Date: 8/30/25 9:12 pm From: Naresh Satyan via groups.io <naresh.satyan...> Subject: [LACoBirds] 2025 LA River Fall shorebird survey: Day 2 results
Hi all,
Today was the second of three surveys of shorebirds in the Los Angeles river planned for this fall. The goal of the surveys is to get a fairly thorough picture of shorebirds using the various stretches of the river, and how their distribution is changing over time. This is the third year of the survey in its current form (three surveys per year in the fall).
Going upstream from the river mouth, coverage was as follows. In Long Beach, Jeff Boyd surveyed between Golden Shore and Willow St, Jon Fisher counted from Willow St to Wardlow Rd, and Lance Benner counted from Wardlow Rd to Alondra Blvd, traveling by bike. Dick Barth surveyed the river in the Paramount area from Alondra to Rosecrans. In the South Gate-Maywood area, Mark Wilson counted from Southern Ave to Florence Ave, and Mark and Janet Scheel from Florence Ave to Atlantic Blvd. Andy Birch surveyed locations with good shorebird habitat from the 110/5 Fwy intersection up to Glendale Narrows. Naresh Satyan surveyed the Sepulveda basin dam area and Buena Vista Park in Burbank. We effectively looked at every stretch of the river that has any shorebird habitat, only excluding some of the concrete channel wastelands in Downtown LA and the San Fernando Valley.
It was a warm/hot day along the river, with temperatures starting around 70 F and warming to about 85 F inland. We had clear skies and practically no wind all morning. The tide was rising +3.5 to +4.0 ft at the river mouth in Long Beach. Water levels in the river were fairly high throughout the survey area, with strong flow in the central channel, and limited shorebird habitat, particularly in the upstream areas.
We had larger numbers and higher diversity of shorebirds compared to our first survey on August 10, and roughly comparable to our results from last year (August 31, 2024). The arrival of juveniles increased the total numbers of birds, but numbers continue to be very low compared to historical numbers from the early 2000s. A couple of factors today contributed to depressed numbers: the high tide at the river mouth, and the presence of active Peregrine Falcons early in the morning in some of the most productive areas of the river (lower river at Willow St and in the South Gate area at Florence/Gage) which presumably flushed a lot of shorebirds. Several birds/species present on August 29 were not recorded on August 30.
Some shorebirds of interest were a Baird's Sandpiper at Del Amo Blvd, and Solitary Sandpipers at Florence Ave in South Gate and at Buena Vista park in Burbank. Pectoral and Stilt Sandpipers, present until yesterday at Willow St, were not found today. Other interesting birds included a Red-breasted Merganser, a White-tailed Kite and an Indigo Bunting along the lower river (Jeff Boyd), and some southbound migrants including a couple of Willow Flycatchers at Sepulveda Basin.
The final survey for this fall is scheduled for September 20.
The results of today's survey are on eBird here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/406934 The results of the first day's survey on August 10, 2025 are here: ebird.org/tripreport/401630
