Birding Fiesta Island (San Diego, CA)

April 6, 2021

^{House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus), Male}

A tournament dedicated to Over-the-Line, a beach game resembling baseball and softball, has taken place on Fiesta Island in San Diego every July since 1954. For many, the tournament is essentially a summer beach party with beer, a bikini contest, and some friendly competition amongst thousands of participants. It’s not for no reason the tournament is coined “beers, babes, and bats on the beach.”

I’ve attended the tournament a couple of times but definitely didn’t think to return to the island for birdwatching. You can imagine my surprise when a fellow birder highly recommended Fiesta Island as a rewarding location to explore in San Diego.

^{Chestnut-collared Longspur (Calcarius ornatus), Male}

In the days leading up to my visit, reports of Chestnut-collared Longspurs at Fiesta Island flooded the San Diego Rare Bird Alert email listserv. These birds aren’t typically found in California but occasionally winter in the state until February or, rarely, late March. According to a report by well-known birder and author Paul Lehman, previous wintering Chestnut-collared Longspurs in the county “have never been seen later than February,” so finding one in April was unheard of.

One female and two males were seen the previous week, but I knew they would be departing north to their breeding grounds any day. Chestnut-collared Longspurs are sparrow-sized and often forage on the ground, so locating them would likely be like finding a needle in a haystack. Despite my reluctance, I had to at least try.

I set off for an area where I thought I might have the most luck and saw a man with binoculars and a large camera off in the distance. I made a beeline to the field he was scanning and asked if he had seen the longspurs. He said he hadn’t but was trying to find them as well.

After a few moments of silence, I noticed movement in the grass about 15 meters from where we were standing. I grabbed my binoculars and focused on a bird with a distinct rust-colored collar, a distinguishing characteristic of male Chestnut-collared Longspurs. I pointed my newfound birding companion to the potential Chestnut-collared Longspur and he confirmed the identification. A little birdwatching teamwork makes the dream work!