Saw a group of Ancient Murrelets today

These birds are not even in my introductory guide. Thanks to some local birders (the non-skateboarding kind) that were out today I learned that these Ancient Murrelets were spotted in the Marina Harbor (just over the spit from Ballona Creek) a few days ago and have attracted some attention in the birding community. These Murrelets are rarely seen south of Point Concepcion so I was lucky to see them. I saw four of them together.

In general, if you want to learn more about birds I suggest you make friends with your local bird enthusiasts. They are the ones with the fancy "bird scopes" which are essentially telescopes designed for birding. They require tripods and are not very mobile but there are great for spotting birds that are far away. Most birders with scopes are happy to share them so you can get a good look at something that are either too small or too far away for even for a good pair of binoculars. Scopes are not practical for skatebirding (too big and bulky) but you won't miss too much if you don't have one (see my earlier post on binoculars).