Painted Bunting, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Bank Swallow

After perhaps getting excited reading about this title, the unfortunate reality is that the Painted Bunting and Chestnut sided Warbler I’ve seen Saturday morning are both on very very private property and I can’t open it up. The bunting was a green one and would be very difficult to refind anyway. Sorry about this situation, and I mention them here only to say that they were present and also I had an uptick in Western migrants this morning as well. I also hear that there was a Blackburnian Warbler seen by others on Point Loma. So we finally have perhaps our first morning locally that seems like true fall for rarities! The Bank Swallow this morning was present first thing at the fisherman’s parking lot at the bottom end of Sweetwater Reservoir right when they opened it up at 6:40 or 6:45, and it was gone along with the other swallows already by 7:05, which often happens as they dissipate for the day. The official opening time is 7:00 a.m., but they typically do open it up to 20 minutes early recently. The bird was with a flock of about 40 Barn, one Rough-winged, one Tree, and three Cliff. Lastly, in the Tijuana River Valley in an area with a huge patch of blooming sunflower plants, there was a single concentration of 85 American Goldfinches, which might be a near record count.