A Day at Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve (Los Angeles County)

Last month, we found ourselves in Los Angeles County with a day to spare for birding. Why were we in LA County, you might ask?

The day after the frenzied excitement of attending a taping of The Price is Right we were ready to slow things down, so we visited the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve. This “revegetation experiment” hosts a lake and a variety of native trees/plants, and has become a wonderful haven for birds amid an otherwise urban landscape.
 
Upon stepping out of the car, we heard an unfamiliar flycatcher sound and looked up to immediately discover a bird we’d hoped to see — the Cassin’s Kingbird!

Compared to the kingbird we see most often in Northern California (Western Kingbird), the Cassin’s Kingbird has a darker gray head and upper breast with contrasting white on the malar and throat.

When distinguishing between similar-looking species (particularly doppelgängers in the flycatcher family), the quickest and often most definitive way to settle on an ID is via voice. Luckily for us, the call we recorded below is what got our attention in the first place — the classic, two-syllable “chi-beer” call of a Cassin’s Kingbird.

The call of a Western Kingbird, on the other hand, is a single “kip” note and “squeaky twitters” which often morph into a chatter. To compare, listen to this recording below from a few years ago.

As we watched and listened to the kingbird, we spotted a Red-tailed Hawk watching (and listening?) to us.

Meanwhile, these California ground squirrels engaged in a moment of observation as well.

As we strolled through a section of willows, a Song Sparrow alighted ahead of us.

This well-worn Western Wood-Pewee spent some time flycatching from this tree. How perfectly it blends in to the branch color.

Two Anna’s Hummingbirds zoomed by mid-chase and one returned to perch, offering a close-up view.

We happened upon a flurry of activity within the willows, including an appropriately named Willow Flycatcher, an Orange-crowned Warbler, Lesser Goldfinches, House Finches, and a couple Warbling Vireos.

A break in the vegetation surrounding the pond yielded several usual suspects.

Several Pied-billed Grebes also made an appearance….

… including one young enough to still have stripes on its face.

The juvenile Pied-billed Grebe incessantly directed bouts of high-pitched begging calls to its nearby parent. Here’s a previous recording of ours documenting this vocalization.

As we stood observing the grebes, we noticed a Black Phoebe foraging behind us.

Listen below to several bars of song from the Black Phoebe, and keep your ear out for a Bewick’s Wren harsh scold call near the end of the recording.

We heard a collection of Lesser Goldfinch sounds and discovered a small group excitedly flitting about a tall bush. A single male stuck around longer than the rest calling and posing for a couple minutes.

We admired the male’s incredibly vibrant coloration, as well as his perching prowess.

Farther down the trail, another view of the pond revealed a gathering of gulls — adult Western Gulls, to be precise.

If you’ve ever spent time at the Pacific coastline, the sound of Western Gulls is probably familiar to you.

On the far edge of the pond, a Great Egret gracefully landed near a Snowy Egret and a couple Black-crowned Night-Herons — a popular little cove! Can you spot the two dark-colored juvenile Night-Herons in the photo?

A fast-approaching bird caught our eye — this predatory Peregrine Falcon passed by rather close, and all the small birds in the area went quiet for a bit.

Not to be outcompeted in the predator department, this Belted Kingfisher was quite successful along the water’s edge.

We’d now like to take a Beautiful Butterfly Break — here are a few of the show-stoppers we spotted!

Back to the birds! We struggled awhile to view this bird through a tangle of branches. Here’s often what our view was — a little bit of face here, a little bit of breast there.

We had our guesses, but it wasn’t until we finally saw the whole bird out in the open that we confirmed its identity as a Savannah Sparrow! Savannah Sparrows show a variable amount of yellow on the face — from very bright and obvious, to no yellow at all. This one was in the “no yellow at all” category, which made for some initial confusion.

This quick snap of a Red-shouldered Hawk shows the translucent “windows” toward the wingtips — a helpful field mark to go along with its checkerboard wing pattern and black-and-white striped tail.

Throughout the day, we spotted more kingbirds moving silently about the treetops. Because of the distant-viewing, worn feathers, and poor lighting conditions, at times we weren’t able to discern between Cassin’s or Western. We got decent looks at this particular individual though, and best-guessed it was a Western Kingbird (lighter gray head and breast with less contrasting malar).

As we neared the end of the loop trail, the last section of pond yielded a congregation of cormorants for our count.

Heading back to the parking lot, we encountered two new species for the day — a Mourning Dove and a Northern Mockingbird.

Our lovely day at Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve was bookended by Cassin’s Kingbirds — this one shining in the sunlight. We look forward to our next visit to Los Angeles County sometime soon!