bizarre leucistic Red-winged Blackbird, continuing Black Terns

On Sunday the 23rd, the three juvenile black Terns are present for Day #3 at Sweetwater Reservoir, as usual well out over the lake feeding above a feeding group of grebes. At the upper end of Lower Otay Lake, uncommon “inland” shorebirds included 18 juvenile Short-billed Dowitchers, and continuing Marbled Godwit and Semipalmated Plovers.

Also this morning, I saw a really cool-looking  leucistic female-type Red-winged Blackbird along the south side of the TRV Community Gardens, in the Red-winged flock that’s always in that area during late summer and fall. The bird has an entirely white head sharply cut off from the dark, typical body, and it has a bunch of white in the wings. In flight, this bird could fool birders into thinking they are seeing a male Yellow-headed Blackbird, or who knows what. A photo of the bird is at:

–Paul Lehman, San Diego