Always Bring Binoculars

Sooty Tern, for some reason on a beach in Los Angeles

Sooty Tern has two-hour layover at LAX

The eBird summary for Sooty Tern includes the following: “tropical seabird . . . found in warm tropical waters . . . usually stays far offshore, and is rarely seen near land except when blown off course by a hurricane.” So you can imagine the excitement amongst bird-nerds in L.A. when one was spotted at Dockweiler State Beach one non-hurricane morning. A Sooty Tern had been seen the day before in Orange County. That bird flew off mid-morning and wasn’t seen again.

That next morning, I was at Playa del Rey, checking a flock of terns on the off-chance that the Sooty Tern was roosting there (it wasn’t). My plan was to head to Dockweiler Beach to look through the tern flocks there next. Delightfully, Chris Dean found the Sooty Tern at Dockweiler before I headed over and sent word out. I hopped in my car and moved 2.5 miles south from were I was.

Luckily for me, this was one of those easy chases. As I got out of my car, I saw Chris and another birder staring through their binoculars at a tern flock. I looked where they were looking, and saw one dark-backed bird amongst the group. Had I not known I was looking for a Sooty Tern, I might’ve figured it was a Black Skimmer. By the time I made it to the flock, the Sooty Tern was the closest bird to me. And it cooperatively sat still for 5 minutes.

While we watched the bird, a steady stream of birders arrived. There’s nothing like the anxious, awkward half-jog of middle-aged humans dressed for a safari, lugging binoculars and long-lensed cameras, desperately hoping they hadn’t arrived a minute too late. Until 11:00am, they hadn’t. The tern flock regularly flushed, usually because of beachgoers. I did my best to steer folks away. But you can’t keep them all a safe distance. Other times it seemed that the trigger was a loud plane taking off from LAX. Each time, to the relief of the birders, the Sooty Tern came back around and settled on the beach.

At 11, the tern flock flushed again. This time, the Sooty Tern flew away, out to Santa Monica Bay in the direction of Point Dume. Unlike the previous flushes, this time it never turned back. Because of the bird’s dark black back, we were able to stay on it over the bay for 10-15 minutes. A couple lucky birders showed up to at least get distant views of a dark bird that we insisted was the Sooty Tern. By 11:15, the bird was out of range for the scopes. To the relief of many, it showed back up at the beach in the afternoon.

The lucky ones, in an assortment of REI adventurewear, watch the Sooty Tern fly away

This turns out to have been a first L.A. County record of Sooty Tern. It was also a lifer for me, and a fantastic addition to my 5MR list.

Volcán de San Pedro and water taxis, Panajachel, Lake Atitlán

Volcanos and birds around mile-high Lake Atitlán

There are certain people, places, and works of art whose beauty stops us in our tracks. They cause us to take in a breath, and then exhale with a belly-deep “whoa.” The stained glass in Barcelona’s La Sagrada Familia, and a dawn arrival at Machu Picchu after 4 days on the Inka Trail, did this to me. Mark Rothko paintings have as well. My trip to Guatemala added a new such place to my list: Lake Atitlán. The sparkling blue lake fills the caldera of a massive ancient volcano. It’s surrounded by picturesque villages and a trio of green forested volcanos. In every direction, from every angle, it’s beautiful.

The second biggest town along the lake is Panajachel, where my group stayed for a couple of nights. As luck would have it for a birder, we weren’t right in town. Instead, we were at the lakefront Hotel San Buenaventura. The place felt more like a retreat (some of the group were getting White Lotus vibes), with lush grounds and an aquamarine pool with great lake views.

White-faced Ground Sparrow

Azure-crowned Hummingbird

Morelet’s Seedeater

Cinnamon-bellied Saltator

After we checked in to our delightful red brick split-level suites, I walked around. The back half of the property is covered in trees, and was full of birds. The lake sits at just about a mile above sea level, nearly the same as Antigua’s elevation. As a result, the expected species in the area were basically the same. I added a lifer Boat-billed Flycatcher, White-faced Ground Sparrow, and Morelet’s Seedeater on my walk. A bank of red flowers attracted some hummingbirds, including an Azure-crowned Hummingbird. I even spotted 4 white-nosed coati moving through the trees.

Later in the afternoon, I walked up and down Calle San Buenaventura, the road that connects our hotel and Panajachel. Again, the birding was good. A Greater Pewee was sallying from a wire over the road. Along the edge of the road, a lifer Rusty Sparrow hopped into view. A pair of Rose-throated Becards were coming repeatedly to a big nest. I also got good looks at Guatemala’s cool version of Bushtit, tricked out with a thick black face mask. It was also visiting a nest, as was a Tropical Mockingbird. I had ever seen so many birds visiting nests.

Bushtit

Guatemalan Flicker

Rusty Sparrow

Band-backed Wren

White-nosed Coati

Greater Pewee

You didn’t have to be on the trails to see birds. Hanging out at the hotel’s lake front, I saw Common Gallinule and American Coots on the water. A Green Heron flew past me a couple of times. Coming to a big snag of a tree were Guatamalan Flickers, Black-vented Orioles, and Northern Rough-winged Swallows. The birds, the natural beauty, and the wonderful companions of my tour group made this a highlight of the trip. Indeed, my only regret from Panajachel was tasting the Pollo Campero fried-chicken flavored Lay’s potato chips. They were gross. Really gross.

Lakefront at Hotel San Buenaventura

A Trip Across the Lake

During our stay, we took a water taxi across the lake to Santiago Atitlán. This town sits between the volcanoes in the picture above. The morning boat ride was serene (just a single Laughing Gull and Brown Pelican on the lake during our ride). Our tour of Santiago Atitlán included some tragic sites from Guatemala’s decades-long internal conflict. We stopped at the Parque de la Paz, the site of a massacre of 13 villagers by the Guatemalan army in 1990. And we visited the St. James the Apostle church, where Father Stanley Rother was murdered in 1981.

We then hopped on our water taxi and went to IMAP, a group working to promote food sovereignty, biodiversity protection, agroecological education, and the empowerment of small-scale farmers. After learning about their efforts, buying a hat, and enjoying a delicious lunch, I managed 20 minutes of birding. The target was a Slender Sheartail, a small hummingbird of the highlands with an arched bill and, on males, a long forked tail. One had been reported a few days previous. As luck would have it, a local birder was present when we arrived and showed me where it had been appearing. With my time running out, I finally got a quick glimpse of a female.

Slender Sheartail

Rufous-collared Sparrow

The Lake Atitlán area was fantastic. And I wasn’t done with it yet. When my group tour ended, I spent a few days not far from Santiago Atitlán. In a future post, I’ll cover that visit to Los Tarrales Nature Preserve and a hike to the top of Volcán de Pedro in the search of a Horned Guan.

Sooty Tern at L.A. Beach