Kay and I had a great half day of birding today, first visiting El Toro Memorial Park (read cemetery) about 20 miles but nearly an hour in AM traffic on I-5 in Lake Forrest, Orange County. We were hoping to find Lawrence’s goldfinch which had been seen there a few times over the last month or so, but no luck. We did see a nice variety of birds though, including several non-listable but cool Pin-tailed wyndah with the bright pinkish bills and striped heads. They are a brood parasite that some experts believe are thriving in SoCal by parasitising the also introduced Scaly-breasted munia.
Here is our eBird list for that stop.
From there we headed for the Huntington Beach for lunch with a short hike at Laguna Wilderness Park Nix Center (list) prior to a very nice walk on the beach walkway Heisler Trail. This is a great place to bring a lunch and have a picnic as the vegan lunch we had was nothing special except the view.