Hi Birders,

I am getting close to having the complete California CBC schedule. A few compilers have yet to choose or contact me with their dates.
If you see errors or know a missing date please contact me. Thanks to all of the compilers, coordinators, and birders who help me keep this calendar up to date and accurate.
www.natureali.org/cbcs.htm

In other news I finally got around to updating the Kern checklist with the new AOS nomenclature. Find pertinent changes for Kern County only at www.natureali.org/AOS_changes.htm

The updated checklists include a surprise found on eBird this morning. Apparently Simon Kiese photographed a Curve-billed Thrasher in July 2018 at Mojave Park. The photo looks good so I added this to the Kern list. It brings Kern to 446 NIB with 10 recognized naturalized species.
www.natureali.org/kernbirdchecklist.htm

Ali

Ali Sheehey
5004 Yokut Ct.
Weldon, CA 93283

Dear Birders,
You are invited to the next LA Birders webinar:
Preposterous Palearctic Passerines: What's next for southern California With Andy Birch Tuesday, November 22 at 7:00pm on YouTube
Over the past 5 years, LA county has had multiple Palearctic Phylloscopus warblers, wagtails, pipits and even a bluetail and a Wryneck! Many of these species understandably get short shrift in North American field guides and 20 years ago would have been unheard of as potentially occurring in the Lower 48.
Clearly, LA birders now need to be armed with the knowledge on what to potentially expect and also how to ID these often confusingly similar birds.
Join Andy for an informative and fun evening discussing the ID and looking in to the crystal ball to anticipate what might be next for southern California! This webinar will be livestreamed on our YouTube channel and will also be recorded for later viewing. Become a LAB Member! Though our webinars will always remain free and available to all, members of Los Angeles Birders have access to live webinars via Zoom, invitations to special LAB-only field trips, priority sign-up on LAB field trips & events, and discounts on paid LAB programs. To learn more about membership, please see our website !
Upcoming Programs 12/4 - First Sundays at the Huntington (members only field trip, sign up coming soon) 12/13 - Great Gray Owls in California with Rodney Siegel (webinar)
Good birding, Rebecca Marschall for Los Angeles Birders info@...

--
Rebecca Fenning Marschall rebecca.fenning@...

Today around 12:30pm we observed the continuing PYRRHULOXIA at Lake Cahullia in Riverside County. Our observation lasted 20 minutes. A fencing contractor pointed to the Palo verde trees he saw it in yesterday. We approached the area and Leonie heard it calling and doing a whisper song. It perched up in the back of the tree and flew to another nearby Palo verde tree. It flew around to several other smaller shrubs in the wash. It eventually dove down into the dense vegetation at the base of the original tree. This area is 50 yards before the No Trespassing sign for the shooting range along the fence line for the lake between two telephone poles.

Ron Thorn
Leonie Batkin

The recent back-and-forth re: the sexing of the current Santa Barbara Painted Redstart brings up some cautionary themes with eBird and other data being reported. Some folks report Painted Redstarts in CA as "males" or "adults," but in most cases one can't actually tell males from females or first-year birds from adults in the field once the juvenal plumage is lost in latter summer around the breeding grounds. Other examples include the regular reporting of fall Black-throated Blue and Hooded Warblers as "adult" males despite the fact that immature males are almost identical, with just very subtle differences typically not noted by the observers. There is also the regular confusion amongst plenty of birders between "juvenile" and "immature" plumages in species where those plumages are actually different. Why this DOES matter in the accuracy of reported eBird data is that it is possible such data could be used by researchers to try to figure out if vagrant records are skewed toward immature birds (which certainly is the case) or perhaps towards males over females (may or may not be true). Also, it is simply misleading information being offered to the birding public. Another even larger problem is the regular reporting of birds to SUBspecies when the observer really doesn't know what subspecies they are and are just guessing or assuming based on range or other criteria, but not based on plumage or other careful study, etc. Same issue with trying to then use these data later to accurately determine what subspecies are involved with vagrant records or accurately determine range limits of subspecies. There are already enough errors out there made at the SPECIES level.....

A good rule of thumb is "Don't report data at a finer level of detail than at which they are collected." And try to avoid guessing or assuming.

--Paul Lehman, San Diego

Hello Birders,
I have been quietly collecting the dates for the CBC season with the help of many compilers and participants sending their dates. www.natureali.org/cbcs.htm

I have scoured the internet for dates not posted elsewhere and I haven't found any more dates to enter.

If you are a compiler and want to use this service, please send me your dates and any changed information. As of now the right hand column lists confirmed counts as bold and any counts that are not in bold are dates held over from last year. Next week, I will begin the labor intensive task of moving all non-confirmed counts to the TBD tab.

I hope all of us have a safe and successful CBC season as things begin to return to normal. I am continuing to mask as appropriate because I don't want to contract any of the big three viruses, but otherwise pretty much back to normal.

Good birding,

Ali Sheehey Weldon, CA
www.natureali.org

Hi All

Yesterday while birding the Salton Sea, Lucas Stephenson and I got a report of a Groove-billed Ani at Palo Verde by Mike Baker. We proceeded to drive out to Palo and eventually re-found it in the weedy bushes along the flooded ponds:(33.6882449, -114.5268122). It continued this morning in generally the same location and as I am writing this email I am looking at the bird.

Good Birding,

Lucas Corneliussen

Dear Birders,
You are invited to the next LA Birders webinar:
Remarkable Red Crossbills With Lance Benner Tuesday, November 15 at 7:00 PM on YouTube
This talk will describe Red Crossbill biology, the 11+ North American flight call types, their geographic distributions, and will present recordings of each one.
Lance has been recording Red Crossbills across North America since 2011, with a particular emphasis on southern California and the Sierra Nevada.
If time permits, Lance will also discuss Evening Grosbeak flight call types, their geographic distributions, and how to recognize them. Please join Lance for an informative evening. This webinar will be livestreamed on our YouTube channel and will also be recorded for later viewing. Become a LAB Member! Though our webinars will always remain free and available to all, members of Los Angeles Birders have access to live webinars via Zoom, invitations to special LAB-only field trips, priority sign-up on LAB field trips & events, and discounts on paid LAB programs. To learn more about membership, please see our website !
Upcoming Programs 11/22 - Preposterous Palearctic Passerines with Andy Bird (webinar) 12/4 - First Sundays at the Huntington (members only field trip, sign up coming soon) 12/13 - Great Gray Owls in California with Rodney Siegel (webinar)
Good birding, Rebecca Marschall for Los Angeles Birders info@...
--
Rebecca Fenning Marschall rebecca.fenning@...

Bird found "closer" to police shooting range at
33.638157,-116.277704
Thomas Geza Miko
Claremont, LA County
909.241.3300
"I'm on the fence! My bank account is unfortunately in another neighborhood."--CuppaJoe

Hi All,

The Pyrrhuloxia first found yesterday by John Green at Lake Cahuilla, Riverside county continued this morning, 11/4. It was first located just before 7am in the original spot on the northwest side of the lake here (33.6372160, -116.2785485). It spent the next half hour working the various palo verdes and gypsumweed patches in that region, staying hidden for minutes on end. Just after 7:30 the bird flew west (and across the new sheep fence) to the mesquite wash here (33.6389776, -116.2798933), where it became more difficult to find, but others had relocated it on that area around 8:15 when I left.

Seems like morning is definitely best for finding this bird.

Good birding,
Logan Kahle
Prius, California

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Naresh Satyan via groups.io
Date: Sat, Oct 29, 2022, 3:23 PM
Subject: [LACoBirds] Sedge Wren, Toyon landfill (Griffith park)
To: LACoBirds@groups.io < lacobirds@groups.io >
Hi all,
* Important: no access to this bird on weekdays. Weekends only. Please do not bird here on weekdays *

Saturday, Oct 29
For people not aware yet, Kevin Lapp found a a Sedge Wren at Toyon Landfill at Griffith park. 34.143567,-118.303130 in what people are calling a cockleburr() bush. The bird has been in the same spot since 8:30 am (7 hours).
It is calling occasionally (once or twice an hour). Very difficult to see, but has strongly checkered wings with no plain shoulder patch etc.
Park at the mineral wells picnic area and hike up the extremely steep road/trail to this spot.
Thanks to Kevin for finding it, and Marky Mutchler/Scheels/Otto etc for staying on it until we got here from Avalon.
The bird is still here at 3:20 pm.
Regards, Naresh
-- Naresh Satyan Pasadena, CA

https://ebird.org/checklist/S121475787

(There is a lot of information in the comments section for how get to Catalina Island and how to find the bird)
Tom Miko
Claremont LA County
909.241.3300

Get Outlook for iOS

Hello, A beautiful cerulean warbler was photographed early this morning at what is being referred to as private property; Avalon School, which is a public school, part of Long Beach Unified School district. Outsiders are not allowed on campus until after 3:30 p.m. today, when the high school students get out.

Thomas Geza Miko
Claremont, LA County
909.241.3300
"I'm on the fence! My bank account is unfortunately in another neighborhood."--CuppaJoe

As of 9:00 a.m. on Friday morning, no luck refinding the Swallow-tailed Gull photographed late on the 25th in southern Oceanside, San Diego County. The bird was a breeding plumaged adult, and it was just on a random beach which doesn't seem like the best spot for one to hang out or return to, in any case. We've tried the closest spots that make better sense which are Oceanside Harbor and the west end of Agua Hedionda lagoon, as they at least have jetties and piping and piers and docks and buoys and those type features which would seem to be a better place to find a roosting Swallow-tailed, And they have more goals in general. As mentioned by others, the Washington bird moved up and down a 20-mile stretch of coast over the week or so that it was present, so this bird could be virtually anywhere..... Certainly worth checking these spots again over the next several days in case it does simply move up and down a long stretch of coast like the Washington bird did.
Paul Lehman, San Diego

Sent from the all new AOL app for Android

A series of photos have been submitted to the California Bird Records Committee today, Oct 27, of an adult Swallow-tailed Gull on the beach at Saint Malo Beach in southern Oceanside in northern San Diego County, but unfortunately now two days ago, very late in the day on the 25th. Clearly worth searching up and down the coast in that area for the next few days. And needless to say, if anyone finds it, a very prompt alert would be warranted!!
Paul Lehman, San Diego

Sent from the all new AOL app for Android

Howdy Calbirders,
This is a bit off-topic, but...
75th Benicia CBC is scheduled to be held on Dec 19, 2022. This count's center is on Hwy 680 1 1/4 miles north of Pierce Lane. It includes parts of the Suisun Marsh, Napa County, all of Benicia, most of Cordelia, parts of Vallejo, and Fairfield. This count usually gets 100,000 birds and between 160-170 species. I'm hoping to get some experienced birders.

If you are interested please contact Robin Leong (970) 234-5727 robin_leong@...

Robin Leong
Vallejo, CA