La Jolla – black-and-white booby, Common Murres, June 30, 2018
you can find me on twitter, @garybnunn
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports
On Saturday, June 30th, visiting birder Bill Tweit and I poked around south San Diego Bay and Sweetwater Reservoir. Best birds were 2 BALD EAGLES at the upper end of Sweetwater Reservoir–casual near the coast in summer–one adult and one one-year-old. The young bird is presumably the same bird I saw back there on 27 May. On south San Diego Bay, a presumably new, adult REDDISH EGRET was at Emory Cove. (Also, the one-year-old-type bird with reddish head and neck but very dull and splotchy body & wing plumage continues as of June 28th at the San Diego River mouth.) A summering BRANT was off the end of J Street/Marina Parkway. Returning shorebirds included 5 bright alternate Short-billed Dowitchers and 8 Red-necked Phalaropes, whereas over-summering birds included 18 basic Red Knots, 45 basic Short-billed Dowitchers, and 60 basic Black-bellied Plovers. Four active nests of Yellow-crowned Night-Herons at the Sports Park. Still 40 Surf Scoters off Camp Surf.
Bill continued north and saw the continuing, returning SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER at Twin Trails Regional Park; but like others have reported, there didn't seem to be any indication of nesting.
–Paul Lehman, San Diego
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports
Hi Birders,
It was nice to see obvious newly arrived (19) Semipalmated Plovers, and two alternate Western Sandpipers at the lagoon this a.m.
Please bring on the vagrant shorebirds.
Good Birding,
Jimmy McMorran
Leucadia, CA
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Good Birding,
Jimmy McMorran,
Leucadia, CA
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports
We gather to tally our results at noon at the Del Mar Public Works parking lot/picnic tables off Jimmy Durante Rd.
Jayne Lesley (cell phone: 858-663-6568)
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports
First off, the only bird to mention during the last couple days' of my own brief birding was a June 26th northbound (basic-plumaged) Pacific Loon at La Jolla. At this rate, that bird should be arriving on the breeding grounds sometime during Summer 2019….
I was out of town for much of the "Indigo Bunting #1 debate." The plumage did indeed seem odd to me for a pure Indigo, BUT then I saw Nancy Christensen's couple fine photos from a couple or so days ago, attached to her eBird report. Perhaps I am misinterpreting what I am seeing in the photos, but it almost looks like the bird may have had some sort of traumatic event and had its entire belly section of feathers scooped out with an ice-cream scooper. And then just some those missing feathers were replaced by abnormal white feathers. It does happen sometimes that replaced feathers, following some sort of trauma, are not the correct color. Am I totally off-base? But it sure looks like a semi-crater in the bird's vent region compared to all the feathering above and to the sides of there. If I am totally off-base on this, please let me know (gently or privately!).
–Paul Lehman, San Diego
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports
Update on Sunday afternoon,
We birded at Robb Field and Old Sea World Drive about 3 pm on Sunday. The juvie Reddish Egret was just upriver from the bridge at the west end of Old Sea World. No sign of the adult, but also of interest were two Yellow-crowned
Night Herons farther upriver, and at the east end of the road at Friars, we saw a White-tailed Kite. It still had its buffy chest and cap, which Sibley says disappears at about five weeks. At Robb Field, almost all the waders are gone. No Willets, Marbled
Godwits or peeps. But there were 8 or 9 Long-billed Curlews and a flock of a dozen or so Black Skimmers on the bare sand bank. By the way, we've never seen the river so low. It looked very different from its normal level.
Good birding,
Vic Warren and Laurel Scott
Mission Valley
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports