<html><body><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" type="cite" style="margin-left:0.8ex;padding-left:1ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204)"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small">Chuq, You took me back to my earlier birding days at the Lodi Sandhill Crane Festival, which I think I attended twice. Although as a photographer, I found Consumnew better for images, the trips out to Staten Island with the sunset fly in's were thrilling. </div></div></blockquote><div dir="ltr"><br></div>My pleasure. I think it gets overlooked as we chase exotics, but California is really an amazing place to bird, and many parts of it have been very committed to green space protection so there are some really nice places to bird in mostly urban locations like Silicon Valley. </div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">(And in retrospect, I didn’t even mention some of the amazing local/regional species, like Yellow-Billed Magpie!)</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" type="cite" style="margin-left:0.8ex;padding-left:1ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204)"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small"> I lived not too far from San Jacinto Wildlife Area. On an Audubon field trip, the trip leader said it was the best birding in Southern California, and it doesn't disappoint. </div></div></blockquote><div dir="ltr"><br></div>I was born and raised in SoCal, grew up 20 minutes from Disney. I didn’t take up birding until long after I moved to Silicon Valley, but I was down there many times visiting family, and I’lll agree, this is a really nice and diverse location to explore and often has some nice rarities hanging out. (For those curious, it’s in Orange County in the Irvine area). I’ll also recommend the Newport Back Bay location and Dana Point Harbor, which often has hundreds of Brown Pelicans hanging out there. </div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">chuq</div><div dir="ltr">(Just back from Fort Flagler and did not disappoint. The Black Bellied Plovers have arrived for the winter)<br><div><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div style="color:rgb(39,39,40);font-family:-apple-system,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><div><br></div><div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">---------------------------------------<br><br>Chuq Von Rospach (<a href="http://www.chuq.me" target="_blank">http://www.chuq.me</a>)</div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">Silverdale, Washington</div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">Birder, Nature and Wildlife Photographer<br><br>Email me at: <a href="mailto:chuqvr@gmail.com" target="_blank">chuqvr@gmail.com</a><br>Mastodon: @<a href="mailto:chuqvr@fosstodon.org" target="_blank">chuqvr@fosstodon.org</a><br><br>Stay Updated with what I'm doing: <a href="https://www.chuq.me/6fps/" target="_blank">https://www.chuq.me/6fps/</a><br>My latest e-book: <a href="https://www.chuq.me/ebooks" target="_blank">https://www.chuq.me/ebooks</a><br><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>