Justin and I are celebrating our 1 year anniversary by doing something fun every day this weekend, since I start school again on Monday (our true anniversary).
We have decided to celebrate by doing something new and going to a swap meet, eating dinner at the delicious Corner Bakery, doing our favorite hobby together (birding), and we still have yet to go to our favorite restaurant in Palm Springs, watching our wedding video, and finally going to Yellow Deli in Vista!
As I reflect on our last year spent together, I am filled with joy. I thought life couldn't get better on August 4, last year, but our first year of marriage has proven that life is full of blessings no matter what, but so much sweeter when you share them with your best friend!
I think the most unique thing about Justin and I is that we consider ourselves to be birders. We have beginner's luck with birding too (or so I believe). Although Justin has been exposed to birding off and on his whole life, once we started birding together, we now consider ourselves true birders. I feel like I should write "Birders" with a capital letter just because I love being a
Birder SO much!
Justin mentioned some birding stories to me a few times when we were dating, but I didn't find too much interest in it (sorry Justin). The more he talked about it, though, the more intrigued I became. I began to fully appreciate this topic of "birding" when we were on our honeymoon in Maui. We went out and bought Maui bird books and started trying to search for a few different birds. The most difficult thing about this was we didn't have any binoculars! I knew, though, if I could enjoy birding as much as I did without binoculars, I would enjoy it SO much more with binoculars!
The birds we could see with our naked eyes in Maui included: Common Myna, Red-crested Cardinal, Red Junglefowl, House Finch, Cattle Egret, Spotted Dove, House Sparrow, Zebra Dove, Black-crowned Night Heron, Gray Francolin, Muscovy Duck, American Pekin Duck, Mallard, Black-necked Stilt, Wandering Tattler, Common Peafowl, Great Frigatebird, Japanese White Eye, Maui 'Amakihi, 'I'iwi, Red-billed Leiothrix, and Ring-necked Pheasant.
As you can see, once we started birding we couldn't stop. It's a good thing to be addicted to, though! As my mother so comically and wisely put, "It's better than clubbing!" Little does she know not only how much we enjoy birding, but how much SHE would enjoy it! (Justin thinks you would be very good at it, Mom....)
Once we got back to California, we reported an easy-to-see Acorn Woodpecker while we were on a hike in Cleveland National Forest (San Diego), but our biggest birding experience happened shortly after that in September.
My father-in-law is extremely into birding and he is our Birding Master (another title that deserves capitalization). We got calls, texts, and emails from him about a rare bird sighting on the coasts of California. The closest sighting to us was one on the coast of Playa Del Rey. A Blue-footed Booby was being spotted! (Actually a few were being reported!) This was a very big high-alert birding event we couldn't miss apparently. There was hub bub in all the major birding websites and people from all over were coming here to spot them! So we drove out there on September 21 with 1 pair of binoculars hoping to make a historic bird sighting of the "BFB" (I've learned some bird lingo...). We arrived at the wrong time of day, right at dusk, when the lighting was just a little too bad and the jetty where the bird was was just a little too far. So close!!! (At least we were still able to spot: Black Oyster Catcher, Ruddy Turnstone, Brown Pelican, and Double-crested Cormorant). The Bird Master was disappointed we missed the BFB and encouraged us to try again and go back (he was living vicariously through us, since the BFB is a lifetime bird for most people, including him). ("Lifetime bird" is really a phrase in birding...awesome, right?!)
We made our 1 1/2 hour trip again the next day, after we stopped at REI to pick up our second pair of binoculars, and were blessed to see not only one, but four Blue-footed Boobies (also a Black Turnstone and Great Blue Heron)! Although they were only juvenile BFBs, which means their feet were not indeed blue, this was something special! We definitely have beginner's luck. (The species stuck around long enough and started showing up in a few more spots in California, so our Birding Master was able to see this lifetime bird of his next trip out to California!)
Note: We ended up visiting Playa Del Rey months later and spotted: Barn Swallow, Elegant Tern, Forster's Tern, Marbled Godwit, Red-breasted Merganser, Surfbird, Surf Scoter, and Tree Swallow.
One of the fun aspects of birding is to meet other birders and enjoy this wonderful hobby in nature together. When you pass by birders, the conversation always makes me laugh because we are all such big bird geeks! We were able to meet two ladies at Playa Del Rey who graciously let us look through their birding scope to get a crisp and ever-so-excellent view of the BFBs. We have now purchased our own birding scope because of how much it truly helps scan the distance.
Around our home, we started paying attention to the birds that frequented our neighborhood. We have noticed many Black Phoebes, of course the usual House Finches and House Sparrows, a few Great Egrets live in the meadow, some American Goldfinches hung out in the park trees for awhile, and way too many Northern Mockingbirds make our HOA their home. Our favorite neighborhood birding experience ties between randomly seeing an ear-full of Cedar Waxwings in the trees across the street (never have we seen them again), getting close-up encounters with the Red-shouldered Hawk who lives around here, and staking out at the tree that is home to at least thirty hummingbirds (Anna's and Allen's) who sit still long enough so you can get good looks at their shimmery beauty!
We have discovered a few favorite birding hotspots, thanks to ebird.org this past year, as well.
(Side note: I only mention new birds spotted. The great thing about birding is you always see multitudes of different types of birds and you are constantly seeing repeat birds you have already seen, which is good review. Birding trips are always fruitful!)
Heaps Peak Arboretum near Lake Arrowhead is definitely my favorite spot, so far. There is a perfect little loop trail that is just the right length of a hiking trail to bird on. It is very very quiet up there in the mountains as well. And it smells like pine trees, which is always a plus in my book. Over our two visits there, we have seen these wonderful and amazing species God has created: Mountain Chickadee, White-headed Woodpecker, Turkey Vulture, Western Bluebird, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Red-breasted Nuthatch, White-breasted Nuthatch, and Spotted Towhee.
Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino has been a favorite park of ours to bird at as well. (It also has a great frisbee golf course that looks fun! I know what I want for Christmas!) The cool thing about ebird.org is that you can go online to a hotspot and see what birds have been reported (it is being a good birding citizen to input your bird sightings as well). We went specifically to Glen Helen to see a lifetime bird for Justin: Lewis's Woodpecker. We didn't see it the first day we went, but we went back two days later and saw it in all it's glory flying from tree to tree in the wide open grass area. (It's a wide open grass area, because it's part of the frisbee golf course...which we didn't realize and were in the way of what happened to be our friends' shot!) Overall, we have also added Belted Kingfisher, Northern Shoveler, American Coot, Dark-Eyed Junco, Hooded Merganser, European Starling, Cooper's Hawk, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Red-winged Blackbird, and Great-tailed Grackle to our list from Glen Helen.
One of the fun aspects of birding is to think of it as a game. You research what hotspot you want to go to, what is being seen there, and where to find it. You go and you search. You find, and you feel like you win! It has been especially fun birding this year too, because since I have never birded before, every new bird is literally a new bird for me! Most are review for Justin, but he barely remembers them, so it's been fun for both of us! We enjoy seeing repeat birds as well, but it's definitely fun to go birding and spot new species! Most of the time we walk away with seeing at least one new bird for our life list, and we also add birds to our Big Year list! (If you're confused what a Big Year is, watch this:
Something we have enjoyed this year is whenever we take a trip, we have vowed to bird in that area, since most likely it will offer some different types of birds than the cities we live in or around. (Sometimes we joke about moving to southern Texas one day where it is known for birding!)
When we went to San Francisco during winter, we found these species (we also met a great birding friend...shout out to Felix, who taught us a great birding lesson: never bird without your book!): Pied-billed Grebe, California Towhee, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Stellers Jay, Long-billed Curlew, Bonaparte's Gull, California Gull, Western Gull, Bufflehead, Eared Grebe, Ruddy Duck, Common Goldeneye, Snowy Egret, Ring-necked Duck, Willet, Mute Swan, White-crowned Sparrow, Western Meadowlark, Ring-billed Gull, Horned Grebe, Western Grebe, and Lesser Scaup.
A birding highlight of our year was when the Birding Master came to visit and we took a family birding trip to San Diego county. Trips just to bird are now some of my favorite trips! These are the special birds we saw with our Birding Master: Nuttall's Woodpecker, Northern Harrier, Mountain Bluebird, Savannah Sparrow, Ferruginous Hawk, Green-winged Teal, Bald Eagle, Burrowing Owl, Prairie Falcon, Hutton's Vireo, Lark Sparrow, and American Wigeon.
At our local Hulda Crooks Park in Loma Linda, we have seen: Killdeer, Western Scrub Jay, Band-tailed Pigeon, Bewick's Wren, and Lawrence's Goldfinch.
We have tried a few other parks as well: Fairmount Park in Riverside and Ford Park in Redlands. Collectively, we have spotted these species at those parks: Canvasback, Cassin's Kingbird, Graylag Goose, and Ruby-crowned Kinglet.
Another great local birding spot is the San Timoteo Creek area in Redlands. I love going here because my friend, Seth, is buried in a cemetery near there and he is a lovely person to remember. Justin and I had a very exciting Cliff Swallow and Sora sighting there.
A great thing about birding too is that we can go back to the same park a few times a year and see different types of birds, since different seasons bring different birds to different areas. Also, bird plumage sometimes changes with season, which is fun to see! For example, we have seen Ruddy Ducks multitudes of times, but we just recently spotted them having their bright baby blue beaks, which change that color in the summer! (Side fact: If you don't already know, many male bird species are more colorful than female species, so the males can be more fun to spot.)
Another regional park that is great to go birding at around here is Prado Regional Park in Chino. These are the birds we have seen there our two times: Common Yellowthroat, Orange-crowned Warbler, American White Pelican, Say's Phoebe, Vermillion Flycatcher, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Clark's Grebe, and Common Moorhen.
A city that has amazing birds around here is San Diego. Since I worked down there at the beginning of our marriage still, I had more opportunities to bird there than Justin. We try not to bird without each other, but sometimes it just happened (whoops). A few great places to bird there are the San Diego River Estuary, Famosa Slough, Lake Hodges Footbridge, Lake Murray, and Cabrillo National Monument. Together, we have seen: Blue-winged Teal, Cinnamon Teal, Northern Pintail, Bushtit, Little Blue Heron, American Avocet, Least Sandpiper, Song Sparrow, Brown-headed Cowbird, House Wren, California Thrasher, Hooded Oriole, Bullock's Oriole, Western Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, Caspian Tern, Wilson's Warbler, and Brandt's Cormorant. Accidentally (whoops) I saw these birds in San Diego solo: Dunlin, Long-billed Dowitcher, Gadwall, Whimbrel, Hermit Thrush, and Redhead
The San Jacinto Wildlife Area in Lakeview and Lake Skinner County Park in Winchester are not for birders faint of heart. It was a little too much for us to handle. It would take days to cover those whole areas, but we were able to spot: Violet-green Swallow, Western Kingbird, American Pipit, Greater Yellowlegs, White-faced Ibis, Yellow Warbler, and Phainopepla (we had to Google how to pronounce that one!).
I love birding when I least expect to be birding. One time I was at the animal shelter when I noticed a Brewer's Blackbird in front of me. One time I was sitting at my desk at work in San Diego when an Osprey flew up on the telephone pole right outside the window. One time Justin and I were going to Home Depot, when we noticed Canadian Geese across the street in a pond. One time we were driving near the mountains in Grand Terrace when we noticed an American Kestrel on a street sign. One time Justin and I were on a walk when we saw a Eurasian-collared Dove. The time I was waiting in my car to go into my interview at LLU, I noticed multitudes of Acorn Woodpeckers and American Robins in the palm trees right there in the parking lot! One time on my way to work in San Diego, a White-tailed Kite flew across the freeway. One time when we were at Vasquez Rocks with my parents, we saw a White-throated Swift. One time on a trail on Catalina Island, I saw a Horned Lark for a split second. And American Crows, Common Ravens, Rock Pigeons, and Mourning Doves seem to be everywhere we go.
Birding is my new favorite hobby, if you can't tell.
And, today, as we celebrate our love we have shared together for this past year of marriage and for all the years to come, we went birding at San Timoteo Creek again. We found what we went to look for, which always makes me feel like I won a prize! We saw Blue Grosbeak, Lazuli Bunting, and Lesser Goldfinch!
This year has been the best year of my life. It has been my Big Year. I married the love of my life, my family doubled in size, I have a new favorite hobby, I have two wonderful dogs, we have had two beautiful homes and made the best of them, and I have started my MOT program! Blessings abundant! Praise the Lord.
