The Ecology of Tijuana Estuary, California: An Estuarine Profile

Figure 23 Salt marsh vegetatton of the interrned~atc elevations Illustrated are sea lavender (left), arrow grass
(foreground) sea-bltte (background) perenntal ptckleweed (right), and Jaumea (lower right, in flower) Mclntrre
collect~on, copyr~ght 1986 by Zedler
fromi Pugel Sound Washrngton, to the southern trp
of Baja Cal~fornia. Mexico (Macdonald and Barbour
19 741 and on ltle Albarltrc Coast
A small hut s~gnificant bird finds its preferred
habrtat wltnrn pickleweed-dominate marshes
Beldrng's Savannah sparrow (Figure 24) is lrsted
by the State of California as an endangered
species It butids its riest low to thc ground, often
under a plckieweed canopy but sornettnles 1r1
saltgrass (D/S~~C/J/G spicafa) or shore grass In
1985 there were 81 pairs of Seidrng's Savanna0
sparrow nesting rn the middle marsh areas north of
the T~luana R~ver Censuses tn 1973 and 1977
~ndicated that there were 100 and 95 nesting pairs
respectrvefy for the entire estuary From the 1977
census data of 1.610 breedtng pairs tn the State tt
appears that T~juana Estuary supports a substantial
iraciion of the remalriing popciiatran Oniy 5 of the
28 wetlands censused that year had iarger
Ftgharc 24 Beldtng's Savannah sparrow with ground
nest tn shore grass. Mclntlre coilectfon. copyright
1986 by Zedler