Mission Bay

February 1, 2024

It’s still dark when we both wake up early this morning, well before six. The time change played a role I’m sure, but Rachael’s extraction and my bruised ribs played a part too. It won’t be light for awhile yet, and it looks like we’re experiencing the only dry hours of the day. By eight it will be windy and rainy, with the rain coming down relentlessly enough that the top of the drain spout is overflowing and cascading down the wall of the next building.

So we settle in for a long day of it, sitting around indoors staying dry and filling the hours as best we can. I’m hoping that if there’s any kind of break in the weather at all I’ll drive down to the water somewhere and look for a sheltered spot where I can sit and watch for whatever wades or flies by.

But then, the unexpected happens - the forecast gradually improves - now showing perhaps one rainless hour starting in the midafternoon sometime; and then it widens to two hours, and then three, and then five. A look at the satellite view confirms what’s happening - a large window has miraculously opened up offshore and is moving our way. We can see the sky lightening to the west, and not long after the downspout outside the window dries up I’m out the door with the bike, heading for Mission Bay and the channelized San Diego River on a 16 mile route I’ve mapped out. That should give me a couple of hours of birding and time to get back before sunset - so much better than I’d been hoping for from this day.

The route from downtown to Mission Bay is sort of a mess, involving multiple highway and rail crossings and the evasion of large immovable objects like the airport and the marine base. In the interest of taking the most direct route I did a pretty poor job of mapping out a course for myself, and it’s not one I’d take again. Once I reach Mission Bay at just about three though I’ll spend most of the next two hours on bike paths alongside the water, biking slowly and watching out for the birds. I time box myself, and decide that I’ll turn back by five. That will give me a half hour before sunset to make my five miles back to our apartment.

I’m so glad to have the chance to be back here again, at one of the best birding hotspots I know of. We or I have biked through here several times, and there’s always a lot of activity out on the water. As I’m prone to do, I’ve set an expectation range for today. Ten new birds should be easy, fifteen will count as a really good day. Looking across the bay with the sun breaking through the clouds, I can’t quite believe my luck.

Mission Bay looks so much more inviting today than I’d imagined. Even the wind isn’t too bad. Should be great conditions for birding.

My bird crawl begins with a few miles of out and back along the eastern rim of Mission Bay. The best birding will probably be along the river, but I’m starting here instead by accident - I had a problem with the poor route I’d sketched out, and after a half mile biking the wrong way on a busy one way street I changed the plan and ended up here. I decide to just bike along the bay in this direction for as long as it seems productive and then turn back toward the river.

I’m not a hundred yards past reaching the bay when I score the first new bird of the day, a wader of some kind. I get the waders mixed up from one year to the next, so my plan is to just go home with a gallery of photos and figure out later what I’ve come home with. After that I come upon some bluebirds, and then three or four other new ones. Twenty minutes into the ride and I’ve already clocked maybe five new birds, but I turn around when I’m no longer seeing anything new.

Back from the bay, I follow the north side of the San Diego River west toward the ocean for about a mile, biking slowly on the wrong side of the road checking the waterlines. It’s a two lane road, but it’s completely empty save for a single parked car. I don’t see a single moving car for the next mile, but I definitely see some birds. Most of them are a little too far out for the equipment I’m carrying, but I’m thrilled by this beautiful heron or egret close in slowly working the shoreline himself for his own reasons. My first thought is that he’s a reddish egret, a species I’ve never seen before - but later I’ll realize it’s a little blue heron, a really beautiful bird.

And then up ahead I see and hear some large splashing in the river - a small flock of brown pelicans. I rush forward to get a closer look at them, and then not long after I cross the river to continue west on its south side.

Along the San Diego River. Unexpectedly beautiful this afternoon.

This next stretch must be the best birding spot around. The channel is narrow enough that many birds are in close enough to get a good look. I’m here for about an hour picking up one new species after another, and I’m sure with a more powerful lens I’d have gotten even more. I’ll bet I could go back tomorrow and keep pulling out new species - there surely must be some curlews or California gulls or snipes in here too. One thing I’m especially pleased to find is several reddish egrets acrobatically racing through the shallows. I’ve never seen them before, and now that I’ve seen both them and that little blue heron close together I don’t think I’ll get them mixed up again.

Here’s where a more powerful lens would come in handy.

Five comes and I turn back to head for home. It still looks like there’s plenty of light left in the day, but I’m taking no chances on getting caught out after dark. I don’t get far though when I’m stopped by an unleashed dog coming my way on the path. He looks innocuous enough, but we stand there facing each other for a minute while I try to decide if I can safely pass. A young woman is casually walking our direction a ways behind him, and when she’s within earshot I ask if it’s hers. She acknowledges the fact, barely.

Is he OK, I ask. What do you mean? Will he bite? Of course not. Why would he be off leash if he’s a biter? Well, I’ve had a bad bite before so I’m especially cautious. Well, it’s none of your business, she scowls as she and the dog pass by. Of course it’s my business, it’s my leg! Idiot!!

So that went well. At least she didn’t pull a gun on me in an act of bike path rage.

The ride home goes poorly and takes much longer than I’d planned. Many stoplights, multiple trains to wait for, and worst of all I get turned around at one point and realize I’ve been biking back toward the bay for the last mile. It’s starting to get uncomfortably dark by the time I make it back into downtown, and I ride the final mile to the apartment on the sidewalks in the dark, evading the occasional squatter whos legs or camping gear block the way.

When I get back, Rachael fills me in on her own day, which included about a two mile walk late in the day into downtown and back. She didn’t really enjoy it, and felt uncomfortable and insecure by the character of the neighborhood. Really, it feels a lot like Portland here right now, and is much worse than the last time we were here. Very sad.

Today's ride: 20 miles (32 km)
Total: 1,517 miles (2,441 km)

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Karen PoretAgain, San Diego is an extension of problems which you have in Portland, and I have here in Santa Cruz. It’s the “beach lifestyle” and temperate ( usually) weather which “draws them in”…
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