miscellanea, and the ibis

Today, July 8th, there's a Brant near the upper end of Bataquitos Lagoon, the only individual I've seen in the county this summer. Yesterday, the 7th, I finally saw a couple Pink-footed Shearwaters from shore at La Jolla, my first there this summer, and there was an hour-long northward surge of 6000 Black-vented Shearwaters. Very few storm-petrels. And at the San Diego River mouth there was a one-year-old Common Tern and the continuing Reddish Egret.

Hopefully the Glossy Ibis will cooperate this coming Saturday for the group-excursion at Konyn Dairy–and thanks again to Frank Konyn and the Loefke brothers for organizing yet another event. But it is now the second week of July, and the heronry at the Safari Park is wrapping up soon, so the ibis could conceivably have started wandering about elsewhere by now–but hopefully not. Folks have tried twice during the past 10 days to see the bird from the public edge of Old Milky Way at the east end of the dairy (see posting on 23 June for details) but without success. On 23 June, from that site, we watched the ibis depart and fly back toward the Safari Park at 7:50AM, and during the second group-visit, on 27 June, the bird disappeared at around 8:30 AM. So, clearly being in the dairy area first thing in the morning seems advisable.

And last but not least, Andrew Newmark has sent us a couple photos of an ibis taken at the Safari Park back on 24 March 2018 which might be a hybrid. More details soon as we continue to mull it over.

–Paul Lehman, San Diego
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports