Last weekend I visited my family in Southern California. We hit up as many birding hotspots as we could squeeze in a three-day trip. Spring was definitely in the air as we watched Japanese White-Eyes gathering nesting material, House Wren chasing away squirrels, and songs erupting everywhere.

The most exciting part of the trip was finding two rarities. One was a Gray Flycatcher – a lifer for us – catching bugs at Irvine Regional Park. It was a joy to watch as it hawked insects at dusk.

The other rarity was found at a little neighborhood community trail in Murrieta. A shadowy walk under trees that would eventually lead to a nearby park yielded a Plumbeous Vireo, who made an extremely brief visit with just enough time to snap an identifiable picture before it flew off into the neighborhood never to be seen again that day.

Rare birds are fun to see, but I also enjoy visiting the SoCal birds. Western Bluebirds were a brilliant blue, Common Ravens were busy croaking, and Red-crowned Parrots were noisily announcing their presence – which also made me laugh every time they squawked. Happy Spring!