September Sickness

September and October in the bay area means GET YOUR ASS TO THE COAST. I feel bad for birders who don't live near the coast in this crucial time...the window is wide open for rarities. Most of the year, it's just cracked, and sometimes it's even closed. Light south winds on September 11 meant it was a day to be out on Point Reyes, and we were rewarded with some juicy birds...American Redstart, Canada Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, and a flock of 3 Clay-colored Sparrows. Clay-colored is rare but regular here, but three together was a bit on the bizarro side of things.

The next Saturday it was nice and overcast, so it was out to San Francisco this time. Across from Lake Merced, the continuing Magnolia Warbler made for a fine county bird (thanks Aaron) and a Black-and-white Warbler was very satisfying as well. This female Bicolored Blackbird did a good impression of a female Tricolored, but was too warmly colored. Approach with caution.

It's always good to be checking listservs constantly in September, you never know when the news of the next MEGA will come. Checking the listserv as I was about to leave Lake Merced proved to be timely, and I quickly abandoned the rest of my plans and went straight to Golden Gate Park for another vague runt that had just been found. While waiting for the tasty eastern warbler, I kicked it with this Brown Creeper, a bird that apparently has never made it onto BB&B before...weird. Welcome Brown Creeper!

This is another common denizen of forests and parks (like tweakers, but creepers and tweakers are unrelated, despite what you might think), and accompany many a mixed flock. They're ain't confiding or abiding though, which I guess explains why I have so few photos of them.

Brown Creeper fact of the day: You probably know the northernmost reaches of their range are in Alaska, but you can also find them as far south as Nicaragua. I'd like to see some of the mixed flocks they travel with down there, Jesus.

Ugh, I just looked at an eBird checklist with Brown Creeper in it from Nicaragua...there's some gnarly stuff in there.

Eventually I refound the Canada Warbler, which much like the Point Reyes bird was relatively easy to keep track of but exceedingly difficult to photograph (I failed entirely with the other bird). I have some kind of nostalgia with blurry rarity photos for some reason, so I am forcing you to see this awful image. It stayed in the same tree for a whole hour, and I couldn't do any better, but I never claimed I was a photographer. Ahhh...getting Black-and-white, Canada and Magnolia in the same morning in California is what September is all about.

September actually isn't all warblers and rarities though, it's also cuddling Bushtits.

I love eastern wood warblers. I absolutely adore them, no matter the time of year. I spend a lot of time looking for them, whether it is in Florida or California or Mexico (not Midway though). However, California gives you the opportunity to see more than wood warblers...we get warblers as well.

Sibes...I fucking love Sibes. This Dusky Warbler was the undisputed highlight of September, not just for me but for pretty much everyone else who saw it. It sounds like the bird was much more cooperative the first day it was found (when I saw it) than subsequent days; the Dusky Warbler found recently in Orange County disappointed pretty much everyone who chased it (sorry Justine). Speaking of Sibes, the Bird of October might just be the Lesser Sand-Plover Matt Lau found yesterday south of Abbott's Lagoon, but we'll see if sticks around or not.

The day after the great Dusky Warbler Victory of 2016, Billy and I went up to Hawk Hill in the Marin Headlands to check on some other kinds of migrants. This resident Red-tailed Hawk had no intentions of migrating anywhere, but chose a nice lichenized outcrop to perch on.

It's always so much easier to find Sharp-shinned Hawks at Hawk Hill than anywhere else locally. Not that they are rare here by any means, but if you spend a morning birding and you don't see one, that seems perfectly normal. Spending a few hours at Hawk Hill and missing them would be, well, bizarre.

Here's another one, with a deceptively-shaped tail. Note the barred flanks and "pigeony" expression. Or don't, you're welcome not to.

September 30 is generally a day you must be out birding in California. If the vague runt window is open in September, then by September 30 the window is completely shattered and rare just comes blowing through at will. With this in mind Abe Borker and I went back out to Point Reyes...except it wasn't rare birds we found blowing through, it was the goddamn wind. With strong northwest winds, our chances of landing a huge migrant harvest were quite low. Even this coyote seemed perplexed at the lack of rare birds around.

Our efforts were not in vain, however. This Magnolia Warbler (county bird!) was at the lighthouse, and stayed still just long enough to get brutally crushed. Nice to see one in San Francisco and Marin in the same month.

We got brief looks of the bird below the park housing in the lupine patch, then the bird came around the parking lot and foraged right beneath us. The wind taketh away, but in this case the wind giveth a very sharp, mid-level rarity.

See? Fucking windy. American Redstart was the only other eastern-flavored bird of the day, but who knows maybe it had just cruised down from northeast Washington, where they are not an uncommon breeder. That said, Magnolias aren't a strictly eastern bird either; they breed in eastern British Columbia.

Almost every patch on the Outer Point has Great Horned Owls, where they probably are out terrorizing the Barn Owls every night. This one was down in New Willows, were I had not seen one before. If it is indeed a resident bird, it has probably seen more rarities than you could possibly imagine. It may have even eaten some of them.

October at Coyote Hills

Damn...I'm getting way behind here...many apologies and condolences. I know BB&B readers need TOTAL COVERAGE of what Felonious Jive and I get into...everything from eBird checklists to what Booby Brittany ate for breakfast to what I've dipped on (Yellow Rail) and scored on (Red-throated Pipits) lately...so some catch up is overdue.

There have been many complaints made over the years (and many butthurt defenses) of the tried-and-true "I went to ___ and saw _____" format of bird blogging, but I think its something that must be done today, due to the quality of the visit and number of crushings accomplished.

All photos in this post are from October 9 at Coyote Hills Regional Park in southern Alameda County, along the bay. It has a diverse mix of upland and wetland habitats, and turns up interesting birds in both fall and winter...the locals bird there regularly, and I think it's worth your time if you're just visiting.

Sage Thrasher is a rare bird around these parts, and my first of the year. With the relatively poor showing of vagrants in the bay area this fall, this was one of the "better" birds I've come by.

Of course, we must give respect to our ubiquitous thrasher, the Northern Mockingbird. I don't think I've ever posted one on BB&B before, so here you go.

John Hammond once said, "We've made living biological attractions so astounding that they'll capture the imagination of the entire planet ". Hammond was right, of course, which leads us to this astounding, block-headed, richly-colored Empidonax; a Hammond's Flycatcher, a bird that's hard to come by in fall on the coastal plain. Field guides tell you to expect a dark lower mandible on this species, but I've found that to be an inconsistent field mark.

It skillfully dismembered and consumed a yellowjacket right in front of me. Can you imagine being the size of that bird and getting stung in the face? It could be lethal...what a brave little flycatcher, truly the Velociraptor of its genus.

One of the highlights of the day was the fennel patches...they were swarming with migrants, including more gray-headed Orange-crowned Warblers than most people are comfortable just hearing about. The legions of orestera were practically begging to be crushed; I often stood a mere 15 feet away, firing off hundreds of rounds (er, frames) at incredible speed.

The California birder who goes out in fall without these birds on the radar is doomed from the start. Orestera Orange-crowned Warbler is one of the most frequently-misidentified migrants on the west coast; they are uncommon along the coast in the fall, and many noob birders are simply unaware that gray-headed Orange-crowned Warblers exist...and so birder magic frequently renders them into Nashville, MacGillivray's and even rarer warblers.

Here is a typical lutescens Orange-crowned Warbler for comparison; this is the standard flavor of OCWA in California.

This young Wilson's Warbler was also lens fodder. The avian fennel fruit was plentiful on this day.

Watching a flock of Bushtits at work is a lot like eating comfort food.

It's neither enthralling or exotic, but its a soothing and familiar experience...perhaps less salty though.

A greatly underappreciated field mark for young accipiters is the breast and belly pattern; while both young Sharp-shinned and Cooper's can have streaked underparts, only young (HY) Sharp-shinned Hawks like this one get heavy spotting.

It's always nice to crush the shade-addicts, the birds who seem reluctant to ever make direct contact with full sunlight when a camera is around. This is one of the better Hermit Thrush pictures I've gotten.

That's all from Coyote Hills. One last thing...the Great Ornithologist Felonious Jive recently made his monthly post at 10,000 Birds, this time on how the birdscape/birderscape has drastically changed over the last 15 years. Check it out.

June: A Good Month For Robin-Stroking

Whimbrels are often present late into spring, but by the middle of June most shorebirds on the California coast are done migrating. June is, in fact, the only month that is bad for shorebirding in California...we have a few breeding species and some oversummering individuals, but shorebird numbers are very low compared to May (when many migrants are still moving north) and July (when many migrants are already coming south). Of course, the White-rumped Sandpiper trio (***MEGAS***)  in Del Norte County was unexpected and infuriating, as Del Norte County is far from just about everywhere in the state.

It's June. The first 10 days or so can be fantastic for vagrant eastern songbirds, but other than that, there is not much going on in the bird world aside from getting down to the business of making more birds. A few late migrants are still moving through, but many species are fledging chicks already. Those that whine about "summer doldrums" are probably not looking for vagrants, or can't wait the few weeks for shorebirds to begin arriving on their southbound flights.

I've only done a paltry amount of birding so far this month that wasn't on the clock, so to speak. Hopefully I'll get to the mountains during my next island break and rack up some nice elevation birds for the year list...can you believe I haven't seen a White-headed Woodpecker in years? How embarrassing.

Black Turnstones are one of the species you can expect to see coming south in July. Many will still be sporting their fancy white marks of the breeding season. Fellow rockpipers Wandering Tattlers, Surfbirds and Ruddy Turnstones will be right behind them. Rincon Beach, Carpenteria, CA.

Heermann's Gulls are already coming back into the state after breeding in Mexico. It's always refreshing to see them after having nothing to look at but Western Gulls and haggard California Gulls for the last couple of months...they are truly gulls cut from a different cloth. Sausalito, CA.

Least Terns had a disastrous breeding season in 2012 at many different colonies in California, likely due to a shortage food brought on my warmer than normal water temperatures. Hopefully they bounce back this year, or else I will slip into a state of catatonic depression. Photographed at Oceanside, CA.

Scripps's Murrelets started nesting way before everybody else and are pretty much done sitting on nests. Those who successfully hatched a chick (like Ancient Murrelets, chicks leave the nest very soon after hatching) will be at sea escorting their progeny around. Photographed off San Diego, CA.

This was one of the last Sharp-shinned Hawks I saw this year, back in mid-April. In southern California, they won't be back until September. Note the shrunken-looking head in this photo, a field mark that is at least as helpful (if not more) than tail shape. Sisar Canyon, Ojai, CA.

In late spring one of the commonest species still moving through California deserts is Wilson's Warbler.  It's funny, if you only birded the coast you would never really grasp how abundant these birds are. Galileo Hill, outside California City, CA.

Swainson's Thrush is another migrant that still can be found in some numbers at the very beginning of June in the desert migrant traps. In fact, people shouldn't even bother looking for these birds on their breeding grounds, they are too damn hard to see. Just go to the desert during the spring and watch them hop around on lawns like robins. Galileo Hill.

Warbling Vireos are one of our humblest birds. There is probably no one in the entire world who considers Warbling Vireo their favorite bird. Sure they have a pretty song and they are a welcome migrant, but who doesn't have stronger feelings for their slightly-cuter and more colorful relative, Philadelphia Vireo? California City Central Park, California City, CA (obvi).

Ash-throated Flycatcher. Doesn't the bird look unusually brown-headed in this photo? Everyone knows Empidonax cause migraines, but Myiarchus can cause aneurysms. Sisar Canyon, Ojai, CA.

This Rufous-crowned Sparrow on Santa Cruz Island picked the ugliest possible perch to conduct its dawn chorus. A resident species, it's quite possible that this sparrow will be within view of this lovely solar panel for its whole life. The breeding species on the island are still singing a lot, but not quite as much as in April and May.

Ah, sweet sweet Song Sparrow breeding success. Is it just me or does the fledgling have a distinct Savannah Sparrow look to its face? Santa Cruz Island.

Mas Tortugas

White-eyed Vireos were one of the commoner migrants, with at least one anchoring almost every mixed flock I came across...which was frequent, considering I was *ahem* not on a birding trip.

Since I didn't go snorkeling while I was at the Dry Tortugas (land team), I mostly did loops around Garden Key for four days straight, although I did eventually end up swimming for a while on the last day. It was legit, and I didn't even get any jellyfish stings.

As you can expect, I took a lot of pictures, the best of which you will be seeing on here on and off for the next several weeks. Maybe they will compel you to make a trip out there, spring or fall. The birds on this trip left me a bit weak in the knees, which is a feeling any birder lives for. Come to think of it, they will die for it too.

Bay-breasted Warbler (year bird). I only saw 2-3, which is not enough but will have to do for now. I typically go years at a time without seeing these buffy-flanked beasts, they are not easy to come by in California. 

Another shot of the Hooded Warbler that appeared in the first Tortugan blog post. A snazzy bird, which has been documented to cause birders to stutter and foam disgustingly from the mouth.

Normal people on Garden Key would not be happy about this, but ominous skies are a good sign for birders....rain is likely to bring migrating birds down to the islands. 

The seas surrounding Garden Key have the classic hue that any island paradise should.

Mmmmmm, Palm Warbler. There was no shortage of them on Garden Key, but strangely I only saw a couple on my first day, when there were the most birds around.

Brown Boobies aren't very abundant in the Tortugas, but they are really easy to see, since they favor perching on the channel markers that are scattered around Garden Key. As is the case with their bigger, more exotic Masked relatives, the Tortugas is the best place in the continental U.S. to see this species. This is as close as I got to one on this trip.

A number of Great Blue Herons were on Garden Key and Bush Key. This one was relishing having some fresh water after a storm...getting all your water from just eating salty fish probably gets old after a while.

If herons could slurp, this one would be slurping.

See? Here is a fish. If I was birding all the time, I would not have seen this fish. This is some kind of awesome parrotfish. We saw a lot of these around Garden Key and in Key West. They get much bigger than this one. Aside from their brilliant colors that can melt a human face in the blink of an eye, they are known for eating coral and having sandy poop. Can you imagine eating a bunch of coral and then having to pass it? Ouch though.

Warblers aren't the only weary birds that need to take a mid-migration rest, raptors do too. Lots of Accipiters stopped in Garden Key, although I didn't see any Buteos. I'm not sure, but this Sharp-shinned Hawk may be the first one to make it on BB&B.

I lost count of the number of catbirds I saw meet their fate in the talons of Accipiters and Merlins while I was there. The death-squeal of a catbird is not a pleasant sound. The grassy roof of Fort Jefferson is in the background; it's a good place to watch raptors, frigatebirds, and other migrants come in off the ocean.