Listing Through Life

larus (ravenous seabird) occidentalis (western)

Sunday, May 6, 2001 — 4:30 pm

San Diego, California — Point Loma — Point Loma Seafood Company

While we were at Cabrillo National Monument, my coworker asked a burly park ranger for a good place to eat. He directed us to the Point Loma Seafood Company, near Shelter Island in San Diego Bay. We were a bit disappointed to find out it wasn’t a sit-down place, but it had the feel of local color, so we stayed. We ordered our food from the deli-style counter — I got crab cakes — then went outside to eat. The tables were all full, so we sat on the edge of a cement wall that boxed in a small garden. A few minutes later, a table opened and we grabbed it.

The restaurant was to my right and another building to our left. In front of me, a dock stretched out into a harbor full of huge yachts. Small patches of water were visible here and there among the boats.

There was a Western Gull on the roof of the building to my left, two on the dock and others on the pilings that ran along the harbor. They flew about some and switched places from time to time, but at least one was in sight the whole time we were there.

aphelocoma (from apheles, smooth, and kome, hair) californica

Sunday, May 6, 2001 — 2:37 pm

San Diego, California — Point Loma — Cabrillo National Monument

The Bayside Trail ends at a tall chain link fence that marks the boundary of a naval base. The area on the other side of the fence was a tangle of dark green bushes on the slope above the bay.

I stood by the fence and looked for birds and enjoyed the view before I started back up the trail. I noticed something blue about 30 feet below and in front of me. I looked though my binoculars and discovered it to be a California Scrub-Jay that was perched motionlessly in the bush. That’s pretty much all it did for the next several minutes except for an occasional turn of its head to one side or another. Finally it dropped down and disappeared into the bushes.

(At the time I saw this bird, it was called the Western Scrub-Jay. The species was split in 2016. Birds near the west coast — which this one definitely was — are now the California Scrub-Jay and ones further east are now known as Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay.)

empidonax (from empidos, mosquito, and anax, king) difficilis (difficult)

Sunday, May 6, 2001 — 2:32 pm

San Diego, California — Point Loma — Cabrillo National Monument

Near the bottom of the Bayside Trail, but still about 100 feet above San Diego Bay, there was a fold in the slope that contained a patch of bushes that were thicker, greener and larger than the surrounding vegetation.

I saw a small bird that was reaching forward toward a leaf. It looked bright yellow-green, with an obvious eye-ring and prominent wing bars. At first I thought it might be a vireo. But then it sat up and assumed the normal empidonax posture. I watched it flit around in a small area for several minutes until I lost it behind some larger bushes.

Its eye-ring was wide and extended back to a point at the rear of the eye, but broken at the top. Its tail seemed long. It wasn’t singing, but the bright color, the shape of the eye-ring and its location convinced me it was a Pacific-slope Flycatcher.

Update: When I saw this bird, it had recently been split from the Cordilleran Flycatcher. In 2024, the two species were lumped back together into the Western Flycatcher.

pipilo (to chirp) maculatus

Sunday, May 6, 2001 — 2:24 pm

San Diego, California — Point Loma — Cabrillo National Monument

I was still in the area where I’d seen the Anna’s Hummingbird when I heard a familiar song. The field guides say the Spotted Towhee sounds somewhat different than the Eastern Towhee, but I didn’t notice. I just knew it was a towhee.

I soon spotted it sitting in a bush across a small fold in the slope from where I saw the hummingbird. Like most of my lifers on this trip, I saw several during the three days I was in San Diego. It looked just like an Eastern Towhee, except that it had white spots all over its back.