Famosa Slough this morning: Not very birdy, but snowy egrets, GBH, two skimmers, one whimbrel, one yellow legs, one black phoebe, one duck in eclipse plumage, a few peeps, a half dozen black-necked stilts, and what Einar and I assume is a juvenile tricolored heron? It was way over on the east side across from the apartments.
Sally M. Gall
La Jolla
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports
I spent 45 minutes at the Cove in late morning today.
Calm ocean; gray, overcast skies.
About 150 black-vented shearwaters and 1 sooty shearwater.
4 black storm-petrels.
A big surprise at about 11:15 was an adult male white-winged scoter flying south about 100 feet above the water.
A large, all-black duck with white secondaries.
I don’t know of any July records for white-winged scoter in San Diego County [although the Atlas lists 2 rare summer stragglers in June].
And I don’t have access to data from other counties to know if there are summer records for this species elsewhere in California, especially southern California.
Still have not seen a single baleen whale from the Cove these past 4 months.
Stan Walens, San Diego
July 28, 2020; 12:50 pm
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports
Perhaps of local interest, I observed a new arrival adult Yellow-crowned Night Heron this morning at Batiquitos Lagoon on far side from main trail that starts at Gabiano. This is the 3rd out of the last 4 years that this species has been observed at lagoon ( date range 25 JUL to 14 OCT). This location may become a regular stopping/dispersal point after breeding. The species appears to be doing well in northern part of county. Looking in e-bird, a few new sightings have been reported in North County during the last few days.
Tito Gonzalez
Carlsbad, CA
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports
The Solitary Sandpiper continues to forage in the Eastern lake, I had the best view from the south shore. There was also a small group of Phalaropes present but I couldn't determine outright if they were Red-necked or Wilson's.
The single White-faced Ibis is also still present at the west end of the Eastern Lake.
Andrew Newmark
Hillcrest, San Diego CA
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports
Monday morning there is an adult Solitary Sandpiper at the east end of Lindo Lake.
Yesterday, two of the three Gull-billed terns first found by Dan King a few days ago at San Dieguito lagoon in Del Mar continued. This is north of normal for the species. One of the juveniles is banded and it was banded just earlier this summer on South San Diego Bay.
Paul Lehman, San Diego
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports
Hello birders!
Yesterday/Friday morning at the Doane Valley Nature Valley trailhead on Palomar Mountain I had what is believed (by greater minds than mine!) to be a MAGNOLIA WARBLER. Paul Lehman and Sue Smith suggested the ID and Paul ferried my pics around a bit and Guy, Phil and Barb are thinking the same thing.
It is worn, disheveled, molting and tail-less ~ the idea being that it may stick around awhile until it completes its molt. Paul says that a mid-late summer Magnolia Warbler in California is quite exceptional! Apparently there have been a few mid-July reports from San Francisco and Mono Lake.
We spotted it from the SW corner of the Doane Pond parking lot here: 33.341455, -116.901545 It was foraging quite actively in the middle canopies of the willows and the other taller deciduous trees captured in my pics. Rob and I watched it never stray far from there from about 7:30 – 8am while I frantically took 82 terrible photos.
Here's my eBird report with field notes and pics:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S71780927
And here's a link to the same pics, just bigger and save-able:
https://kellevemerry.smugmug.com/Bird-Ramblings-Folder/Birds/Magnolia-Warbler-Doane-Pond-July-2020/
~Eve
~~~~~~~~~~~
Eve Martin
Del Mar, California
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports
The most out-of-place species I've seen the past few days was the adult and juvenile Elegant Terns well inland, where casual, at Santee Lakes on 22 July. And no surprise, the flightless Greater Scaup continues there at Lake #4 as well. A dozen Tricolored Blackbirds continue with the Red-wingeds at Lindo Lake. Arriving JUVENILE shorebirds included a slightly early Greater Yellowlegs on 23 July at J Street and 2 on-time Western Sandpipers on 24 July at the San Diego River mouth. On 23 July, the numbers of one-year-old Common Terns continue to creep upward, with a total of 10 at various sites around south San Diego Bay. Still a few Brown Boobies (and Black Storm-Petrels) most mornings off the Tijuana Estuary. A 24 July seawatch at La Jolla saw perhaps the fewest birds offshore I've perhaps ever seen there, although a very large Blue Whale (large even for that species!) put on an extended show well out. Also a single group of 5 Cassin's Auklets and continuing Black Oystercatcher.
–Paul Lehman, San Diego
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports
Between 6:45 and 6:50 a.m. this morning an immature Masked or Nazca Booby flew South past La Jolla. In case anyone reads this while standing in imperial Beach… The bird was especially good-sized and the bill looked dull greeny yellow, so it certainly was not an obvious Nazca, but it may be too young to identify with any certainty. A couple ashy storm-petrels continue, otherwise very very few birds.
Paul Lehman, San Diego
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports
Monday morning the 20th, there was a Baird's Sandpiper along the east side of the salt works impoundment at the end of 13th Street, but it then flew farther north with some Westerns to a lowered pond that is far too distant to see. Given the distance and lighting, I am not 100% positive of the bird's age, but it did seem fairly buffy, suggesting it was a juvenile. There is only one earlier fall record in the county (?), of an adult about a week earlier than this back in the 1980s. So, if an adult, it's rare, and if a juvenile then it's record early here (ties the early arrival date for a juvenile up in Santa Barbara County, for example). There have been a number of early-arriving juvenile shorebirds this year along the Pacific Coast, with juv. Semipalmated Sandpipers appearing already on 12 July in southeast Alaska and around Vancouver BC, and then good numbers at the latter site on the 17th, when also turning up early in WA, OR, and Sonoma Co. CA.
Also today was the first juvenile California Gull of the season locally, also at the slat works, and the Surfbird continues at J Street. Yesterday, yet another southbound Common Murre flew past La Jolla.
–Paul Lehman, San Diego
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports