Date: 11/7/25 3:00 pm From: Chuq Von Rospach via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Where would you go ...
> Chuq, You took me back to my earlier birding days at the Lodi Sandhill
> Crane Festival, which I think I attended twice. Although as a
> photographer, I found Consumnew better for images, the trips out to Staten
> Island with the sunset fly in's were thrilling.
>
My pleasure. I think it gets overlooked as we chase exotics, but California
is really an amazing place to bird, and many parts of it have been very
committed to green space protection so there are some really nice places to
bird in mostly urban locations like Silicon Valley.
(And in retrospect, I didn’t even mention some of the amazing
local/regional species, like Yellow-Billed Magpie!)
I lived not too far from San Jacinto Wildlife Area. On an Audubon field
> trip, the trip leader said it was the best birding in Southern California,
> and it doesn't disappoint.
>
I was born and raised in SoCal, grew up 20 minutes from Disney. I didn’t
take up birding until long after I moved to Silicon Valley, but I was down
there many times visiting family, and I’lll agree, this is a really nice
and diverse location to explore and often has some nice rarities hanging
out. (For those curious, it’s in Orange County in the Irvine area). I’ll
also recommend the Newport Back Bay location and Dana Point Harbor, which
often has hundreds of Brown Pelicans hanging out there.
chuq
(Just back from Fort Flagler and did not disappoint. The Black Bellied
Plovers have arrived for the winter)
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Chuq Von Rospach (http://www.chuq.me)
Silverdale, Washington
Birder, Nature and Wildlife Photographer
