spring morning-flight in March, miscellanea

spring morning-flight in March, miscellanea
By – 9:30 am
On Tuesday early morning, given the light N wind, I thought I’d spend 90 minutes on Mount Soledad in La Jolla to see what an early March morning-flight might be like. The result: ONE migrant. At least it was a mildly interesting high-flying northbound Cassin’s Kingbird, which establishes a baseline “early arrival date” for a true migrant of that species. In much of the county, determining the status of any migrant Cassin’s Kingbird is virtually impossible due to the presence of many permanent resident birds. Certainly the most reliable time to witness a good morning flight there in general is between around the second week of April and the third week of May. In any case, it is all VERY weather dependent, as you really want there to be overnight and/or dawn wind flow from between and SE and N, with between E and NE being the best. As usual, there is a cooperative flock of Golden-crowned Sparrows in the summit area of Mount Soledad.Yesterday, the cooperative, returning, wintering Hammond’s Flycatcher at Liberty Station continued, and there was a new Western Tanager in eastern Point Loma, bringing the county winter’s total to a healthy 69 individuals.–Paul Lehman, San Diego