Date: 8/29/26 10:44 pm From: Naresh Satyan via groups.io <naresh.satyan...> Subject: [LACoBirds] 2026 LA River Fall shorebird survey: Day 2 results
Hi all,
Today was the second of three surveys of shorebirds in the Los Angeles river planned for this fall. The goal of the surveys is to get a fairly thorough picture of shorebirds using the various stretches of the river, and how their distribution is changing over time. We've been doing three surveys per year each fall since 2023.
We had mostly the same team as previous surveys: Jeff Boyd (Golden Shore to Willow), Jon Fisher and Sarah Ngo (Willow to Wardlow), Lance Benner (Wardlow to Rosecrans, by bike), Mark and Janet Scheel (Southern to Atlantic), Andy Birch (110/5 intersection to Burbank confluence), Naresh Satyan (Burbank, Sepulveda basin). We covered all stretches of the river that have shorebirds (and in my case, also checked stretches that did not have any shorebirds).
It was a warm/hot day along the river, with temperatures starting around 73 F and warming to about 90 F inland. We had clear skies and practically no wind all morning. The tide was rising +0.1 to +4.9 ft at the river mouth in Long Beach. Water levels in the river were fairly high throughout the survey area, with strong flow in the central channel, and limited shorebird habitat in the upstream areas.
Shorebird numbers and diversity were pretty good on the southern/downstream part of the river in Long Beach. We tallied more species and higher numbers than all our previous surveys on this date. On the other hand, it was fairly quiet on the upper reaches, particularly in the Vernon-South Gate stretch where we "missed" several hundred Least Sandpipers compared to previous years.
- Western Sandpipers are now present in pretty decent numbers in Long Beach. Our total for today was 1812 birds. In 2023, '24 and '25, we had 400, 193 and 132 birds respectively. This was a welcome change! - We are in about the peak window for juvenile Short-billed Dowitchers, and the 59 birds counted today was more than double the previous high count in the past 4 years. (There are juvenile Short-billed Dowitchers everywhere now -- I also had good numbers along Ballona creek later today). - 74 Semipalmated Plovers was also a high count, including 45 birds at Willow St. - Our tally of 1091 Least Sandpipers was a little less than the recent average. - Less common birds included a Semipalmated Sandpiper, a Solitary Sandpiper and a couple of Baird's Sandpipers -- all at Willow St.
