Birds of Mission Bay, California…

One of the great things about staying at Mission Bay RV Resort is that we are able to take some wonderful walks without ever getting in the car. Just a short distance outside the park are two great walking trails. One is along Mission Bay complete with sand and sea while the other is along Fiesta Bay which also is along the shoreline. Both of these bay walks provide endless opportunities to see shore and bay birds. I love to watch birds in their native habitat and these waters right in the middle of San Diego offer some great bird watching. I nearly always have my binoculars and camera with me as we walk several miles along one trail or the other.The picture below are of some of the many species of birds I have spotted during our daily walks:

               Greater Yellowlegs                                                Whimbrel

                                Willett                                               American Widgeon

                       Brandt                                                      Marbled Godwit

                     Red Knot                                                    Solitary Sandpiper

              Spotted Sandpiper                                              Redhead Duck

                Male Lesser Scaup                                      Female Lesser Scaup preening

                     Pintail Duck                                               Black Bellied Plover

              Ring Necked Ducks                                                   Ruddy Duck

                      Sanderling                                               Semipalmated Sandpiper     

         Western Grebes and a Clarks Grebe                           Long Billed Curlew

                          Male Bufflehead Duck                                                   Osprey

We have seen and photographed many of the more common birds here as well but these are some of the more unique ones for this area. All of these photos were taken with my recently purchased Nikon Coolpix S9700. This small compact camera packs a great optical zoom of 30X which is powerful enough to zoom in on birds far away yet small enough to tuck in your pocket. I love this camera and am glad I didn’t purchase one of the much larger and more cumbersome digital SLRs.