Monthly Archives: June 2024

After reappearing a few minutes ago, the Eastern Wood Pewee was in view only for less than 5 minutes, called once or twice, and appears to have gone back down the hill, so obviously it’s being a pain now. But at least it’s still around. And the Alder type flycatcher has been endorsed as such based on photos by 4 or 5 very experienced birders from out of town , with the caveat, of course, that we really would like to hear it call. 

After being gone almost 4 and 1/2 hours, the Eastern wood Peewee is back in the same area. It frequented this morning along the Southeast side of the southeast corner of the cemetery 

The Eastern wood Pewee has not been seen since 10:00 a.m. and is still missing as of 2:00 p.m. But for the past hour or more, there’s been an empidonax in the myoporum along the South fence at the southeast corner that shows many characters of alder flycatcher. Unfortunately, it has yet to vocalize to help separate it from a Willow. But as I dictate this message, the bird has flown West across Catalina boulevard to the first ficus tree on the west side. Where it  will be a pain in the butt….. Photos and discussion to follow later in the day or tonight. 

The Peewee has been Mia since exactly 10:00 a.m., so 38 minutes at this point. It seemed to drop off behind the fence down the hill but has not returned. Will stay here for quite a while longer and keep trying. 

As of 9:45 a.m. The Eastern Wood Pewee is still present in the Southeast corner of fort Rosecrans cemetery, spending almost all its time working back and forth on the fence line along the east edge of the Southeast corner. It only occasionally is calling. Visually it looks very much like a Western except that virtually the entire lower mandible is a dirty yellow and arguably the upperparts are slightly more tinged olivey and the tertial edges might be a little brighter. 

Nicole and kris have recorded what sounds like a good Eastern wood Peewee at the southeast corner of fort Rosecrans cemetery on Wednesday morning. 

I’ll add what I know about the Naval Base Point Loma Double-crested Cormorant colony. As part of an ongoing project, I’ve been surveying the Smugglers Cove area on NBPL since 2021. While not part of that project, I counted 2 DCCO nests in 2021, and a max of 14 this year—all near Sylvester Rd. I’m not certain when they first started nesting there, but they have been there since at least 2021; I didn’t see any nests there in 2019 or 2020 (but could have easily missed them if present in low numbers).  There is also one yellow-crowned night heron nests in the Ficus tress near Smuggler’s Cove, amongst the black-crowned NH.  I suspect there are more in the trees near the Naval housing. No reddish egrets though.

Cheers,
Brandon Stidum
San Diego