OK, let's face it, I hate LA. I once interviewed for a job there, and found that the lab was wonderful but that I would have to kill too many of the inhabitants to make it liveable.

However, I still haven't seen that many west-coast birds, so when I discovered that the American Crystallographic Association was holding it's annual conference in LA in July 2001 I merrily signed up. A week of hanging out with fellow geeks in downtown LA is actually more entertaining if one is a professional geek, especially in combination with equivalently geeky hobbies of which birding is certainly a prime example.

(In what follows, Italics - year birds. Bold - life birds.)

Classically I pad conference trips with a little birding before and after the meeting, although in this case I also wandered off during some of the less, "fascinating" sessions on emerging area detector technology to go find some life birds.

I landed at LAX 1pm of Friday July 20th 2001 and, feeling adventurous, found the slowest possible route to the Palos Verdes peninsula. Nevertheless the ABA bird-finding guide to Southern California did give me some help in locating species. My first stop, at Forrestal Canyon, produced a California Gnatchatcher as advertised, plus a few birds I hadn't seen in a while:

Forrestal Canyon - afternoon of 7/20
House Wren (adults+juveniles)
Cliff Swallow
Anna's Hummingbird
California Gnatchatcher
California Towhee
Spotted Towhee
?Bullock's Oriole?

then I drove further down the coast to Boca Chica Preserve in Orange County. The Elegant Terns and Western Sandpipers were especialy cooperative here:

Boca Chica Preserve - afternoon of 7/20
Double-crested Cormorant
White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Snowy Egret
Great Egret
Willet
Sanderling
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Snowy Plover
Black-bellied Plover
Short-billed Dowitcher
Heerman's Gull
Western Gull
Least Tern
Forster's Tern
Caspian Tern
Elegant Tern
Black Skimmer
Barn Swallow
Savannah Sparrow (Belding's)

whence I rolled further down the coast to Upper Newport Bay. Although I didn't see anything "new" at Newport Bay I did get fleeting views of my second California Gnatcatcher, plus much better views of Elegant Terns (complete with shaggy crest) sat on the mud near the road:

Upper Newport Bay - afternoon of 7/20
Pied-billed Grebe
Mallard
Willet
Marbled Godwit
Whimbrel
Short-billed Dowitcher
Turkey Vulture
Heerman's Gull
Western Gull
Forster's Tern
Caspian Tern
Elegant Tern
California Gnatchatcher

and then further up the road to the nearby Audubon preserve where nothing of special merit presented itself:

San Joaquin Valley Audubon Preserve - afternoon of 7/20
Pied-billed Grebe
Brown Pelican
Black-crowned Night Heron
American Coot
Ruddy Duck
Osprey
Killdeer
American Avocet
Dowitcher sp.
Turkey Vulture
Heerman's Gull
Western Gull
Forster's Tern
Caspian Tern
Barn Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Common Yellowthroat
Song Sparrow
Lesser Goldfinch

My original semi-psychotic plans for the trip had me leaving Orange County in mid afternoon and making my way to Tucson, AZ via the Salton Sea. Thankfully sanity (and endless traffic jams) prevailed and I finally gave up on that little plan in the early evening and spent the night at a Motel 6 on the outskirts of Palm Springs. The following day I drove down into a largely deserted section of Anza Borrego desert, finding the other Gnatcatcher and other assorted cooperative desert birds.

Yaqui Springs, Anza Borrego Desert - morning of 7/21
White-winged Dove
Common Ground Dove
Black-tailed Gnatchatcher
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Western Kingbird
Verdin
California Thrasher
California Towhee
Spotted Towhee (heard)
Black-throated Sparrow (immature)
?Scott's Oriole?

So it wasn't until around midday that I finally made my way to the approximation of Hell on Earth - the Salton Sea on a summer afternoon. It was probably only 96 degrees there at the time, but even if you can cope with the heat, the stench of rotting fish is quite "interesting". Nevertheless I did pick up the target bird - Yellow-footed Gull and a unique (for me) flock of a couple of hundred Wilson's Phalarope (believe me, I was trying very hard to turn one into a Red-necked) and a similar number of Black Terns.

Salton Sea Area - midday of 7/21
Western Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Wood Stork
Great Blue Heron
Green Heron
Cattle Egret
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
White-faced Ibis
Ruddy Duck
Black-necked Stilt
Willet
Long-billed Curlew
Dowitcher sp.
Wilson's Phalarope (100+)
Yellow-footed Gull
Gull-billed Tern
Caspian Tern
Black Tern
Black Skimmer
Common Ground Dove
Burrowing Owl
Black-tailed Gnatchatcher
Greater Roadrunner
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Western Kingbird
Verdin
Common Yellowthroat
Western Meadowlark
Abert's Towhee
Great-tailed Grackle

Lacking any further enthusiasm for the day I wandered back up the east coast of the Salton Sea and down into LA via Palm Springs, whereupon I got completely lost trying to find the hotel. The following morning I skipped the uninspiring opening session to go out to Palos Verdes again in the early morning hours, my first stop being the Public Access Fishing Lot:
Vicente Public Access Fishing Lot - morning of 7/22
Now apparently called Pelican Cove Park
Shearwater sp.
Brown Pelican
Heerman's Gull
Western Gull
California Gnatchatcher (heard)

I stared at a lot of probable Black-vented Shearwaters before finally giving up on a conclusive ID. I'd need a much better scope or much closer birds before I could count those as lifers. However further inland on the peninsula I had a much more productive time at George F. Canyon:

George F. Canyon - morning of 7/22
Bewick's Wren
Bushtit
Raven
Western Scrub Jay
Allen's Hummingbird
Pacific Slope Flycatcher
Orange-crowned Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
California Towhee
Spotted Towhee
Bullock's Oriole

before returning for a quick skim of Forrestal Canyon:

Forrestal Canyon - morning of 7/22
House Wren
Cliff Swallow
Red-tailed Hawk
California Gnatchatcher
Western Kingbird
California Towhee
Spotted Towhee

and a visit to Boca Chica that was less productive than the first time:

Boca Chica Preserve - morning of 7/22
White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Snowy Egret
Great Egret
Black-crowned Night Heron
Willet
Long-billed Curlew
Marbled Godwit
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Heerman's Gull
Western Gull
Least Tern
Forster's Tern
Caspian Tern
Elegant Tern
Black Skimmer
Barn Swallow
Savannah Sparrow (Belding's)

I managed to sit through a day and a half's conference before finding an excuse to drive up into the San Gabriels for a day. On the lower slopes I was picking up about 1 "novel" species per pullout, seeing things like Wrentit and California Quail that I hadn't seen for a while. But it wasn't until I got to [place name long since forgotten] that I started picking up birds in earnest. Although I got nothing new there, I did get excellent views of Hutton's Vireo. Then for the next few miles I search futilely for Black-chinned Sparrow on the slopes. Further on down the road the [a campground] produced Mountain Chickadee in considerable numbers, but [another campground] proved the most productive of all, Black-chinned Sparrow, White-headed Woodpecker and Lawrence's Goldfinch in the brush along the stream through the campsite. Further still, the [heavily forested campground] campground produced more White-headed Woodpecker, Mountain Quail tending chicks in the campground, and the large-billed race of Fox Sparrow hopping around in front of the car.

San Gabriel Mountains 7/24
Great Blue Heron - aerial over lower slopes
California Quail
Mountain Quail
Acorn Woodpecker
Nuttall's Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
White-headed Woodpecker
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted)
Western Scrub Jay
Steller's Jay
Brown Creeper
Bushtit
Wrentit
Bewick's Wren
Phainopepla
Raven
Hutton's Vireo
Western Blueird
Oak Titmouse
Mountain Chickadee
Pygmy Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Western Wood Pewee
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Pacific Slope Flycatcher
Ash-throated Flycatcher
American Robin
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Yellow-rumped (Audubon's) Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
California Towhee
Spotted Towhee
Green-tailed Towhee
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon race)
Fox Sparrow (large-billed race)
Chipping Sparrow
Black-chinned Sparrow
Western Tanager
Lawrence's Goldfinch
Lesser Goldfinch

San Bernardino Mountains 7/24
Band-tailed Pigeon
more to come here.....