La Jolla new T. Solitaire and Summer T.; a thought on residential rarities

Weds. morning, a check of some nicer neighborhoods in La Jolla that rarely receive attention produced a new Townsend’s Solitaire in the Muirlands neighborhood and a new Summer Tanager in the pink-flowered eucs in the small park just north of the United Methodist Church in southern La Jolla. Another day, another new Summer Tanager!

The neighborhood around Cerrissa Street and Cerrissa Court in Nestor/Palm City is nothing special for birds, although the creek there has produced, over the past 15 years, a few wintering Yellow Warblers, a Nashville, and even a Swamp Sparrow. The Townsend’s Solitaire continues in the fruiting trees along Cerrissa Court, just over the little bridge, as of yesterday, and that bird’s presence since mid-Dec, plus the fact that it’s inside my San Diego CBC area means that it has gotten several visits from me and others this winter. But despite those ca. 6 total visits between early Dec and early Feb, a few days ago Hanna Zhao photo’d a new adult male Orchard Oriole there, and yesterday a new adult male Summer Tanager was found there by Patton and Copper. So this sort of begs the question as to what countless number of other goodies are floating around the parks and residential neighborhoods of San Diego County and elsewhere in coastal California that are never seen even at places that receive multiple visits during the season??!!

–Paul Lehman, San Diego