{"id":2299,"date":"2016-03-11T13:59:31","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T20:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ocbirds.com\/?page_id=2299"},"modified":"2016-03-11T14:08:41","modified_gmt":"2016-03-11T21:08:41","slug":"villa-park-flood-dam-and-the-magic-basin-birding-hot-spot","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/?page_id=2299","title":{"rendered":"Villa Park Flood Control Basin (dam) and “The Magic Basin” Birding Hot Spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Upon constantly scouring for new places to bird, I had come across the Villa Park Flood Dam Control as a hot spot in eBird as well as comments in various posters reports referring to the “Magic Basin”.\u00a0 With little reference online on how to get to this eBird Hot Spot in Orange County, I opted to try and find this place along with a friend Phil Thomas who grew up in the area.\u00a0 We initially chose to park in the Santiago Oaks Regional Parks main parking area and walk down to the Historic Dam trail.\u00a0 (There’s typically maps available or you can click here for the Santiago Oaks Regional Park map<\/a>). This trail is easy to locate as you simply walk down below the parking lot to the lowest trail and bear right.\u00a0 Navigate over the creek via the large circular stepping stones.\u00a0 This will get you on the Historic Dam Trail.\u00a0 Follow this trail to the Santiago Creek Trail and then to the Pony Trail.\u00a0 Stay on the Pony Trail until you reach the dirt parking area.\u00a0 You’ll see this location on my map where it shows Sandberg Lane. (see image 1 and 2 below)<\/p>\n

Walk through the dirt parking lot and bear right up the steep dirt trail.\u00a0 At the crest, you’ll see a locked gated fence, continue downward to the Egret Trail (see image 2 below)<\/p>\n

Once on the Egret trail look for the single track dirt trail that heads toward the dam (see image 3).\u00a0 From this image you’ll see we took the second single track dirt trail highlighted in orange.\u00a0 This will lead you directly to the Magic Basin where (depending on day and time of year) various waterfowl can be found, Marsh Wrens can be heard and so on.\u00a0 Here’s a quick reference to the eBird Villa Park Flood Control Basin species list<\/a><\/p>\n

If you are not up for this entire hike through Santiago Oaks Regional Park, you can alternatively take Sandberg Lane off East Santiago Canyon Road to the dirt parking lot and follow my maps below from there. (see Image 1.)\u00a0 I’ve also included a video below while on the single dirt trail to the Magic Basin (taken February 2016).<\/p>\n

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\n
\"Walk<\/a>
Image 1.\u00a0 Here’s an actual walk path that was created in the MyTracks phone app which I imported into Google Earth showing the entire trail.\u00a0 This was 1.36 miles one way and took about 40 minutes at a medium pace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Up<\/a>
Image 2.\u00a0 This illustrates the dirt parking lot area and steep uphill with gradual descent continuing toward the Magic Basin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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\"Magic<\/a>
Image 3. Here’s the single track walk path leading to the foot of the Magic Basin and also the base of the Villa Park Flood Control Damn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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\"The<\/a>
The Villa Park Flood Control Dam with the “Magic Basin” on right<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/VillaPark-Dam-Magic-Basin20160228_172259.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Upon constantly scouring for new places to bird, I had come across the Villa Park Flood Dam Control as a hot spot in eBird as well as comments in various posters reports referring to the “Magic Basin”.\u00a0 With little reference … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2295,"parent":42,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2299","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P5Rhss-B5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2299"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2307,"href":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2299\/revisions\/2307"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/42"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}