Red-tailed Hawk (Bob Shanman)
Western Gull (Bob Shanman)
Polliwog Pond (Bob Shanman)
Ross Goose (Bob Shanman)
Polliwog Park - the uncharted land
Polliwog Park is a typical US urban park complete with large grassy areas, picnic tables, cooking grills, play areas etc. The northeast corner is occupied by a middle school whilst the central area contains a pond covering several acres. Formerly unlined, it was drained and paved about 20 years ago. The pond serves as a flood control facility during heavy rains and I have seen the entire area under water -- up to 20 feet or so.
To the west is a slope leading to a heavily used pool area and athletic fields. The southwest corner is occupied by a school maintenance facility and a native plant garden (Manhattan Beach Botanical Garden) that is planted with drought-tolerant California native plants.
As can be seen in the photos, overall, the park is an 'open' woodland with large green spaces.
Polliwog Park has been birded irregularly over the years with none of us keeping good records. Instead, attention has been diverted to another area of the city - Sand Dune Park - which is watched heavily by the birding community because it has become a big migrant trap as it has matured.
In 2007, I decided to start birding Polliwog. Since January, I birded the park almost weekly. Local birder David Moody tried to hit it once a week plus he received additional data from the local birders. Between these efforts, we documented close to 100 for the park.
Subsequent to the start of our effort, the city has been drafting a major upgrade plan for many of the city facilities, including the parks. Our data will now form a baseline to evaluate impacts and to indicate within the park where disturbance is okay and where it is not. More importantly, we are documenting the day-to-day use of the park by many species of birds and a number of the butterflies.
This past year, the two most unusual birds observed at Polliwog Park were a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker which stuck around for a week and a Ross' Goose that was apparently first noticed in November until the first weekend of April, flying very little all winter until it was getting ready to leave. This goose is rare anywhere, so for it to show up and winter in an urban area was quite exciting.
The "urge" to patch bird for me was generated by David Moody's success at Alondra Park (now close to 200 species in nearly 5 years) and Kimball Garrett's belief that this is how we will best understand what is going on with our local birds.
Bob Shanman