Palm Warbler, Bullock's Oriole, eBird hotspot use, and any Great Horned Owls?

Yesterday, 6 December, along the north fence line of the archery range at Morley Field was a young male Bullock's Oriole (scarce this winter, but I see a few, including a male I'd forgotten about on NASNI, have been reported recently in the San Diego count circle), a flock of 10 Chipping Sparrows, and a junco that may be an intergrade between "Gray-headed" and "Oregon" Juncos (or…?).

A reminder/plea to use recommended eBird hotspots whenever possible and appropriate. In the case of the Rusty Blackbird at Robb Field in Ocean Beach, we hope folks will use 'San Diego River–tidal mudflats' and not create a new pin for their location (repeated behavior by multiple users creates a scatter of pins, some accurate some not). Given that many people then wander across the street to look at the river, keeping all the data under the existing hotspot is best. Some argue that, well, no, the bird is not in the river, but if you create a personal location, and submit a traveling count, I'd argue that NONE of the birds are where you've plotted them (which may be where the bird was, where you parked, where you first saw a crowd of people, etc.). In case where a novel location is discovered (in this case, the PetCo parking lot), it's fine to create a new location, but realize a 'stakeout' hotspot may be created and used to aggregate all of the data from that location.

Finally, with the CBC coming up on the 14th, does anyone know of a reliable place for Great Horned Owl in the circle? The circle runs basically from Balboa Park to Dairy Mart, and the tip of Point Loma to Sweetwater Reservoir. The known birds at places like Wing St. Canyon, Tecolote Canyon, etc., are unfortunately outside the circle. Please reply off-line if you have any leads.

Justyn Stahl

North Park