For the last two weeks, a little bird with big feet has turned a 320-acre marsh in Irvine into one of the hottest birding destinations in Southern California.
Hundreds of birdwatchers have flocked to the Irvine Ranch Water District’s San Joaquin Marsh, hoping to catch a glimpse of a juvenile purple gallinule.
It’s the first documented sighting of the rare bird in Orange County and the eighth in California since 1961. The sighting still needs to be accepted by the California Bird Records Committee, which reviews and confirms rare bird sightings in the state…