San Diego Bird Festival 2020
The San Diego Bird Festival is an annual birding party hosted by the San Diego Audubon. They offer lots of field trips, workshops, pelagic ocean tours, and an optics expo!
When I started birding in February 2019, I had no idea that “bird festivals” existed. It took me several months of enjoying birds, trying to figure out which bird was which in my field guide, and reading a lot of books and websites trying to learn all about these little creatures. Little did I know that a whole world of “birders” existed - bird clubs, bird festivals, and so many other related things. I joined a couple of local events – bird walks led on local trails by very smart birders, a small boat ride around my local bay to see some cool birds in a restricted access area only allowed to this group, and even an all-day Pelagic ocean adventure off the coast of Ventura.
I met so many really great people at the events and I was impressed with the diversity, the acceptance, and the knowledge of the groups and leaders. On one of the bird walks that I joined, another attendee asked if I was going to any bird festivals and I really had no idea what she was talking about! Obviously, I went home and googled it, and soon thereafter, registered to attend!
I was late to the registration for the 2020 festival, signing up to attend about four weeks before the event (February 29-March 1). That meant that most of the individual classes, field trips, and keynotes were sold out already and unavailable. I registered anyway and grabbed a Birding By Bike tour with some podcast hosts that I follow – Hannah and Erik Go Birding. I kept checking back on the site, and to my surprise, an extra field trip popped up and had a few spots available, so I grabbed a spot. This was a shorebird trip hosted by Kevin McGowan of Cornell Lab of Ornithology, so I was super excited since I had been following and using a lot of eBird and Cornell resources since I started birding. Also, I love shorebirds!
We got up very bright and early on Saturday morning to drive down to San Diego. We had the Subaru packed and ready to go, breakfast and coffee ready, and left early to allow for the 2-ish hour drive from home. Arriving at the Marina Village Conference Center, we saw flags and signs leading the way right to the spot. Kim dropped me off and went off for her day of solo paddleboarding adventure, and I followed the flags to the registration. It was quick and easy, and I was about 20 minutes early, so I grabbed a complimentary coffee and went to the meeting room for my field trip. I saw a couple of other groups already gathered and heading out for the day, and it was smiles and excitement all around.
My day started with a short presentation from Kevin McGowan, then we all went out to the shuttle bus to load up. I was pretty anxious about this day, as I tend to be a bit nervous when I don’t know what to expect. It all ended up being really well planned for bathroom breaks, snack moments, and breaks between stops / walks. We stopped a few places, including Robb Field, Famosa Slough, Mission Beach, and my favorite, La Jolla Cove. At each stop, we had plenty of time to look around, see all of the birds, borrow a scope or two that were brought along, and wait for more birds to stop by. We got to La Jolla at lunchtime, and the driver pulled coolers of food out – we got sandwiches, chips, cookies, and a soda. We were behind schedule by the time we got out to the coast at La Jolla, but we all really wanted time to see the La Jolla wildlife, so we ate our box lunches while we walked through the crowds to see some amazing birds and sea life!
The locations all had unique highlights and lots of shorebirds to learn about and try to identify, but La Jolla was outstanding. Brandt’s Cormorants were nesting, and it was incredible to see their bright blue faces, their nests, and even some fluffy babies. The Brown Pelicans were my favorite, they are always my favorite bird, but seeing them here, with the blue ocean in the background and their bright breeding colors on display was incredible. The seals were really fun, watching the babies flop around the annoyed-looking adults. This field trip was so much fun! Our leader, Kevin, was very knowledgable and so kind and easy to talk to. He shared so many facts and tips for identifying these birds that still help me today.
When I got back to the festival center, I took a few minutes to browse the Exhibit Hall. There were great art booths, a couple of really cool bookselling booths, and lots of scope and binocular companies with a lot of great gear to try out. I really enjoyed getting to try out some different binoculars!
My next event was an Afternoon Estuary Walk, which had found a lot of birds on the earlier Morning Walk! I was excited to see what we’d find! We walked out around the harbor, spotted some young Black-crowned Night Herons in the trees, and a surprise Gray Catbird, which got everyone’s attention, but I failed to get a good photo of! After a few minutes of trying to spot and track that little gray bird, we moved on to the actual estuary area. It was about 3:30pm by then, and I was just getting a little too tired to focus too much. I walked the estuary trail with our large group, and after about 30 minutes, decided to call it a day and go back to the center.
Thankfully, we had reserved a hotel room for Saturday night, and I was very grateful to have a place nearby to go relax at, for a brief break before our dinner and beer plans. After a few minutes sitting around in our room, we went to grab a quick dinner and over to Modern Times brewery to meet the World Girl Birders group. We had a fun time chatting and telling stories about birds and adventures, and of course, great beer!
The next morning didn’t start quite as early, which was nice, so we had time for a good breakfast and lots of coffee before Kim dropped me off again. The great adventure of day two was a “Birding By Bike” tour all around the Mission Bay area. Hannah and Erik were the leaders on this one, and bicycles were available for us and waiting when I got there. I won’t even act like I know everywhere we stopped, but we stopped quite often and got some great looks at some birds and scenery. This area has some excellent bike trails, so we hardly touched roads, and it was very safe and easy. After about 4 hours, we were back at the center. I said bye to the fun leaders and met Kim in the parking lot to go find some lunch. My first bird festival experience was over and was great fun! I left having made a few new friends, and enjoying all of the great birds that I got to see!
Here are some of the other great birds that I saw during the festival:
Row 1, Left to Right: (1) Iceland Gull (Thayer’s), (2) Double-crested Cormorant, (3) Black-crowned Night Heron (juvenile)
Row 2: (1, 2) Little Blue Heron, (3) Black-bellied Plover, Western Sandpiper / Ring-billed Gull / Red Knot / Black-bellied Plover
Row 3: (1, 2) Yellow-crowned Night Heron, (3) Ring-billed Gull with a snack
Row 4: (1) Red-masked Parakeet, (2) Wandering Tattler, (3) Brown Pelican doing yoga
