February 21 - Los Angeles

Since the twerps at the Vagabond Inn motel were loud until 5 a.m., I just got up and packed to leave the Vagabond Inn USC.  Their “continental breakfast” at the motel consisted of bagels or toast, cold cereals, and weak coffee.  I would recommend against staying at this place.  The room was clean enough, but ‘way overpriced, they had a crappy breakfast, and the “friends of the guests” were totally unsupervised.  I checked out and went across the street to the Starbuck’s for a breakfast wrap and a latté.

Then, I drove over to the UCLA William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, where a Red-flanked Bluetail has been reported.  This is a rare visitor from Asia.  I had not ‘chased’ the one that was in New Westminster, BC back in 2013 or the ones in Ferndale, Washington or Wilsonville, Oregon in 2015.  So, it was time.

I followed the Google Maps’ directions to the parking lot, and the gate was open, so I drove on in and parked a little before 7 a.m.  A staffer came over to let me know that the place didn’t open until 9, and rather rudely kicked me out.  So, I parked outside the gate and walked around the library grounds a couple of times, then continued west to a McDonald’s for another cup of coffee.  A flock of parakeets zoomed by, but I am totally unfamiliar with parakeet calls, and wasn’t able to ID these birds.  There was a nice Cooper’s Hawk perched just inside the Library wall - hopefully it wouldn’t catch the Bluetail before I returned . . .

As I approached the southeast corner of the library grounds a little after nine, I immediately saw the bird foraging along a sidewalk bounded by a privet hedge.  I had several good looks, but only one poor photo.

It flitted up from the sidewalk and hid in the hedge . . .

By cropping the photo, you can make out the species . . . My ABA Life Bird No. 596

There were a half-dozen other birders assembled to see this rare bird, including photographer Carl Jackson, who has family in Seattle, so I invited him to give me a call if he made it to Olympia.  I wandered around the grounds a bit, to see if there were any other fun birds.

Gambel's White-crowned Sparrow staring off into the distance

Audubon's Yellow-rumped Warble

It was time to leave town, and I intended to chance going over the Grapevine on Interstate 5, even though there was snow reported.  The radio said that CHP was ‘escorting’ traffic over the hill at 25 mph, apparently because southern Californians can’t drive less than 80 mph in the snow?  But, just after I went past the Highway 138 turnoff, I found myself in a miles-long backup, and the radio said the freeway was closed in both directions ‘until further notice’.  The traffic was edging forward a little, and after about 2 hours, when I got to a place where I could cross over to the southbound lanes, I left the nice people to their two inches of snow…

They shut the freeway down for this?

I took the Highway 126 exit to the Coast and called my Sister-in-Law Sarah, who happened to be at home in Ventura, and I met her at their place.  We waited until their house-sitter “Duck” (Donald) got off his work in construction at the National Park Service, and we all went out to supper at the Beach House Fish place on the waterfront.  Good food and good beer!  Back at the house, we all went to bed early.

Seven A.M. eBird Checklist is Here

Nine-Fifteen A.M. eBird Checklist is Here