By Miles
This Saturday morning LA Birders – Students held a field trip in the Buckhorn Area, with 7 birders attending!
It was a cool day and birds were super active! We (Dessi, Surya, Surya’s mum, Susan, Frank, my dad, and me) started off by hiking down the Burkhart Trial, listening to the bird songs and learning who they were from. As we got to a spot where I have seen the Northern Pygmy-Owls before, we played a mobbing pygmy-owl sound track and so many passerines came! From year-arounds like the Chickadees and Pygmy and White-breasted Nuthatch to early migrants like Western Flycatchers, and Orange-crowned, Hermit, Black-throated Gray and Wilson’s Warblers are all coming to join the “mob”!
(Hermit Warbler, Aug 16th, 2025, Photo by Miles)
(Hermit Warbler, Aug 16th, 2025, Photo by Miles)
The trail was very birdy today so we decided to continue to hike down the trail. As we approached a water spring we were stopped by so many swallows and wood-pewees! Flocks of birds are coming to drink, Dark-eyed Juncos, Brown Creepers, Hairy Woodpecker, White-headed Woodpecker, Western Wood-Pewee, Western Flycatcher, and even a Dusky Flycatcher and a Lawrence’s Goldfinch!
(Western Flycatcher, Aug 16th, 2025, Photo by Miles)
(Lawrence’s Goldfinch, Aug 16th, 2025, Photo by Miles)
After that we continued down the trail and stopped at another spot where Frank had seen a Northern Pygmy-Owl several years ago and tried the moving recording again, and got a Western Warbling Vireo that had just split from the formal Warbling Vireo! Then, a little brownish/orangish bird flew under some big rocks on the side of the road. It was the beautiful Canyon Wren that sang the special song!
(Canyon Wren, Aug 16th, 2025, Photo by Miles)
(Canyon Wren, Aug 16th, 2025, Photo by Miles)
(Canyon Wren, Aug 16th, 2025, Photo by Miles)
(Canyon Wren, Aug 16th, 2025, Photo by Miles)
(Mountain Chickadee, Aug 16th, 2025, Photo by Miles)
After all these, the time was kind of getting late and we decided to turn around and go back to the campground. On the way back, we soon added Green-tailed and Spotted Towhee to our list and as we got back to the spot where I have seen the Northern Pygmy-Owls before, Dessi spotted a “pewee” that flicks its tail upwards! It is an early migrant Willow Flycatcher!
(Willow Flycatcher, Aug 16th, 2025, Photo by Miles)
(Willow Flycatcher, Aug 16th, 2025, Photo by Miles)
As we got back to our starting point Dessi spotted a Golden Eagle soaring in the sky! Then we found that there was also a Cooper’s Hawk perched on a tree nearby! That would be an eagle and a Accipiter-like-hawk before Red-tailed Hawk for today!
(Golden Eagle, Aug 16th, 2025, Photo by Miles)
Then Surya saw a strange flycatcher fly on to the top of a tree and it was an Olive-sided Flycatcher! Then, a Red-breasted Sapsucker was also found flying-by by Dessi!
At the campground, we soon run into a huge mixed species flock, they might be mobbing, but we can’t find any raptors. There’s Mountain Chickadees everywhere, White-breasted and Pygmy Nuthatch jumping and hanging on every tree, too many Brown Creeper that even got us flagged on eBird, and Orange-crowned, Black-throated Gray, Hermit and Wilson’s Warbler jumping quickly on all the trees around! It was so amazing!
(Brown Creeper, Aug 16th, 2025, Photo by Miles)
Then we went to a place I have seen some Dusky Flycatcher before and heard the Pygmy-Owl sound! But we aren’t that sure if it’s a recording played by another Birder or the actual bird. On the way back to our cars I spotted a Red-breasted Nuthatch (we have all three nuthatches now!) and Dessi spotted a Fox Sparrow and finally Red-tailed Hawk!
(Red-breasted Nuthatch, Aug 16th, 2025, Photo by Miles)
(Red-breasted Nuthatch picking a seed up from the ground, Aug 16th, 2025, Photo by Miles)
(Red-breasted Nuthatch taking the seed to a crack on the tree bark, Aug 16th, 2025, Photo by Miles)
(Red-breasted Nuthatch hiding the seed in the crack, Aug 16th, 2025, Photo by Miles)
As we got back to the parking lot we went through the checklist and we are at 45 species! It was such a wonderful trip!
