When Rowshan gets sick of spending his lunch hour getting beaten up by coworkers during company soccer games, he takes his camera to Lake Hodges. Once he came home raving, “There must have been a hundred white pelicans. We have to go this weekend!”
Another time he showed me a photo of an osprey (Pandion haliaetus) fighting with a bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). “Let’s go on Saturday. I’ll show you the bald eagle.” However, by the time we get out there, the birds had already moved on. There were only a few pelicans and the bald eagle apparently had lost to the osprey.
Lake Hodges is just a pit stop—the Holiday Inn of the Pacific Flyway. Many birds stop for a break, get a good meal, relax, and then continue on their way. You can’t count on a particular bird to be there the next weekend. However, the good thing is at this time of year, if you don’t see a particular bird, there is still the chance you’ll see some other unexpected visitor or at least some interesting bird activity.
This week Rowshan brought home photos of western grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis) dancing together on the surface of the lake. So, off we went today to visit the grebes. Western grebes are fairly common here during the winter, so I figured I had a good chance of seeing them.
Lake Hodges was low. The long footbridge stretched over muddy water shallow enough to be kicked up by the feet of a swimming duck. The dead tree trunks rising from the mud spoke of previous droughts when even the mud disappeared and the lake became a tree-dotted field. We have had a bit of rain this year, but not enough to fill the lake. However, the lower parts of Bernardo Mountain were dusted with green, though the upper parts looked dry.
For a weekend, the lake was surprisingly quiet. We took the southern path and walked by several hundreds of northern shovelers (Anas clypeata) resting in the shallows. There were a few white pelicans with lumps on their bills showing it was breeding season.
Western grebes are the runway models of the bird world. They are beautiful, sophisticated looking birds with unusual angles, and sharply contrasting patterns of black and white. If Erte had designed a bird, it would be a grebe. The graceful curves of their white necks contrast sharply with the angular wedge of their black heads. Their eyes are red and their needle like bills are bright yellow.
There was only a slight breeze ruffling the water. Grebes drifted by in pairs, sometimes alternately bobbing their necks. Now and then, there would be a splashing noise as a couple rose up on their legs and raced across the water, white chests lifted and glinting in the sun.
Rowshan was desperately trying to catch the moment, but often it happened so quickly that by the time he focused, they had dived into the water again. Eventually, he realized that before they rushed across the water, they would turn to face each other, lowering their heads to the water’s surface, as if bowing and asking, “Shall we dance?” Then they would rise and patter across the water. We watched the grebes for a while. Some of them caught small silver fish, and offered their partners a snack.
We walked across the footbridge. From the lake’s shores it looked like underneath the bridge was just muddy water. However, from the bridge we could see cinnamon teals, northern shovelers, killdeer, black-necked stilts, and white faced ibises feasting in the muddy flats and water. I had a hard time identifying the white faced ibises because outside of breeding season they don’t have any white (or the more dominant red of identification pictures) on their faces. Of course, even if they had, it would have been covered with mud.
| Useful Information Lake Hodges is part of the San Dieguito River Park and is classified as a “Globally Important Bird Area” by the National Audubon Society and the American Bird Conservancy. According to the San Dieguito River Park web page, the Palomar Audubon society lists 207 species of birds that can be found there.The lake is accessible from several different locations. We took the West Bernardo/Pomerado Road exit and parked off of West Bernardo. From there you can either hike along the shore on the Bernardo Bay Trail or cross the pedestrian bridge to the North Shore Lake Hodges Trail. It is also possible to park in the Rancho Bernardo Community Park and access the Piedras Pintadas trail from there. We had better views of the lake from the south than the north due to the position of the sun.
|