La Jolla to Long Beach - S. California

We arrived at the sandstone cliffs in La Jolla at dawn; hundreds of Brandt's & Double-crested Cormorants, Brown Pelicans and Gulls were courting and building nests on the steep cliffs.

Brandt's Cormorant - Nuptial bowing

California Sea Lions rested on the rocks awaiting the high tide before sliding off into the waves.

We followed the Pacific coastline to the Torrey Pines State Preserve; located just north of the famous golf course.  This is a beautiful high ridge with sand cliffs and the only place in the world where this rare pine tree is found.

Hermit Thrush

Black-necked Stilt

We spent a week at Oceanside, the park was a short walk along a tidal stream to the beach that stretched for miles in each direction.

Whimbrel feeds in the surf

Brown Pelican rides the waves

Oceanside Pier

Walks to a nearby cemetery gave us a new life bird - the Red-lored Parrot.

California Gull sounding off

We drove along the Newport Bay Ecological Reserve and walked the Big Canyon Trail seeing the rare Spotted Dove and this Allen's Hummingbird.

Next stop was the Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve - an important reclamation area for nesting terns: Least, Royal, Caspian, Elegant and the pictured Forester's.

We arrived at Golden Shores RV Park in Long Beach for our week's stay.  Our site overlooked the Golden Shores Ecological Preserve and the Los Angeles River.  We walked paved trails along the river and harbors.  We found a new bird for the year - the Black Oystercatcher feeding on Blue Mussels at low tide.

Across the river, the Queen Mary is docked; this is the troop ship that Ty's dad sailed to Europe on to fight in WWII.

Western Gull waiting for fishermen's handouts

Fighting crabs

While watching March Madness Basketball on March 28th the RV started rocking and rolling at 9:09 to a 5.1 earthquake centered about 20 miles northeast of us.  This was a new experience for Ty, when we were here years ago I felt one while Ty slept through it.  

We spent a few hours at El Dorado Regional Park with a small nature center and miles of trails with good bird diversity plus Red-eared slider Turtles lined up on a log.

Western Bluebird

Our son Travis drove down from LA for a nice walk along the shore and lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp.  We had to answer Forrest Gump Movie trivia from the waiter.  We will see Travis & Tina again later when we move to Malibu Beach RV park.


On Sunday we enjoyed the worship service at Cottonwood Church and were blessed hearing our friend (pastor in Green Bay) Joel Holm preach the message. We reconnected with Joel and Marie for supper at Famous Dave's BBQ - a touch of Wisconsin.

Tomorrow it's into the LA traffic, our least favorite experience.

Love & Prayers,  Ty & Ida