Los Angeles mini-trip

The main question is, then, how to we best work the extra morning near LA. Malibu lagoon and a more comprehensive coverage of LA-area hotspots with Sunday being the main forage day ranging up as far as Soda Lake and SLO ? Unless we desperately want Yellow-billed Magpie this makes little sense. Instead the 2.2 days in LAX could mop up most of the interesting species. Ridgway's Rail is possible, perhaps even likely, but other life birds would have to be lucky/speculative since it's still only early Dec.

Hotspot explorer, December last 10 years for CA.
Central and East LA: Whittier Narrows; Frank G. Bonelli Park; Yorba Regional Park; South-Central and South LA: Palos Verdes peninsula; Cabrillo Beach Park; Ken Malloy Harbor Park; Bolsa Chica; Huntington Beach Central Park; Newport Bay Preserve; San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary LAX-ish and coast road: Ballona Creek and Playa del Rey; Malibu Lagoon; Pt Dume (Malibu).
LA North: Sepulveda Basin on north edge of Santa Monica mountains
North: Ventura Settling Ponds and Ventura Harbor; Carpinteria Salt Marsh Reserve; Deverough Slough and Lake Los Carneros (Santa Barbara)
North: Carrizo Plain has very little in terms of winter birding activity

The return trip is a single day with an 11:50am arrival, so assume at least 2 hours to get on the road including clearing immigration. This is very much the same sort of schedule, but only 1.5 days, with not much time on the first day to do anything, and an evening departure for a red-eye to JFK and here it may pay to pack it in early and do an afternoon's sleep in a cheap hotel before returning the car to LAX. Ridgeway's Rail and Thayer's Gull would be the targets, if they are left over from 2 weeks previous.

Los Angeles Targets in descending target rank

Location Sightings

Australian Resources

• Birdlife Melbourne birding sites, outings incl species lists
• You Yangs Park
• Woodlands Historic Park - Back Paddock is at south end
• Royal Botanic Garden Cranbourne and Melbourne
• Sherbrooke Forest - Dandenongs
• Banyule Flats
• Yan Yean Reservoir
• Yarra Bend
• Bunyip SP - Buttongrass trail is in the s.w. corner use Tonimbuk Rd in from Gembrook (or, from Tonimbuk at east end)
• Birdlife Echuca also Echuca reserves
• Dandenong Valley Wetlands/Parklands - probably towards south end (park at Oaks+Ashes Picnic Area ?

Australian Targets

Commonest Oz Birds Based on Bubo, In Frequency Order

Australian Life/Trip List