TWO Solitary Sandpipers at Whelan, miscellanea

Monday morning I joined Sally Veach to see her Northern Parula in Oceanside, and after that we went over to the entrance channel along the road into Whelan Lake just before 9AM to see the (singular) returning, wintering Solitary Sandpiper. Fairly quickly I was shocked to see TWO Solitary Sandpipers in view at once. Occasionally they were very close together, but they usually were farther apart, and they did engage a couple times in some slight territorial disputes–so they are not actually the best of friends. Not sure how many previous times there have been multiple Solitaries at the same spot in WINTER in California. One can fairly easily tell the two birds apart by the pattern of pale spotting to the wing coverts, scapulars, and tertials. I have posted photos of both birds showing these differences in my ebird list:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S212785673

I believe it is my “Bird 1” that is the original bird, with the more even pattern of spotting across the rear wing coverts, etc.  If possible, observers should note in the future which bird they see, if they only see one; and those with photos from earlier this winter may wish to look them over and see if the new “Bird 2” was actually documented earlier in the season.

In other news, on the 8th there was both the continuing adult Short-billed Gull and a new immature Short-billed at the San Diego River channel from Robb Field, a “Gray-headed” Junco was with a small flock of “Oregons” at the north end of PLNU, next to the alumni building, and an adult male Summer Tanager and a Red-breasted Sapsucker were along Silvergate between Charles and Warner. On the 9th, there were 3 W. Cattle-Egrets riding on the backs of cows along Rangeland Road, along with the usual raptors, etc.

Paul Lehman, San Diego