that in Ventura Co., only a very few in LA and Orange Counties. LA Co. had no habitat left. OC had lots with Bolsa Chica and Newport Bay. As of 1980 any OC report would have had all the top local birders chasing it to see one in the county.

Nesting began in Orange Co. at Bolsa Chica in the 1980's, in LA Co. in the 1990's. Again, in both cases associated with new Elegant Tern terneries, as with the first coastal colony at San Diego Bay. The Elegant Tern did not nest in socal in the 1960's either, it was only a late summer visitor from Mexico. All this stuff moving north as breeders, by hundreds of miles, started in earnest about 50 years ago or so for the first pioneers of those three species.

In the 1990's as co-compiler of Palos Verdes Peninsula CBC, the first count records (winter) were early 90's. There, the way to get the best count of them (and Mew Gull - now Short-billed Gull) was to be at the southmost tip of San Pedro at the Pacific Ave. overlook before the sun came up. Which I did for alcids and shearwaters with scope anyway. As long as it was not windy overnight, immediately after sunup, a parade of Mew Gull and Black Skimmer would pass by Pt. Fermin going south in about the first half-hour of light. They proceeded to Cabrillo Beach or Terminal Island (maybe or maybe not visible later in day) where they slept the day off. Yes as long as there is no wind and the sea glassy (night) they feed at sea overnight. And sleep on the beach all day. Not all skimmers do this, but our local birds did in winter. I had been watching those Mew Gulls for decades trying to figure out how they were makin' a living sleeping on the beach all day.

Since the 90's skimmers are resident in socal, with a number of well-established breeding populations in Elegant Terneries. Smaller numbers winter around bays or lagoons, mostly near where they nest.

The Bolsa Chica ternery is one of the great spectacles you can experience with a ternery at fairly close range, and drive right up to. Besides the skimmers, nesting Least, Forster's, Caspian, Royal, and Elegant Terns. Ten thousand or more birds. It is incredible. You ought to hear it when a Peregrine visits. But put all in trunk, leave nothing in sight in your car at the parking lot there. Some birders have lost their camera gear the last decade or two.

Did you see the hardware/jewelry (band) on the bird behind the front bird in last pic? One leg I see a band on it. That is from my friend or one of his students at Bolsa Chica, Dr. Charlie Collins. He is the worlds leading authority on swifts. Named one recently. CSULB. Birded a fair bit with Charlie. Once I was following him way out in the middle of nowhere, to climb Clark Mtn. in eastern Mojave, a peak at about 8000' with firs, in the desert. He hit a jackrabbit, and when we stopped I asked if he knew. He said we would check it in a couple days on way out, he was trying to bait in what would then have been California's first Black Vulture. Charlie was funny.

Somewhere I have skimmer pics with the lower mandible in water, skimming. Whaddabird!

anyway, more than you wanted to know I'm sure... so with apologies...