7th May - Flying away

Our last morning of what has been the best holiday ever. Before breakfast I had a couple of hours free which I spent along the valley north of Kernville in the hope of finding Black-chinned Sparrow and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, both species I had missed elsewhere. No new birds here though, but I did see my second Olive-sided Flycatcher, Canyon Wren, Golden-crowned Sparrow and a variety of other species.

We then headed to LA where I had hoped to have time to pop in to Bolsa Chica Wetlands. Unfortunately heavy congestion on the freeways prevented this, but this was the only time we encountered really heavy traffic all holiday.

We had just under an hour to spare by the time we reached the vacinity of the airport. We decided against paying a second visit to Marina del Rey and instead headed down to Palos Verdes peninsula in the hope of finding Spotted Dove, but with little time to look this mission failed.

So from a birding point of view an unsuccessful end to the holiday, but no complaints at all having seen a grand total of nearly 250 species of birds including no less than 175 lifers!