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Monthly Archives: February 2025

Phainopepla at Switzer Canyon

5:52 pm

I was happy to find a female Phainopepla at the west end of Switzer Canyon this afternoon. Switzer is the boundary between North and South Park in San Diego, and I have never seen Phainopeplas here, only in Juniper Canyon to the east.

Chris McCreedy
North Park

Chris McCreedy

Southwest Riparian Bird Recovery Coordinator

American
Bird Conservancy | cmccreedy@…

Research Associate

Point
Blue Conservation Science | cmccreedy-RA@…

415.717.7426

Hot Spots for the Week Starting tomorrow, Sat. Mar 1 to Fri. Mar. 7

11:13 am

Greetings

Finishing up another great week, at this point 27 of the identified 30 Hot Spots were visited and checklists submitted.  Here’s this week’s list along with a link to a location map. One location, Hellers Bend Preserve only needs a checklist this week, to have at least one checklist for each week of the year.
Batiquitos Lagoon–Aviara Parking
Batiquitos Lagoon–Cholla Point
Buena Vista Lagoon–Vista Way pullout
Carroll Creek–west (Sorrento Valley Rd. business parks)
Crestridge Ecological Reserve–Horsemill Rd. access
Cuyamaca Rancho SP–Cuyamaca Peak
Cuyamaca Rancho SP–Green Valley Campground
Fletcher Cove Beach Park
Hellers Bend Preserve – 1
Juniper Canyon
La Jolla Farms Rd. tipus
Laguna Mtns.–Pine Creek Rd. near S1
Laguna Mtns.–Upper Kitchen Creek Rd.
Legoland California
Lower Otay Reservoir–North Point & east arm pullouts
Manzanita Canyon
Mission Heights Park
NASNI–O St. path, golf course, ponds (restricted access)
Otay Mesa–Brown Field
Palomar Mtn.–Observatory Campground
Palomar Mtn.–Thunder Spring-Upper Doane Valley Loop
Questhaven Road Nature Trail
Rancho La Costa Preserve–Denk Mountain and Copper Canyon
Raptor Ridge Trail
San Luis Rey River–Benet to Foussat
San Onofre SB
Solana Highlands Park
South Lake Park
Walker Preserve Trail–Riverford Rd to Channel Rd
Ward Canyon Neighborhood Park

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1NgQFnmxFWnuszTfbQA9kLDjadCO4DIo&usp=sharing

Let me know if you have any comments or questions.

John Bruin
Bay Park 

Williamson’s Sapsucker and bonus Red-breasted Sapsucker at Paso Picacho Campground

11:53 am

As of yesterday (Tuesday 25 February), the male WILLIAMSON’S SAPSUCKER (WISA) reported by Gjon Hazard on 2 February and again on 24 February by Nancy Christensen, continues in the Paso Pichacho campground.  
The WISA was observed for a total of about 10 minutes over four hours, once in flight, and once for perhaps a few tens of seconds feeding at sap wells at a tree near the (newer) restrooms.  The best looks we (I had been joined by Steve from Borrrego Springs by then) had of the WISA were around 4 pm from the back of campsite 74, where we had it under observation for about 10 minutes as it methodically visited multiple sap wells high in one of the trees to the right (when standing at the back of the site and looking out on the old burned area).
A male RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER (RBSA) was also observed and photographed in the area near the hiking trailhead signposts (for reference, this would be within the larger trees downhill to the right of campsite 74.)
For photos and additional details, see eBird checklist at https://ebird.org/checklist/S215564171.
Bird early and bird often,
Carl Ebeling
South Mission Hills

Harry Griffen Brewer’s Sparrow and sapsuckers

9:17 am

At Harry Griffen Regional Park on Wednesday morning right after opening time at 7:00 a.m. there ‘s a Brewer’s Sparrow mixed in with one of the groups of Chipping sparrows that frequents the park. Today, It was in the group of eight chippies that were along the immediate Northwest edge of the dog run. There are, however, multiple other subgroups of Chippies scattered around the park totaling over 20 individuals, possibly even more than that.

There’s a continuing Red-breasted sapsucker and a Red-naped sapsucker as well. The Red naped this morning spent well over an hour on exactly the same 2 feet of limb that’s heavily riddled with sapsucker Wells so this may well be its favorite spot to hang out. Go to the Northeast corner parking lot toward the far end, and stare toward the dog run and between you and the dog run is a ditch that’s lined with several eucalyptus trees. Two or three of the trees look rather stressed and two are heavily heavily heavily riddled with sapsucker Wells. The right hand of the two trees with the wells is the larger one That’s slightly broader and has more leaves remaining. Go up that tree halfway on the left hand of the three trunks, And where that trunk splits and the left hand fork then goes diagonally and then horizontally to the left, right at that point where it bends horizontally is where the bird is hanging out. 
Paul Lehman, San Diego 

Oystercatcher situation, miscellaneous low-end stuff

10:10 am

People have been seeing a couple black-and-white oystercatchers at La Jolla off and on for a long time and I just saw one of the birds a few minutes ago, Tuesday, and it looks to be one of the borderline birds we’ve been seeing the last year or two that may well be just barely an acceptable American using the Jehl Scale. There’s a little bit of dark stippling on the upper breast, the white wing stripe goes out to the base of the primaries, the axillars are clean white, the flanks are clean white, and the rump is about 50-50 dark and light. The scale would probably rate it a borderline 30 points give or take 1 point– which is absolutely right on the border. Folks interested in seeing a possible countable American, might go to the usual stretch in La Jolla from seawatch down the coast the next mile or so and look for the bird and try to get a long series of photographs. Black Oystercatchers of course continue here in small numbers. And there is a pair that we’ve seen copulating on multiple occasions, so maybe they’ll finally try to nest this year somewhere locally.

In other, minor news the last few days, today I had a total of six Western tanagers and two Bullocks Orioles in southern residential La Jolla, yesterday there was a Wilson’s warbler in Kearny Mesa and two Black-throated gray warblers at Serra Mesa, another Black-throated gray at SDSU, there’s a continuing Pin-tailed whydah next to Montgomery Field, and an American goldfinch a couple days ago in the Encanto neighborhood southwest of SDSU is actually pretty unusual for that whole part of the city. American Goldfinches are a lot more local in distribution than a lot of people think.
Paul Lehman, San Diego 

Williamson’s Sapsucker at Paso Picacho Campground

3:30 pm

The male sapsucker reported by Gjon Hazard on Feb 2 continued today in the campground. He reported it in spaces 59 and 79 (almost adjacent spots). I sat at the table in 59 and after about a half hour, heard the bird drumming. I don’t think I had ever heard one drum in San Diego county before, but recognized it from the Big Bear area. He drummed from the dead top of a tree in space 60. He returned to the area 3 times and drummed a few times. Amazingly, I managed to not get photos at all.

While waiting for the sapsucker to reappear, two Mountain Quails started calling back and forth from the nearby chaparral.

FOS Hooded Oriole! , new dull Baltimore Oriole

10:52 am

I thought I’d get in on the ground floor and report the first (early)-arriving fresh adult male Hooded Oriole this morning, February 22nd. In La Jolla. This actually no longer is very early, as this species now routinely seems to start showing up the last week of February, whereas over a decade or so ago the typical first birds showed up during the first week in March. These first arrivals are invariably fresh adult males. Photo at https://ebird.org/checklist/S214871650 . Not to be confused with young male and female looking birds that wintered locally.
Also this morning I had a new, DULL female Baltimore Oriole in La Jolla Shores. Along Avenida de la Playa (#2320) just a couple houses east of La Jolla Shores Drive there are several obvious blooming pink-flowered eucalyptus trees along the front sidewalk. The right-hand tree is white-flowered, and when I had the bird it was feeding near the top of that tree. For photos, see:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S214872893
–Paul Lehman, San Diego

tropical kingbirds at dairy mart ponds 2-21-25

3:37 pm

Wanted to pass along behavioral observation of a pair of tropical kingbirds courting and copulating this morning just after 9 am at Dairy Mart Ponds and the Dairy Mart Rd edge of the sod farm, venturing to speculate that it’s likely a first for San Diego County.  Rick Grove, Nathan French, Martha Wild and I heard then observed one tropical kingbird and then a second (and later up to three Cassin’s kingbirds) foraging, perching, and interacting along the utility lines, willows, and giant reeds adjacent to the middle and south Dairy Mart ponds.  Amid near-constant twittering vocalizations, the two tropical kingbirds landed on a utility line within inches of each other, flew apart, then repeated a few times, at times touching shoulders.  While still vocalizing, they then proceeded to hop back and forth along the utility line, each with shoulders hunched, wings partially extended and quivering, flicking and flaring tail, then continuing and converging toward each other, and finally copulating.  This may simply be an observation of late season over-wintering pair bond reinforcement, or it may be early courtship and breeding territory assertion as a precursor to possible expansion into Southern California (?).  
 
Other rarities observed elsewhere in the Tijuana River Valley included continuing male Lawrence’s goldfinch at the community gardens (a couple of us thought we caught fleeting glimpse and Merlin app detected call at feeders in N central garden plot near 3 US flags, then we all had good looks of it at feeders in SE garden plot), female vermilian flycatcher on east ballfield fence at east end of Sunset Ave, and two common ground-doves in same general area (flew in from east, landed between concession trailers, then disappeared when dog and walker approached).
 
Rick will be posting results of today’s scouting trip for the upcoming Bird Festival to eBird, possibly including photos from he, Nathan, and/or Martha.
Robert Patton
San Diego, CA
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