Rose-breasted Grosbeak Point Loma; Lake Cuyamaca

Weds morning the 2nd, there was an unseasonal male Rose-breasted Grosbeak on outer Point Loma. I’d like to amusingly think that it was the sole fall migrant landbird that I saw there this morning, but the bird was actually a bit worn and had a faded and reduced rosy breast, thus it might instead be a bird that summered somewhere locally but escaped detection. Perhaps the latter is even more likely given the bumper crop of late spring vagrants this year.

Yesterday, a visit to lowering Lake Cuyamaca produced the continuing two summering Common Loons, Prairie Falcon, and a few remaining Purple Martins, but very few shorebirds and we missed the crippled Common Merganser, which has now been missed the last two of three times people have looked. The most interesting new bird we had was a Long-billed Curlew, rare in the mountains and perhaps the first record for the lake.

–Paul Lehman, San Diego