Birding the Shipyard - Pacific Loon is an Unexpected Visitor

By Mel Carriere

If you have spent any amount of time chasing birds I'm sure you know that the good ones, the real list scratchers if you want to call them that, almost never pop up where you expect them to and you want them to.

Last Tuesday I went birding in the Tijuana Wildlife Refuge, deliberately setting out with binoculars in hand to see if I could catch any new, interesting birds to decorate my life list with.  Although I saw a fair variety of interesting birds in the refuge as usual, there wasn't anything flying or afloat that caused me to edit my life list afterward.  I wasn't disappointed; birding is like fishing in that a bad day birding beats a good day at the office, but I didn't get that tingling head rush that spotting a new species creates for those that pursue this pastime passionately.

In contrast, there are times when birders stumble across their quarry in random, unexpected places, and I am happy to report that today was one of those experiences for me.  I got up early this morning to work security for a ship christening at the Nassco Shipyard, and the last thing on my mind was birds.  Of course I always have the binoculars and field guide in the trunk of my car just in case, but I certainly didn't carry them with me into the shipyard,  knowing that in doing so I would be tagged as loonier than one of the birds I saw today and then spun back around to go put them away.

But birds there were in abundance at the shipyard this morning, and good ones too. Fortunately I was stationed directly on the edge of the pier where the christened vessel was moored, and from there I had a "birds eye view" of the waterfowl below.

The first species that caught my attention was a flock of about five of what were either Western or Clarks Grebes.  I was immediately inclined to label them Westerns, but taking a good look at my field guide afterward produced some doubt about this, because in winter plumage the lore region of the Clarks gets darker and that of the Western grows lighter, making them harder to tell apart.  So I will just call them Aechmophorus sp. and we'll leave it at that.

The Grebes were apparently chasing some sort of small bait fish that I could see producing tiny ripples on the surface of the water.  It looked like they had found a feeding bonanza, because after a while they stopped diving and seemed content to drift along, listening to the music of the Marine band coming from the ceremony.

The Grebes were a welcome diversion from the drudgery of guard duty, but nothing to get my pulse pounding.  Whether Clarks or Westerns they were still old friends and as such, not particularly exciting.  But right as the show was wrapping up and the champagne bottle had been smashed against the hull, I chanced a look at the water once more and really did see something notable and unique for me.

There in this sterile industrialized setting, drifting  among towering metal cranes and rusty keels, swam a solitary Pacific Loon, diving for his own champagne brunch right below the edge of the pier. Although I once spotted a Common Loon in San Diego Bay while on a whale watching tour, Loons on the whole are much rarer than Grebes on our winter waters, so this was an exciting find.

The Loon did not seem particularly wary and swam to within a few feet.  If I had not been under strict orders not to use my cell phone I might have been able to produce a fuzzy photograph of it.  As it is you will have to be content with this one I borrowed from the web, which in any case is much better than anything I could take.

I was enchanted that even in winter plumage I could see the tiny star like spots on the Loon's back, these stars being the source of many beautiful Native American cosmological legends.

So there's one for the list when I least expected it.  Not too shabby, to enjoy a morning's worth of memorable birding and get paid for it too!

Image from:  http://www.schmoker.org/BirdPics/Photos/LoonsGrebes/PALO1.jpg

Birds by Mel is powered for flight by copious amounts of shade grown warbler friendly coffee, which unfortunately is very expensive.  I have nothing to do with ad selection, but if you don't find them overly offensive or aggravating please support my sponsors featured to the right and on the bottom of this post.