Tennessee & Hermit Warblers, White-throated Sparrow, Lewis’s Woodpecker, Black Oystercatcher glut

By – 2:08 pm
On Thursday the 16th, there’s a Tennessee Warbler in a line of large, blooming, pink-flowered eucalyptus in Nestor bordering an apartment complex where the 905 freeway becomes Tocayo Avenue. Not exactly aesthetic heaven. Also in Nestor, a rather dull White-throated Sparrow has returned for its third winter along Leon Avenue. At Nestor Park, the sole bird of any interest I can find recently is a multi-year returning male Black-throated Gray Warbler. Whoopie. A far cry from the past several years when that park has hosted multiple winter rarities annually. And in eastern Chula Vista, the Hermit Warbler first found by D. Povey on 2 Dec continues today at Heritage Park, in the crescent of pines around the main, corrugated-metal building. Also the usual Chipping & Lark Sparrows there. One Golden-crowned Sparrow in the TRV community gardens. And in other recent miscellanea, yesterday there were 2 Bullock’s Orioles and a Western Tanager just north of Balboa Park (in canyon west of Richmond X Cypress). And on both the 14th and 15th, there were TEN Black Oystercatchers, all together, at La Jolla Cove, which ties the all-time high count of a single flock in the county (tied the high at Ballast Point, San Diego Bay, in fall 2009).It turns out the Lewis’s Woodpecker just recently reported at Mission Trails Regional Park has actually been present since at least 31 October, first reported by a Wendy Esterly via iNaturalist.–Paul Lehman, San Diego