Birdy Myrtle

The (Absolute State) of Huntington Beach State Park in Early Summer, 2026

It's been a minute.

-The boardwalk (or what's left of it) is gated off and being dismantled. Maybe they'll replace it, maybe not. Who knows?

-The heron rookery by the castle road has been shredded...for some reason. There are basically zero nests near the road anymore. Not really sure why.

-There was a purple gallinule near the castle road, but I'm not sure if it's still there. Apparently there were otters near the Kerrigan Trail overlook for awhile, but otters have a way of vanishing just as quickly as they show up. Where do they go? Who knows? I never saw them.

It's hot and there are snakes everywhere. Tons of raccoon activity this year, too.

Huntington Beach State Park report: February-Now

Pelicans. That's it.

Huntington Beach State Park: Winter 2026

There are ducks and eagles. That's about it. As far as I can tell, all the screech owls are gone. AND IT'S PROBABLY YOUR FAULT...or som**hing. I dunno. Maybe they left. They could leave at any time. They can fly, bro.

Also, it was pretty hilarious watching people get busted by the rangers for ignoring the signs around the owl. You know who you are.

I saw the famous barred owl today. Near the tiki bar in the kid's section.

State of Huntington Beach State Park, November 2025

Been awhile. The fact is, the park has been a snooze fest for over a month now. I don't even bother going to the straight road anymore. There's nothing but marsh hens. The causeway is barely better. You've got your usual shorebirds, including a few remaining spoonbills. The eagles from the nest across the inlet sometimes fish up close if you're lucky. But honestly, I'm over chasing eagles and ospreys.

Meanwhile, Brookgreen Gardens is absolutely popping off. On the rice plantation history trail near the zoo, there has been a constant rotation of raptors. I've seen red shoulder and red tailed hawks feeding up close. There's also a screech owl that roosts high in one of the trees just off the trail. A few days ago someone witnessed a barred owl hunting in one of the parts of the gardens decorated for the holidays. Speaking of which, they tend to close the garden on days that Thousand Candles takes place, so it's about to become a pain to get in. Oh well. I'm not gonna have any free time anyway.

Edit: The barred owl was in the section of the gardens with the two rows of live oaks draped with lights. The one in front of the golden statue of the naked guy with the panther.

Early Fall 2025 Huntington Beach State Park Report

Haven't really been keeping up with things. Kind of knew I would pull som**hing like this. But I'm currently bored and sick, so why not?

The past few weeks, I've seen basically nothing interesting on the Straight Road. All the babies are gone at this point, obviously, and that means the adult birds have no reason to stick around either. I'm just going to avoid that whole area for the forseeable future, because there's nothing really there except mosquitoes.

Things are a little more interesting around the causeway. Gators are stocking up on crab calories, and fairly active otherwise now that the water level is way up. Spoonbills are still around, as are woodstorks. Skimmers occasionally appear in the evening. Overall, things are pretty slow in general I go home with way fewer pictures these days, which has kinda reduced my enthusiasm for going. It'll pick up someday, though.

Huntington Beach State Park Report for Late June 2025

Just got back from a long trip out of country, and things have definitely changed at the park. As I figured before, most of the heron rookery is hidden behind grass at this point. However, there are three young snowy egrets and two green herons that are immediately visible from the Atalaya Castle road. There are three more snowy egrets behind those, but they're hard to see. In one of the cedar trees nearby, you can also find a tricolor heron with three chicks.

The gators are doing their usual thing, although I've noticed that they seem to be moving in pairs to cross the road, which is som**hing I haven't seen before.

There's a raccoon that's started showing up in the evenings along the Atalaya Road and digging things up to eat along the side of the road. It doesn't seem very timid, which makes me think people are throwing food to it.

Lots of pink spoonbills are hunting along the causeway, but only when the tide conditions are low enough.

State of Huntington Beach State Park: May

There are huge amounts of painted buntings this year in all of the usual places. Little blue herons and snowy egrets are now nesting by the straight road where they're fairly visible, but the marsh grass appears to be thriving this year as well--so many of them might be totally obscured soon. Green herons are present, but I don't see any nesting just yet.

Another curious thing this year has been the number of snakes, usually venomous ones. After seeing only two last year, I've thus far seen one copperhead, two water moccasins, and one rat snake either on or near pedestrian walkways. So be sure to look down from time to time, because copperheads don't tend to move out of the way.

Alligators are on the move and eating crabs, although I haven't personally seen any predation so far.

Finally, I had a daytime raccoon sighting about halfway down the straight road. Always fun to watch these weird little guys thriving in their natural environment (and not playing with m**h pipes).

State of Huntington Beach State Park: April

As usual, the painted buntings are here in full plumage. You can basically always find them at the nature center feeders, but I've also seen them in the brush off of Kerigan Trail and near the viewing platform on the causeway.

A few weeks ago I witnessed some great herons building nests at the very edge of the heron rookery near the straight road in front of the castle. That definitely would have made for some great fledgling-photos, but unfortunately it seems like the birds have abandoned those nests. Now all the nests are embedded deep in the foliage. That's great for the birds, but not so great for photography. Hopefully when the green herons start nesting, they'll do so in their usual locations right off the road. Green heron babies can be a lot of fun to watch.

The gators are now fully active and engaging in their usual movements between Mallard Pond and Mullet Pond. Several people (who are not me, sadly) have seen them dining on crabs. There's a GPS tagged gator that has a fishhook in its mouth. Park staff know about it, and have decided that it's not worth wrangling the thing to take it out.

There's also a huge amount of moss on Mullet Pond currently, but that shouldn't affect much.

State of Huntington Beach State Park-Early March

Despite a few instances of ridiculously thick fog, it's definitely starting to feel more like spring. The gators are fully out and active, and it won't be long before mating season begins. You can now see morning and evening crossings along the castle road, but I haven't seen any crossing the causeway yet. The bird situation remains pretty much the same, with lots of marsh chickens, egrets, herons, and ducks. Early April is generally when the painted buntings are flying around in full color, so things should get a little more interesting on that front soon.