9.4 [SFBirds] RE: this morning
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Harry Fuller [mailto:Harry_Fuller@zd.com]
> Sent: Friday, October 29, 1999 11:11 AM
> To: Mark W. Eaton
> Cc: sfbirds@lists.best.com
> Subject: this morning
>
> there is a Mockingbird in winter residence between soccer
field and
> reconstructed windmill, unusual bird for Golden Gate Park.
>
There's a lot more than one here. I had probably
at least a half dozen this
weekend, including three in my field of view at one time. I
can't think of
a time when I've seen more in one place in SF than last weekend
at the
soccer field.
9.5 [SFBirds] 5 September Birds
Dan Murphy and I got out for a couple
of hours this morning. In the dense
fog at Middle Lake, there was only a WARBLING VIREO and a pair
of YELLOW
WARBLERS. North Lake wasn't much better with 3 Yellow Warbler
and a pair of "WESTERN"
FLYCATCHERS. The fog seemed pretty low and we headed up to Mt.
Davidson which was clear,
beautiful and warm. A very cooperative MacGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER
was on the trail up from the bus stop and we had at least three
Selsaphorous Hummingbirds. Dan found a PINE SISKIN and we had
gorgeous looks at a HOUSE Wrentit. Other birds include a pair
of LESSER GOLDFINCHES and a pair of WESTERN TANAGERS.
Middle Lake
Warbling Vireo
2 Yellow Warbler
North Lake
3 Yellow Warbler
2 Pacific-slope Flycatcher
Mt. Davidson
MacGillivray's Warbler
3 Selasphorous hummingbirds
Pine Siskin
House Wren
2 Lesser Goldfinch
2 Western Tanager
9.12 [SFBirds] Re: [SFBirds] Coastal SF
birds
Dan Murphy wrote:
>
> There was an exceptionally yellow vireo which I didn't see.
The
> guy who saw it thought it might be a Philadelphia Vireo
(Who knows?).
I believe I saw this bird too and believe it to be only a bright Warbling Vireo. It did not have a well-defined eye line and there was no dark loral spot, though the yellow did extend most (all?) the way up the the throat. I seem to recall trying to turn it into a Philadelphia Vireo and not succeeding.
9.25 [SFBirds] The Oporornis warbler at
Skyline Grove today
During the SF Rare Bird Roundup, I
had incomplete looks in very poor light at an oporornis warbler
this morning at Skyline Grove at Fort Funston.
The bird was rather lethargic in comparison to the other insectivores, deliberately moving (hopping I seem to recall) in the dense foliage on the west side of the trail north of the bunker. The belly all the way to the undertail coverts was uniformly colored and appeared to be yellow (I told you the light was bad). There was a clear demarcation at the base of the breast and the breast coloration was darker, though I could not tell what color it was. The upper parts were contrasting darker (olive?) and there were no wing bars. The face was notable for prominent white crescents above and below the eye, seen only briefly.
Based mostly on the eye crescents and the contrasting breast, I identified this as a MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER. During the roundup, it was suggested that it was possibly a MOURNING WARBLER, so I did some research. Mourning Warbler certainly has a contrasting breast and can have an incomplete eye ring, particularly in fall. However, D&G suggest that the eye ring is relatively thin and more complete than found in a MacGillivray's Warbler, which seems at odds with the bird that I found. However, I don't have a lot of experience with fall Mourning Warbler and would defer to more experienced observers.
9.26 [SFBirds] 9.26.99 GGAS Audubon Trip
to Chain of Lakes
Despite the sudden disappearance of
the marine layer which has been providing vagrants for the last
few weeks, 20 enthusiastic field trip participants enjoyed sunny
skies and some good birds.
At Middle Lake, I found a HERMIT WARBLER right off the bat in the solitary pine just off the parking lot. The glade was very slow and only a few TOWNSEND'S WARBLERS as we walked around the lake. Most participants found a COOPER'S HAWK as we continued the loop around Middle Lake.
I ran into Calvin Lou as we were finishing the Middle Lake loop and he mentioned that the PHILADELPHIA VIREO found by Jennifer Matkin was still present. After gathering the rest of the group, we headed over North Lake. Things were pretty quiet, but we did find a nice flock of insectivores just uphill from the concrete bridge on the west side of the lake. I moved the group into the glade to the west of the lake and I found an AMERICAN REDSTART in the myoporum/pittisporum on west side of the paved path just north of the toilets and the practice area for the martial arts people.
We moved back to the lake and continued along the shore and found Andrew Rush, Hugh Cotter and Calvin staring intently into the foliage about half way between the isthmus and the concrete bridge. Announcing to the group that "the real pros find vagrants by finding the other birders", Andrew put us more or less immediately onto the Philadelphia Vireo.
"A small passerine notable for a rather stout bill. The crown was grayish olive, having little contrast with the uniformly olive back, wings, rump and upper tail, with no hint of wing bars. The white supercilium was well defined and contrasted strongly with the dark eye line, which extended well to the rear of the eye and forward most of the way to the bill The head was relatively flat and the overall impression was of a rather sleek bird. The eye was dark. Immediately below the eye line were paler feathers giving the superficial impression of a CASSIN'S VIREO'S spectacles, broken by the obvious dark eye line. The lower face was uniformly gray. The underparts were uniformly fairly bright yellow, extending uniformly and undiminished all the way to the base of the lower mandible. The legs were dark.
The heavy bill pretty much eliminates all neotropical wood warblers and YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT can be eliminated by facial pattern, tail formula and belly color. TENNESSEE WARBLER is eliminated by uniformly yellow undertail coverts and heavier bill. In the genus _vireo_, most species can be eliminated by the absence of any wing bars. YELLOW-GREEN VIREO is eliminated by the facial pattern the lack of a red eye. RED-EYED VIREO is eliminated by the absence of a black line separating the crown from the supercilium as is BLACK-WHISKERED VIREO.
This leaves us with Philadelphia Vireo and WARBLING VIREO, the differentiation of which merits considerable discussion. The overall impression was of a slighter bird that the a Warbling Vireo, with less heavy body and, in particular a more slender head with no hint of a crested appearance which is found on many Warbling Vireo. Most fall Warbling Vireo tend to have noticeable contrast between the crown and back, though I don't know how reliable this is. Though there was a Warbling Vireo in the area, I did not get a look at both at the same time to do a precise size differentiation.
While some bright Warbling Vireo can approach the brightness of a Philadelphia Vireo, few have uniformly bright yellow all the way to the base of the lower mandible. The eye line on a fall Warbling Vireo tends to be less dark and show little contrast from the rest of the face and tends not to extend much into the loral area and few Warbling Vireo show an almost spectacled appearance. Most Warbling Vireo show significant contrast between the crown and back as well as a slight crested appearance."
The vagrant trap south of the concrete bridge at Lake Merced was quiet as was Skyline Grove. We headed to Battery West and had only slightly more interesting birds than hugh with 4 SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS, 2 COOPER'S HAWKS, 3 Accipiter sp., 2 NORTHERN HARRIERS and a RED-TAILED HAWK that was dark brown over it's entire underparts.
9.30 Philadelphia
Vireo, North Lake, SF
Today, I called in sick (I actually have a slight
cold :-) and, after sleeping in, headed over to North Lake. There,
I ran into Kevin McKerrigan, Jennifer (sorry, no last name; she
does the Christmas count with Kevin and Joe) and other folks
who looked familiar but for whom I don't have names. The PHILADELPHIA
VIREO had been around for at least 45 minutes before I got there
and was poking in and out of the dense willows, bamboo and other
foliage along the west side of North Lake.
After many incomplete and partial views, everyone else left leaving Kevin and I around. Of course, then the PHVI became quite cooperative. It moved to a willow just north of the plane tree north of the concrete bridge and Kevin and I studied for an extended period and I took nearly a complete roll of pictures at close distance. Conveniently, there was a WARBLING VIREO in close proximity. Here are some additional notes based on this observation.
"I was unable to see any distinct size
differential between the WAVI and the PHVI. The PHVI still looked
sleeker to me that the WAVI, but this could be entirely due to
head shape. The yellow on the lower belly and between the legs
was somewhat paler than the rest of the underparts. The lors
are in .jpg)
fact
pale, with only the dark eye line disturbing the 'spectacled'
appearance. The base of the basal end of the lower mandible was
pale for at least 1/3 of the total length and possibly as much
as 1/2."
"The base of the outer primaries was dark, separating the greater primary coverts from the primaries with a fine black edge on the folded wing. The length of the rectrices was relatively short and the shape of the rectrices was remarkable. The inner webs were much shorter than the outer webs giving resulting in a strongly notched tail formula reminiscent of a TROPICAL KINGBIRD. Despite observing the bird for well over an hour, I don't recall hearing it vocalize."
.jpg)
Additional
comments from Kevin McKereghan:
"I checked Pyle when I got home and the retrices pattern as well as the evenly dark primary coverts and pink mouth lining (which I saw when the bird yawned while scratching an itch) suggest that this is a hatching year bird. No mention was made of bill color, but the WAVI appeared to have less dark on the lower mandible, perhaps only the distal 1/3 was dark. Hard to say if it is significant."
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