continuing rarities Clairemont-Bay Park

This morning (2-16-20), Elizabeth Copper, Dennis Parker, four-legged "Radar", and I birded a couple parks where rarities had been previously reported.  From 7:30 to 8:40, the female hepatic tanager was visible along with several western bluebirds in the pines & eucalyptus immediately south of the SSE edge of the parking lot at North Clairemont Community Park.  By just before 8 am, they disappeared and could not be refound despite four of us searching throughout the area for the next two hours.  The young male yellow-bellied sapsucker did not make an appearance until 9:40 when it flew in to eucalyptus and pines along the SSE edge of the east arm of the park (the opposite end of the park from previous reports).  Around 10 am it flew off to the NE and into the residential area NE of the intersection of Genesee and Bannock.  The white-throated sparrow was not refound; sparrow numbers were low and none stayed in any one place for any length of time, but seemed to regularly cycle through along the SSE edge of the park, the canyon to the south, and the fenced backyards off Genessee to the SE.  A male slate-colored junco and at least two chipping sparrows were seen among the white-crowns and Oregon juncos.  A male Bullock's oriole was seen along the SE & south edge of the south arm of the park (E & SE of the ballfield), a second chattering oriole in the area evaded visual ID, and a female was seen near Genessee.
It took several circuits throughout Western Hills Park off Kane St in Bay Park before the red-breasted sapsucker made an appearance in eucalyptus on the slope on the NNE edge of the lawn north of the basketball courts.
Robert Patton
San Diego, CA
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports