Outer Point Migrage

By the second weekend of October, the fall of 2016 had already been a good one...year birds in the right year, county birds in the right counties, acceptable numbers of migrants around, a state nemesis had been vanquished (Northern Gannet), I found a solid Siberian vague runt at my patch (Bar-tailed Godwit), and had a Sibe *MEGA* give good looks (Dusky Warbler)...if I had to quit birding right then for the rest of 2016 it would have been a pretty good year...but why the fuck would I do that? So I tried to bird someplace else besides SF or Point Reyes, but all I had to show for it...literally...was this Ridgway's Rail at Arrowhead Marsh. I'll take it.

The day after was forecast for decent weather, so I predictably went back out to the Outer Point...it's hard not to be there in October. As I rode a bristling caffeine high past Drake's Estero, a wall of fog appeared just west of the RCA patch, so I turned around to bird RCA in hopes that the fog would lift in the meantime. Hermit Warbler and Lark Sparrow were nice birds, and a couple ultra-confiding Hutton's Vireos dropped down to forage beside me.

This young male Anna's Hummingbird was holding down a flowering shrub next to my car, so I gave it a quick but punishing crush.

A couple miles down the road I got stuck in a birder traffic jam, but that worked out well because I may have just blown by the flock of 20 Greater White-fronts that were grazing next to the road. It's a nice bird to run into on the coast, as most of the big migrant flocks are just flyovers and don't put down too often.

Much of birding the Outer Point, probably 40%, consists of looking at White-crowned Sparrows and hoping that they are not White-crowned Sparrows. This was just a White-crowned Sparrow, so I crushed it and tried to move on with my life. Crush, move on, crush, get on with it...such is the rhythm of birding some days.

I walked over to one of my favorite micro-spots, where I am guaranteed to see nothing but White-crowned Sparrows, but for once there was something I didn't expect at the Zonotrichia stronghold. Here is a Western Bluebird-Tropical Kingbird combo for Caroline, Frank, and Jen. Dan, this would be for you too, but I know how much you hate combos.

Ah, a nice refreshing Mexican rarity. This was a good sign, but there turned out to be little else at the lighthouse (a few getting-late Violet-green Swallows) and Fish Docks was dead.

Using some of the Global Birder Ranking System's data collection tools (I have access to those, being #7 in the U.S.), it is obvious that there has been a statistically significant uptick in the last couple years of West Coast birders thinking they might have a Couch's Kingbird, not a Tropical. While Constant Vigilance is always good, birders should not let themselves get too worked up...Tropical Kingbirds are an expected fall migrant, albeit not a common one. There is no reason to suspect Couch's unless the bird really sounds or looks like one.

Fun with Tropical Kingbird cropping.

The Fish Docks are haunted by the ghosts of many Vague Runts that have dropped in over the years seeking food and shelter. On this day, migrants were few and rarities only lurked through the cypresses in spirit. A Say's Phoebe ominously watched over the birders making the rounds.

My traditionally horrible luck at Nunes was reversed when some other birders got me on this Black-and-white Warbler. Though Black-and-whites are a low-level rarity in much of the state, on Point Reyes they are seen much less frequently than other "eastern" warblers like Blackpoll, Chestnut-sided, Palm, etc. Considering this was a county bird and a far better looking bird than most other fall migrants, I had a nice mellow birdbuzz going after spending time with this bird.

The real avian highlight of the day though was the Tree Swallows. Yep, I'm going with Tree Swallow as Bird of The Day over Tropical Kingbird and Black-and-white Warbler. By early afternoon there were Tree Swallows pretty much everywhere you looked - while this is normal for some places in the east during fall migration, this is not the case in the bay area...it can be rather difficult to actually get to see a bunch of passerines migrating. Migration (landbirds) is just so much less visible here than on the eastern half of the continent, it's difficult to detect birds coming and going, especially large concentrations of them. I walked around in the middle of a huge feeding flock of swallows at Spaletta Plateau, it was a lot of fun.

One of the reasons I had even been out on the point on this day (aside from the obviously great time of year) was because the winds had been forecast to shift during the morning to the south, and south winds takes rare birds out of the sky and put them on the ground. The Black-and-white Warbler may have dropped in for this very reason. The prevailing winds here are out of the northwest, but for the entire following week we had south winds, and the coast was getting absolutely pummeled with rarities. It was hard to withstand...I was stuck in an office gnawing my lower lip to bloody shreds while rare shit just seemed to be raining down everywhere. Luckily, those south winds also brought some rain at the end of the week, which prevented some of these vague runts from continuing their migrations and allowed me to see a Yellow-green Vireo and Black-throated Blue Warbler out at the Fish Docks the following Saturday. Shit conditions and no photos, but those were some damn good birds. Yellow-green Vireos are not even Bird Police birds in California anymore, but I hadn't seen one anywhere since 2010 so I was stoked. And who knows when I will see those two species in the same place again...talk about a good combo.

South winds...how I long for your gentle, overcast touch. Until next fall.

September Birding: My Grunts and Vague Runts

A Vague Runt Chestnut-sided Warbler abides and confides. Ferry Park/Sue Bierman Park, San Francisco, CA.

The first half of September has come and gone. I've done pretty well for myself...no MEGAS or state birds, but enough to keep me happy. Fall migration seems to be going a lot better than last year in northern California. Humboldt County had a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, which is a big deal here. Point Reyes and Bodega Bay have been good, and the Farallones have hosted a number of decent passerines, along with the goddamn gannet. I dipped on a one-day-one-observer-wonder Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher, which sucked but at least I didn't have to cope with getting gripped off by dozens of other birders.

Not bad at all so far, although of course many of us are waiting with baited breath for something Siberian to show up. How I long to meet a wheatear, how I would coddle a dotterel, how I would warble to a Dusky Warbler...but the season is young! Of course, there are still a number of pelagic trips I plan on leading (starting with Bodega Bay tomorrow), so there will be lots of upcoming opportunities to meet Vague Runts with or without tubes attached to their faces.

This was a nice county bird, which allowed some brutal crushings. Ferry Park is an awful, disgusting place to bird but it gets Vague Runts and is hella close to BART. I'm sure I'll be back again this fall.

Here is a more typical photo of a Vague Runt. I was shocked to find this Laughing Gull loafing with Elegant Terns and California Gulls at Point Reyes earlier this month. Before this bird, I've previously only seen one in northern California. I don't think it was ever refound. Drake's Beach, Point Reyes, CA.

Back to crushier fare. Hutton's Vireos are the bravest of all vireos....there, I said it. I've been holding in this news for years, but it feels good to finally get it out. Like their lookalike relatives the Ruby-crowned Kinglets (and unlike most of humanity), Hutton's Vireos are not afraid to snuggle up with a birder. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA.

Depending on their posture and plumage, Hutton's can passingly resemble Hammond's Flycatcher, Cassin's Vireo and Ruby-crowned Kinglet (this one is in kinglet mode). I have distant memories of actually struggling to tell apart Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Hutton's Vireos. Now, I can look back and laugh.

If anyone is aware of a more interesting Hutton's Vireo photo, please notify the authorities. The Global Birder Ranking System has heaped praise upon me for capturing this image. The bellow was aimed directly at me, and I was immediately knocked to the ground by the force of it. I think I am still bleeding internally.

A pair of Peregrine Falcons overlook their migrant-ridden domain. Point Reyes, CA.

I wonder how many bird species this one has consumed. Maybe she keeps a list.

Pomarine Jaegers will frequently come check out the chum line off the stern during pelagic trips. Photographed off Half Moon By, CA.

As you may have read about on other blogs, some nerds from the Birdosphere recently convened on the bay area for a pelagic trip. Flycatcher Jen came from Portland, This Machine Nate from Austin, and Laurence from Phoenix (we need a nickname for you Laurence). We got excellent weather but inexplicably few birds, unfortunately...oh well, pelagic trips are always a gamble, and unlike last year it seems there are very few Buller's Shearwaters offshore this fall. At least Nate didn't miss Black-footed Albatross for the second year in a row, and they all got lifers.

We had only one Sabine's Gull that day, but it came straight in to the stern for great looks.

Few other birds have been so wildly successful in turning the Economy of Style into something truly special.

Common Murres bellow loudly in northern California waters this time of year. 

Who know how many Pygmy Nuthatches I have crossed paths with. 3,256? That is my guess. Anyways, I finally got a decent photo of one. El Polin Spring, San Francisco, CA.

If you happen to live in a region lacking in small, hyperactive nuthatches, I would also suspect that you are living in a region of despair.

I know you easterners scoff when I talk about eastern birds here, so I'll end this post on a very Californian note. Here is a shitty Tricolored Blackbird picture. It's pure rubbish, I know...the light is rubbish, the color is rubbish, and even the bird is rubbish because it's freshly molted so it doesn't have that sharp look birders typically expect. But it's a pretty good bird, and also one that is declining rapidly. Photographed at Point Reyes, which is an excellent place to see them.

Modest Accolades and Low-Level Glory

Shorebirds have been barreling south through the continent for over 2 months now, but they won't be stopping anytime soon. This flock, mostly Western Sandpipers, was in Imperial Beach, CA.

Wow. A lot has been happening lately here. I just moved out of San Diego, sold my car and bought another one. This is important, because I am much more enthusiastic about taking birding trips when I am not afraid of my car seizing and dying on me. So some boring shit that definitely is not blogworthy went down, but rest assured Ive made sure to keep birding. Once I get to my migratory staging area in Oakland, CA, things will settle down and I can go back to my routine of seeing incredibly rare, good-looking birds.

Wilson's Phalaropes. They have switched gender roles. They swim in circles. They have a lot of different plumages. What's not to love? Imperial Beach, CA.

Here's a juvenile Red-necked Phalarope. This time of year, I think they are a lot more eye-catching than the adults, who are very gray and blotchy. Imperial Beach, CA.

Adult Reddish Egret. It got too close and I clipped its wing, sorry...it won't happen again. Imperial Beach, CA.

Cooper's Hawks are particularly common throughout the country this time of year...not only are they migrating en masse, but their populations are very high due to the all the young birds (like this one) present. Young raptors have very high mortality rates, most won't make it through the winter. Tijuana River Valley, CA.

This is not a bird you are likely to see in fall migration, at least not in California. If you do find one, expect skepticism...but if you pass the test of the Bird Police, there will be modest accolades and low-level glory. This Least Bell's Vireo was at the Dairy Mart Ponds in the Tijuana River Valley, CA.

Hutton's Vireo. Considering their repetitive 2-note song, and the fact that they look like a Ruby-crowned Kinglet on steroids, I think this is the most boring vireo. This may be a BB&B first though, so I've got to put it up...these birds are generally considered resident but they do show up at migrant traps. Dairy Mart Ponds.

House Wrens are common fall migrants in California lowlands. They don't sing much but they are still loud...it's a good time of year to learn their calls. Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego, CA.

Common Yellowthroat. You know them, you probably don't love them, but you like them. You have definitely misidentified them for other things, if just for a few seconds. Strangely, a BB&B first. Tijuana River Valley, CA.