A Summer Dispatch from Rancho de Bastardos and the Five Mile Radius

I lied. The newest BB&B post will not be about Texas...how about we change it up? What about the local birding? What is the good word? How are things going at Rancho de Bastardos? What of the Five Mile Radius (5MR)? As everyone knows, you can't be a birding darling without birding locally!

Well we renewed our lease of Rancho de Bastardos, so will be holding it down at least until next spring. The current Rancho list stands at 122, with 6 new species so far this year: Lesser Scaup (expected), Phainopepla (very unexpected), Purple Finch (expected), Red-breasted Merganser (quite unexpected), Rufous Hummingbird (not necessarily expected), and Orange-crowned Warbler (long expected). A hoped-for-but-unsurprising Snow Goose showed up right at the end of 2017, found by my dad who was visiting from out of town (above).

Getting new yard birds this year has been a major pain, and I suspect I won't be getting another until August or September...the potential for new birds before then is really low, especially if the ponds behind the house remain too full to be attractive to shorebirds...but if shorebird habitat was actually allowed to develop, there are a whole bunch of new birds that could potentially drop in. Same old story...the impossibilities are truly endless. A crippling drake Wood Duck hung out right behind our back fence for a morning earlier in the month, which was a life-affirming (if not life-changing) summer surprise and a new one for the 2018 Rancho list. Speaking of which, the 2018 Rancho list is at a solid 104, and with a little luck I think 120 can be reached by the end of the year.

This seemed like a good spring for migrant hummingbirds in the county (namely Rufous and Calliope), and multiple Selasphorus made visits to the feeders at Rancho de Bastardos in the spring. All the males seen well enough to ID were Rufous (above), though several females and an immature male or two could not be identified to species. I'll be on the lookout for Allen's Hummingbird next spring, a prime candidate for the yard list.

The putative White-throated x White-crowned Sparrow hybrid ended up hanging out for several weeks in April. Here is a head-on shot that shows the crown pattern pretty well, which is a closer match to White-throated but doesn't perfectly match either species.

Compare it to this White-crowned (presumably pugetensis). All of the Rancho's Zonotrichia migrated north while I was in Texas in late April, not a single bird remained by the time I got home. I guess they had an exit plan.

In other bastard news, Annabelle can now identify Mallards ("duck"), Canada geese ("gee"), Mourning Doves ("duhv") and California ground-squirrels ("wheeo"). She even made a rudimentary song about the squirrels...it goes "Whee-oh, Whee-oh, Whee-oh, Whee-oh." Fully legit. She also peed on my binocular strap and on my camera case the other day, which is not a problem I've dealt with previously.

My 5MR list has matured nicely this year as well, and has climbed to a modest 156, surpassing my previous 5MR based in Albany. Many (most?) of you have higher 5MR lists, but I am pleased with how mine is progressing, nay burgeoning...I've already added 19 species to it in 2018. Let's hear it for local birding! This is about 65% of my entire Santa Clara County list, which I think is a nice ratio and reflective of what the 5MR has to offer relative of the general area.

If only eBird could whip up a quick target list for my 5MR...

They are an abundant bird in the bay area and they are in my yard every day, but since I grew up in a chickadee-depauperate part of the state they still hold some novelty for me. This Chestnut-backed Chickadee was photographed on the Los Alamitos Creek trail in San Jose, in the 5MR of course.

On the same trail on another day, I came across a Turkey Vulture feeding on a deer carcass (note the ribcage in the upper right). This generally isn't blogworthy, especially considering the rubbish quality of the photo, but this section of trail wasn't next to a road (it's actually separated from area roads by a tall fence) and the trail was saturated with warnings of mountain lion sightings. I think this deer wasn't taken down by a Jaguar, but by a mountain lion, know what I'm saying? Eh? Eh?

The southern half of my 5MR is absolutely brimming with Acorn Woodpeckers. It is the cradle of Acorn Woodpecker civilization as far as I know. This is the sort of bird that you want around in great abundance, especially when they aren't wary of people. Photographed at Guadalupe Oaks County Park.

While we are on the hot topic of 5MRs and the perpetually hot eBird, I have a proposal to make. Those of you who have an ear open for you at eBird Central Command (or are a part of Central Command) should tell them to embrace the 5MR. I know almost half of you who read this are eBird reviewers, so we have a nice, potentially powerful little lobby here. The 5MR encourages local birding, it encourages birding lightly-covered (or uncovered) areas (a major goal for eBird), and it encourages eBird use (an even greater goal for eBird). If a 5MR tool is added to patch lists, 5MRs will become the shining jewel of that feature. So eBird, go ahead and do a quick interview with everyone's favorite famous post-Oregon birder Flycatcher Jen, add a 5MR feature, and let it rip! Many birders will chill back on their excessive checking of Top 100 state and county lists, and be all about comparing the Top 100 5MRs in their states and counties instead. This will really level the playing field for those who are interested in comparing patch lists, considering that many users (including reviewers...wtf) have bullshit patches that are hundreds of square miles.  Anyhow, do us all a favor and let eBird know...if they actually had some interest in this idea, things may never be the same.

I'll close this post out with series of Great Egret vs. gopher shots from the Los Alamitos Creek Trail, part of my 5MR I've been birding on the reg. It's a nice zone and has some Vague (not vague) potential, unfortunately it starts getting real crowded by mid-morning...but when you live in a city with over a million people, what do you expect? Gross...

Surprisingly, the gopher ate the egret in the end.

Jk the egret won, gopher-egret matches are always fixed. I'm glad I don't have to worry about being impaled by giant birds, just stuff like cholesterol. More from Texas in the next post, for reals.

Word is bond.

Microlocalzonoweirdness

April means a lot of things to a lot of people, but one thing it means around these parts is the departure of the Zonotrichia. Golden-crowned and White-crowned Sparrows make up such a large proportion of the passerine avifauna in northern California for so much of the year, it's always strange to realize one spring day that they are gone until September. Well, nuttalli White-crowned Sparrows don't migrate, but you know what I'm saying.

Both of these birds are common feeder attendants here at Rancho de Bastardos, so of course I am always checking them for a White-throated or a Harris's while I still can, or something even more unexpected...and the unexpected did finally arrive. Last week I was surprised to see the bird pictured above.

This is a newly-arrived migrant that has made a prolonged stopover here at the Rancho. It has been here over a week now, and is easily discernible with the naked eye from the living room. At first I thought it was just a slightly aberrant White-crowned Sparrow, but there is more weird to it than just the almost entirely missing postocular line.

Also surprising is the amount of contrasting white in the throat and malar area, and the thin black crown stripes.

The bill is pinkish, distinctly different from the other orangey-billed White-crowneds that populate the Rancho.

View of the back of the head.

It's a weird bird. I've never seen a great number of White-crowned Sparrows and have never seen one like this. It's the same size as a White-crowned, though does seem bulkier at times. It's definitely not molting, it's a very fresh, bright looking bird. I heard and saw it sing once, and it sounded pretty much like the other White-crowns here.

Right. Don't worry any longer, I will ask The Question you have all been waiting for...is it a hybrid? Could it be that great unicorn of the Zonotrichia, a White-throated X White-crowned Sparrow? An F2 even?

Well, this isn't a quiz bird. Your guess is as good as mine, or better....or potentially far worse, depending on who you are. Let's be honest. I don't have total and complete confidence in identifying it, this is essentially a new bird for me. It's worth mentioning that sometimes the bird gives off a very White-throated vibe, appearing very plump and having a long, flattened crown in profile. If it is "just" a White-crowned, it sure has a lot of mutant characters appearing all at once.

I am inclined to say that this is a hybrid. For reference, I checked eBird of course...there are a total of four White-throated X White-crowned Sparrows with photographs in eBird. One is obviously a Golden-crowned Sparrow and is hopefully being purged as I type this, but the others bear a significant resemblance to this bird. Notably, they all have the minimal (vestigial???) postocular line, though it is such a bold feature on both parent species.

What do you think? In any case, it's fun to have such a weird bird lurking around here at Rancho de Bastardos and have the chance to study it at length.

In case you are wondering, the Golden-crowned Sparrows are looking sharp now. No study required, only appreciation.