Warbler miscellanea, and a word about the Little Stint

Warbler miscellanea, and a word about the Little Stint
By – 12:44 pm
The Villa La Jolla Park Black-throated Blue warbler continues today, Wednesday, there was a Blackpoll warbler in some tipus in a business courtyard in UTC where access might be an issue, and a Black and white warbler is back for its second winter to the Stonecrest neighborhood off Aero Drive.A word about the salt works Little Stint. That bird often runs hot and cold during its fall and winter stay, being reliably seen on a daily basis for a week or two and then being essentially impossible to find for a few weeks and then becoming findable again, always on its favorite island at the end of 10th. This year the bird was found back in July and then not seen at all again for 6 weeks but then became reliable for one or two weeks around mid September, but now in October it’s basically not being seen again. However, a fair number of out of town birders reported it both immediately before and after the October 1st pelagic trip when they were visiting town, and a fair number of such records are often unreliable. Some descriptions sound okay, whereas some descriptions seem to rely too heavily on the bird chasing other peep, which of course the bird is notorious for doing but of course some Westerns will chase other Westerns as well, and then they mention that the bird was paler gray above than the nearby Westerns, but this is not correct for the Little Stint. It is not paler above. And sometimes there’s a good description of the bird but then a photo is included, although of course always distant and not diagnostic, but often shows something that doesn’t look quite right for the stint. Anyway, the bottom line is that this bird is reported substantially more often than is likely correct, and observers are encouraged to be very careful.Paul Lehman, San DiegoSent from the all new AOL app for Android