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Monthly Archives: May 2026

Hooded Warbler Pt Loma

11:33 am

I just got a brief glimpse of a female Hooded Warbler foraging on the ground in the front yard of 3646 Rosecroft Lane. This was at 11:20 am.

Brennan Mulrooney

—
Brennan Mulrooney
Santee, CA

Bank Swallow at Lower Otay

9:04 am

Sunday morning in the cool overcast there’s a Bank Swallow working the very east end of Lower Otay Lake, where the Ruff was last fall, with plenty of Cliff Swallows and five or six Trees and a couple Barns, one of which is leucistic with an entirely white head and some white patches in the wings. Also five Bonapartes Gulls on the lake. 

Paul Lehman, San Diego 

San Diego pelagic 23 May: South Polar Skua, 4 Cocos, 8 Murres, Ashies, Sabine’s

4:53 am

The San Diego pelagic trip on 23 May aboard “Legacy” out of Mission Bay and sponsored by Buena Vista Audubon Society traveled out to the 9-Mile and 30-Mile Banks region under pleasant weather conditions. Highlights of the trip included a well-seen South Polar Skua, a total of 4 Cocos Boobies, 8 getting-late Common Murres, several Ashy Storm-Petrels and Sabine’s Gulls, and a Blue Whale. Totals for the day once we were over a mile offshore were as follows:
Surf Scoter  1  (northbound)
Pomarine Jaeger  1
jaeger sp.  1
South Polar Skua  1  (30-Mile Bank)
Common Murre  8  (good count for late season; mostly around 6 mi off Mission Bay)
Scripps’s Murrelet  19
Cassin’s Auklet  22
Sabine’s Gull  5
Heermann’s Gull  4
Western Gull  150
Elegant Tern  60
Pacific Loon  11  (northbound)
Ashy Storm-Petrel  3
Black Storm-Petrel  800
Sooty Shearwater  1200
Pink-footed Shearwater  50
Black-vented Shearwater  8
Cocos Booby  4
Brandt’s Cormorant  3
Brown Pelican  40
Blue Whale  1
For information on our 2026 schedule of future pelagic trips on nine dates between early June and mid-October, see sandiegopelagics.com
–Paul Lehman, Bruce Rideout, Dan Jehl, Matt Sadowski, Bridget Spencer,  San Diego

Tipu birds

5:26 am

Tipu trees, as many people know, can be quite attractive to a variety of insectivores, including quite a few vagrant species, typically during the months of October to January or February. Rarely are they attractive in spring. This year, however, appears to be an exception, and there are quite a few (though not all) tipu clumps around the county supporting a fair number of migrants and a few vagrants over the past week or two. The rarities include several Tennessee Warblers in just the past few days, plus at least one Parula. The dominant regular migrants frequenting tipus lately have been Warbling Vireo and Yellow and Wilson’s Warblers. Certainly it is worth regularly checking your favorite patches over the next couple weeks while there is still migration and we’re in the midst of vagrant season.

Paul Lehman, San Diego 

Black Swift over Point Loma, ~7:30AM

8:06 am

     Long, slim, pointed wings;
short tail; swift size & shape body. Appeared all dark but
under the clouds, probably most birds would. Circling lazily
high but under heavy cloud cover, occasionally flapping a
little. I was at first uncertain because the wings were pretty
much straight out, and I expected them to curve back, but I’ve
now found lot of photos showing them fly with wings fairly
straight. We were on Silvergate Ave; the bird was east of the
end of Warner St.

======================
Sara Baase Mayers
Point Loma (San Diego)
======================

Black Swift over Point Loma, ~7:30AM

8:06 am

     Long, slim, pointed wings;
short tail; swift size & shape body. Appeared all dark but
under the clouds, probably most birds would. Circling lazily
high but under heavy cloud cover, occasionally flapping a
little. I was at first uncertain because the wings were pretty
much straight out, and I expected them to curve back, but I’ve
now found lot of photos showing them fly with wings fairly
straight. We were on Silvergate Ave; the bird was east of the
end of Warner St.

======================
Sara Baase Mayers
Point Loma (San Diego)
======================

Hotspots for eBird bar charts May 22 – 30

8:53 pm

Greetings,
All but two hotspots on the outskirts of the county from the main list were covered in the past week – well done, team!
Hotspots nearing bar chart completion:

Legoland California – 5
San Luis Rey River–Foussat to Douglas – 6
Santa Ysabel Mission – 6
Fleet Street Area (Carlsbad) – 7
Henshaw Scenic Vista – 8
Appleton Preserve, Fallbrook, CA – 12
Konyn Dairy (private property) – 12
Barrel Springs – 13
Mt. Hope Cemetery – 13
Valley Middle School Trail – 13

Hotspots with 3+ week bar chart gaps:

Crest Drive (Encinitas)
Leon Avenue & Berry Park
Camp Pendleton–Macs Road Ponds (restricted access)
El Camino Country Club Pond — Vista Way
Glen Park (Cardiff)
Self-Realization Fellowship (Encinitas)
Heritage Park (Chula Vista)
Cuyamaca Rancho SP–Cold Stream Trail
Sunnyslope Park
Borrego Springs–NW residential
4S Ranch Heritage Park
Holiday Park
stakeout Eastern Phoebe, City Heights (2020–24)
W 16th St at Cleveland Ave
Chase Field
Anza-Borrego Desert SP–Big Spring
Anza-Borrego Desert SP–Bill Kenyon Overlook Trail
Otay Valley Regional Park–Heart Pond Trails
San Felipe Valley Wildlife Area–south
stakeout Abert’s Towhees, San Diego Co. (2024–2026)

Cheers,

—
Ruslan Balagansky
San Diego (Mira Mesa), CA

Introducing BLOCKBOARD: Progress Dashboard for California Bird Atlas

4:46 pm

Blockboard, Big Weekend, and the next CBA Town Hall. See message from Van, below.
Justyn Stahl
North Park 

———- Forwarded message ———
From: Van Pierszalowski via groups.io <van=californiabirdatlas.org@groups.io>
Date: Wed, May 20, 2026 at 2:48 PM
Subject: [CALBIRDS] Introducing BLOCKBOARD: Progress Dashboard for California Bird Atlas
To: <CALBIRDS@groups.io>
Hi all,
 
Blockboard:
We are excited to announce the launch of Blockboard, the new progress dashboard for California Bird Atlas (CBA). Blockboard is designed to help atlasers quickly identify which species still need breeding confirmations within each Atlas block. To explore Blockboard, click HERE.
 
For a quick introduction, check out this short video from Sam Safran, CBA’s Science Director and the creator of Blockboard. The dashboard will update daily (or close to it) as new Atlas data comes in.
 
CBA Big Weekend:
We’re also getting closer to the first annual CBA Big Weekend (June 4–7, 2026). More than 30 field trips and community events are already planned across the state. You can read more about Big Weekend, browse events, and register your own event HERE.
 
CBA Town Hall:
The 3rd CBA Town Hall will be held via Zoom on May 27 at 7:00 PM PT. We will preview Big Weekend, share updates from the first year of the Atlas, and answer questions from the community.
Register: HERE
Submit Questions: HERE
 
If you haven’t yet joined the California Bird Atlas eBird project, do so here.
 
Thank you to all 4,173 contributors who have already submitted 108,933 Atlas checklists (!) from 6,526 Atlas blocks. We are so grateful for the California birding community’s engagement on this multi-year project. 
Happy Birding,
Van Pierszalowski
Los Angeles, CA
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