Monthly Archives: September 2020

Night Birding 09/29/20

Good day,

Last night I was showing some friends Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and the moon with my spotting scope. While looking at the moon, I was seeing many birds fly across the bright almost full moon. It reminded me of a post I saw last year about watching the face of the moon to see how strong the migration is. I couldn’t make out any specific species, but this is just a reminder of how wonderfully fun it is to watch birds at night. I believe I also recall a post of someone listening at night with recordings. Anyways, good birding to you!

 Anthony “TooFly” Fife
 East county mountains
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports

Re: Local taxidermists?

Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports

Local taxidermists?

Hello,
I don't know what the rules are for posts, so excuse me if this is not allowed..

I have a dead Song Sparrow in excellent condition. It is just beautiful. I was wondering if there are any local taxidermists who might want it? If you know anyone I can contact, please pass the information along.

In an unrelated note, no White-crowned Sparrows yet in my yard in NE Oceanside.   The last 3 years they have shown up here in the last few days of September.  Curious if anyone has seen any! :)

Thanks,
Jennifer Schauble 
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports

flock of possibly faux's swifts over Guajome Lake this morning

I know the flock wasn’t swallows or white-throated swifts, they were uniformly brown, quick wing beats, pointed wings, stubby bodies, short tails, together a group of 14 coming in from the north, hitting the water on the lake and then continuing south. Just putting this out there because I couldn’t positively identify them, a shame. Hoping someone else sees them today.

Maryanne Bache
Encinitas, CA
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports

Canada Warbler and misc.

At 1:00 to 1;15 p.m. the Canada Warbler continues in La Jolla colony HOA Park in UTC, and it's between stations 17 and 16, as in exercise stations, but what is interesting is that it's feeding quite high up in several sycamore trees that are between those two stations rather than low down in it's more typical beloved thick bushes.

In other news on Wednesday, down in the Tijuana River valley there was a Vesper Sparrow at the community gardens where also one continuing yellow-headed blackbird and five continuing black chinned hummingbirds. Still an okay number of migrants around, although it seems down a bit from Monday.

Paul Lehman, San Diego

Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports

Re: La Jolla Cove, Sep 30

Stan: What is your reference for males and females wintering in different oceans? The only reference I can find indicates that both males and females winter in the Humboldt current off Peru, with a few individuals wintering in the Atlantic off of Africa. For one mated pair, the male wintered in the Atlantic while the female wintered in the Pacific, but that is for a single pair. You can’t generalize that finding to all Sabine’s Gulls.

Bruce
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports

Yellow-green vireo 9/30/20

To clarify the YELLOW-GREEN VIREO location at Doyle Park. When I asked Bridget to post the report(thanks Bridget) I didn’t know there is a half-court basketball court near the children’s play equipment. There are fenced in basketball courts in the northwest corner of the park. The bird was first seen in the small pepper tree just west of the courts(it seems to like pepper trees a lot). It then flew to the large ficus at the corner of the courts and foraged.
I returned 30 minutes later and couldn’t find it at that location.

Jim Roberts
University City
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports

La Jolla Cove, Sep 30

Spent 90 minutes at the Cove this morning with Tom Simpson
It was relatively quiet, with balmy zephyrs from the SSE pushing the birds way offshore for the most part.
By 9:15, the heat and the haze and a dire need for coffee, and another post-debate valium, sent us home.

About 50 black-vented shearwaters
1–2 parasitic jaegers
4 red phalaropes
1 fly-by black oystercatcher
FOS ring-billed gull, adult
2 juvenile Sabine’s gulls [since, if I have this correct, male and female Sabine’s gulls sexually separate to different wintering grounds, with females in the Pacific Ocean and males in the Atlantic, I assume these birds were likely females, but that’s just a surmise]

a few days ago, I saw a basic-plumaged common loon flying north; I think Paul L. reported one a few days earlier than that

Stan Walens, San Diego
Sept 30, 2020; 10:05 a.m.
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports

Yellow-green Vireo back at Doyle Community Park

Jim Roberts just asked me to post that he just had the Yellow-green Vireo at Doyle Community Park, UTC, in pepper trees by the basketball courts. The Dickcissel also continues, joined by a Vesper Sparrow today.

Bridget Spencer
La Jolla
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports

G-T towhee, no-show

I checked out the area of the SDSU campus immediately south of Hardy Tower this morning where Kevin Burns found the G-T Towhee yesterday afternoon. No sign of the towhee, but with virtually no human beings on the campus, the area was surprisingly birdy (but nothing unusual). In about 15 minutes I had 4 sp. of warblers (O-C, Y-R, Wilsons, and B-TGray) and at least 2 Allen’s hummers, plus all the usual suspects.
While teaching here, long before the word “Covid” existed, I sometimes joked that college campuses would be marvelous places if it weren’t for all the faculty and students wandering around. Well, a microscopic bug has accomplished that. Sadly, it’s not funny.
Phil Pryde
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports