News-ish from California on our SEFI Records

Not really sure how late I am to the scene here but my friend Jim Tietz just informed me that our Little Bunting sight record from last fall on Southeast Farallon Island, a bird we got no photos of, but was definitely a Little Bunting passed the California Bird Records Committee in the first round!  This was very unexpected because many if not most bird records committees are wary to accept a record of a review species without some sort of photo of audio documentation.  Here are some excerpts from Jim's "Update to Rare Birds of California" of the birds we had that were reviewed (by the way I saw all of them!)

Farallonia's Common and Scarce

By Luke Musher

HY Anna's Hummingbird, a common bird on the Farallons.

Since I first arrived, I have found it incredibly interesting how some species that are fairly abundant just 30 miles east on the mainland can be incredibly rare, and are thus highly coveted by us Faralisters here in Farallonia.  Then there are birds that are much more likely to turn up here than on the mainland.  For example we get far more Least Flycatchers, an eastern vagrant, than Dusky or Hammond's Flycatchers, which are relatively common species in the west.  We recently had two Farallon megas, Common Goldeneye and Cooper's Hawk that are doubtfully any birder's idea of chase birds.  However, birders who spend time on the Farallons take their island lists very seriously, so when I called out the goldeneye over the radio, the others came sprinting to me as if it were an Arctic Warbler (not surprisingly also induced a rapid and shamefully twitchy response).

NOT the Loch Ness Monster, but the 20th Island record and 6th Fall record of Common Goldeneye for Southeast Farallon Island.  Nearly all records are in winter.

Cooper's Hawk, one of roughly 30 records for the island [Photo by Ryan DiGaudio]

Despite the fact that the birding has been slow due to various amounts of wind and/or fog, we've had a a trickle of arrivals over the past few weeks, including new Grasshopper Sparrow, Lapland Longspur, Short-eared Owls (almost daily), Rough-legged Hawk, Blackburnian Warbler (a good vagrant anytime, but especially this late in the season), and Surf Scoters to name a few. 

Lapland Longspur, the most likely species of longspur here, but still a relatively uncommon bird.

Short-eared Owl, a common species but an outstanding bird every time.

We have butterflies too, like this west coast lady....

...and this painted lady.

We haven't seen many Pigeon Guillemots lately, but this individual, Hermen, has been here since the breeding season, and is finally molting in a much-needed new set of remiges.

One of my favorite recent birds was a Horned Puffin yesterday (pow! that's a lifer) that was spotted while we were operating the crane to bring the boat on shore.  Ryan DiGaudio, Nora Livingston, Maggie Spilatro and I all basically spotted the bird at exactly the same time and realized it wasn't a Tufted Puffin, which breed on the island and would be far more likely, but a Horned.  Jim Tietz got this as an island bird while still waiting on the boat he was arriving on.  Note the white underparts, pinched base of the bill, and obvious paleness in the face–much different than any Tufted Puffin.  What a BAMF.

Eh not the best photo ever, but a great bird anyway.  Horned Puffin just chillin'.  One of less than 30 records for the island, 8th fall record.  This bird is far more likely in Spring, but rare any time, and scarce in any part of coastal California.  

Wave Days are the Best

Today is my first real break since a four day wave starting on October 10 with only a few arriving birds and peaking on the 11th and 12th with hundreds of arriving landbirds, including likely over 100 Ruby-crowned Kinglets and perhaps more than 150 (>200?) Zonotrichia sparrows (mostly Golden-crowned with one third as many White-crowned and a few White-throated), many first of fall birds, and a few rarities.

"Western" Palm Warbler, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

Rock Wren, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

Aleutian Cackling Goose, one of seven total seen, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

HY Peregrine Falcon

White-throated Sparrow, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

"Bicolored" Red-winged Blackbird, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

One of the few dozen Pine Siskins during the wave

We continue to band Burrowing Owls every night, and continue to find unbanded owls each day.  This is apparently the best year ever for Burrowing Owls on the island in terms of numbers.  Our daily high count is 17, shattering the previous record of 11.

This rather late Olive-sided Flycatcher was one of the first birds I saw on wave day (October 11th).

As I said, the wave pretty much started on the 10th with a few new birds such as Cackling Goose, Golden-crowned Kinglet, and several other new arriving songbirds.  However, the 11th was the big day.  I rolled out of bed expecting nothing new, or at least very little in terms of arriving birds, since the the winds were very strong.  However, the cloud ceiling was low enough that the mainland wasn't visible, and when I walked out the door to start my AM area search, there were dozens of sparrows and kinglets flitting about and calling in the tree and shrubbery by the house.  As I continued my search, I turned up more and more new arrivals such as Olive-sided Flycatcher and Townsend's Solitaire (less than 50 records on the island; anything under 100 records is a pretty good bird), among the hundreds of other birds.

Common Raven on wave day, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

Townsend's Solitaire, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

Townsend's Solitaire, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

My favorite bird of the day, though, was found at the lighthouse just 30 minutes or so after I got down from doing my shark watch from there.  Sophie Webb radioed down that she was looking at a "lovely male Evening Grosbeak sitting on the lighthouse."  We spent some time attempting to scope it from below, but could never find it, and the bird eventually flew somewhere that Sophie could not tell.  I spent the next hour or so hiking around the island looking for the bird.  It began raining, so the rocks on all the hills were slippery, and I had to keep my camera under my shirt to keep it from getting too wet.  Just when I was ready to give up, I heard it call from the lighthouse, and I saw it flying in my direction.  The bird landed about 20ft from me, and I was able to get some okay photographs given the rain and lack of light.  There are only 5 previous records for Evening Grosbeak on Southeast Farallon Island.  Of course after all that effort, the bird flew into one of our nets, and I got to band it.

Adult male Evening Grosbeak, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

Adult male Evening Grosbeak, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

It was hard to beat the wave on the 11th, but the 12th still brought in a number of new birds, including a few island birds for me.  Ash-throated Flycatcher and Swamp Sparrow were among them.  On the 13th we were treated to a few new birds, and a Brown Booby that loafed around all day with the cormorants on Sugarloaf (small island/large rock just off of the island).

The best bird of the day was a probable Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (would be 3rd record for the island)/possible Red-naped Sapsucker (would be 6th record for island).  I saw the bird flying around the lighthouse (but to me only identifyable as a woodpecker), but Jim Tietz was at the lighthouse and was able to photograph (photos here) the bird during it's brief stay at the lighthouse before it flew off never to be seen again.  Of course there is always the possibility of hybridization, and the experts don't seem to agree on the identity of this individual, some going so far as to say they won't put a name on it from the photos.  Several people think it is Yellow-bellied, though.  The back pattern, to me looks great for Yellow-bellied, but I haven't seen enough Red-naped, and don't know enough about hybridization in these taxa to make a call myself.  Comment with your opinion.

Ash-throated Flycatcher, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

Swamp Sparrow [Photo by Dan Maxwell]

Brown Booby [Photo by Dan Maxweel]

One of the most interesting occurrences on the 12th was seen only by Dan Maxwell, as this adult Peregrine Falcon snatched a Sabine's Gull (I need that bird for the year!) off the water.  This cropped, distant shot is still identifiable. [Photo by Dan Maxwell]

Until next time –

Luke

Mega: Arctic Warbler

I woke up this morning to fog and south winds, and soon after, the fog lifted, and the wave began.  We banded 42 Red-breasted Nuthatches today, and 70 birds all together.  We saw a total of 69 species.  Oh and did I mention?  We had an Arctic Warbler hit one of our mist nets.  This mega rarity represents the 2nd record for the island and 8th for California.  Still, we all just found out about the Common Cuckoo in Santa Cruz, CA...that bird wins.

Birds in the Fog

White-crowned Sparrow

We've been plagued with fog here at the Farallons for the past few days.  Fog is bad for business here, and birding is our business.  If birds can't see the island as the sun rises, then there is little hope of them finding it.  Optimally, we would have south winds and high overcast skies.  This way the mainland is not visible from far out at seam, and the island draws in birds from miles around.  When the conditions are right, we can get huge fallouts of migrants – days where literally thousands of birds use the island as a stopover site to forage and build up fat reserves so they can get back to where they really want to be, the mainland.  It is days like those that have the highest chance of a mega rarity.

Today, though, will not be one of those days.  Birding in the haze not only clouds our vision such that seeing birds at a distance becomes more challenging, but also makes birding slow for us.  We expect few birds on days like these, and generally find few as well.  Despite the poor weather, we have been able to turn up a few new arrivals here and there.

Monday we found this damp American Redstart in the company of a Warbling Vireo we banded over a week ago.

Burrowing Owls have finally arrived on the island, and we captured and banded one individual so far.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet at the Lighthouse

Even in the fog yesterday we had many new arrivals and first of fall birds on the island including Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Varied Thrush, Nashville Warbler, and several Lincoln's, Golden-crowned, and White-crowned Sparrows.  All those new birds on a day with bad weather conditions made us wonder what kind of a major wave we could have experienced if the conditions were right.

Lincoln's Sparrow

It has been an amazing year for Red-breasted Nuthatches here.

One of our first Golden-crowned Sparrows of the fall.

Another first of fall bird and arrival in the fog, I found this Varied Thrush late in the day.

Even through the dense fog, this Common Raven is unmistakable.  

Despite the fog, we've had some good birds, but it's time for a wave.  The winds should be very good the next couple nights for a fallout, but if the fog doesn't clear we'll be screwed.  Hopefully the fog will lift tonight so I will have lots to talk about in the next few days.

Prairie Warbler and other Notes (Shark Notes)

I've been two weeks on the island now, and if you haven't noticed it's been pretty incredible.  No megas (yet), but always plenty of good birding to be had.  We sea watch twice per day on the island, and although numbers of birds (specifically Sooty Shearwaters) are down from the first week, I've had Pomarine Jaegers migrating close to the island on my last two afternoon watches.  Today I had an adult and an immature within a few minutes of each other.

The interesting landbirds continue to move through including a Prairie Warbler that showed up yesterday afternoon at the lighthouse.

As you may know, one of the specialties of the Farallon Islands is white sharks.  Each intern spends two hours per day on the lighthouse watching for shark attacks.  We look for gulls swarming, pools of blood in the water,

and, of course, sharks thrashing and feeding on a carcass in the water.

These photos were taken on Thursday of a white shark feeding on an immature elephant seal less than a quarter of a kilometer from the island.  This was one of five attacks we've gotten to see in the past week.

Recent Farallon Finds

Magnolia Warbler, Southeast Farallon Island, CA

It's been busy as ever lately, with lots of new birds coming to the island.  Today is our first slow day in over a week, so allow me to fill you in on some of the goodies that have been turning up.

The migrant passerines continue to move through with Yellow, Chestnut-sided, Hermit, Magnolia, Blackpoll, Bay-breasted, Townsend's, Black-throated Gray, Yellow-throated, Black-and-white, Tennessee, Orange-crowned, MacGillivray's, and Wilson's Warblers, American Redstart (including one stunning adult male), Common Yellowthroat, Bobolink, Vesper Sparrow, Indigo Bunting, Dickcissel, Red Crossbill (there are very few records of this for the island, but this fall has been especially good since it is an irruption year for at least one type on the west coast), Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (less than 40 records for the island), Swainson's and Hermit Thrushes, Warbling Vireo, Baltimore Oriole, Western tanager, Lincoln's Sparrow, Pacific Wren, and Hammond's Flycatcher as some of the migrants we've seen since my last post.

We are banding dozens of Red-breasted Nuthatches as well, with more coming in each day.  When they come in off the ocean they land on the lighthouse, and begin to glean microscopic invertebrates off of the lichen that grows on it.  They allow very close approach, and one even let me feed it dead kelp flies (slapped from my arms), off of the tip of a pencil.

On the 17th Dan Maxwell and I were up on the lighthouse when we heard over the radio, "ducks flying by the terrace!"  We immediately got on the flock of six birds, and began calling things out.  I immediately said Blue-winged Teal, and over the radio Jim Tietz said, "I think we've got a mixed flock of teal."  Although at the time I thought they were all uniform in size, shape, and plumage, Jim was right, and thanks to some photos by Dan Maxwell (below), we confirmed that we had three Cinnamon Teal, and three Blue-winged Teal. Can you pick out which ones are which?  Here's a hint, look at bill size and shape, and face pattern.  I think you'll find that the wing pattern on these two species is nearly identical.  The Cinnamon Teal were the first for the island in more than 12 years, and the Blue-winged Teal represent the 11th (or 12th?) record for the island ever.

Mixed Teal Flock, Southeast Farallon Island, CA [Photo by Daniel Maxwell]

The Northern Gannet is still around.

One of the few Bobolinks we've had this year.