These highlights chronicle the year 2013. Created
incrementally as new photos were available, the year runs generally
"backwards" on this page. The abbreviation "MTY" means "Monterey County"
in the text below. Text by Don Roberson. Photos on this page
are copyrighted by the photographers to whom they are
attributed, and may not be reproduced in any form (including
other web sites) without the express consent of the photographer.
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usual, the year 's highlights conclude with the Monterey Peninsula
Christmas Bird Count, this year on 27 Dec. The "bird of the count" was
a Brown Thrasher (above, photo 28 Dec © D.
Roberson) at a private yard in Pacific Grove. It would remain into the
new year . . . Other excellent year-end finds – both in private back
yards – were a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak in Pacific Grove (below left, photo 28 Dec © D. Roberson) and a male Black-headed Grosbeak in Del Rey Oaks (below right, photo 27 Dec © D. Roberson). |
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On 12 Dec Shawn Wagoner discovered this Sage Thrasher
(above) at the UC MBEST center in Marina, and it stayed for at least a
week, delighting local birders (photo 12 Dec © Shawn Wagoner).
This thrasher is rare in MTY, and most have occurred farther east or
south in the county.
Mid-November brought two excellent flycatchers to MTY. An Eastern Phoebe
was at a restricted access area near the Salinas River in Salinas 11-12
Nov (Don Roberson, Rita Carratello; digiscoped photo below left ©
D. Roberson), and on 16 Nov a young Dusky-capped Flycatcher
was discovered at El Carmelo Cemetery in Pacific Grove by Blake
Matheson (photo below right © D. Roberson). The Dusky-capped is
the rarer bird, there being just 8 MTY records, and the last was way
back in 1996 — 17 years ago. We have been averaging about one Eastern
Phoebe a year — usually in late fall or winter — and this year marks
the 100th anniversary of the first MTY record (7 Mar 1913 in Monterey).
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 Pileated Woodpecker
is a resident bird of the Santa Cruz Mountains, which has long been its
southernmost range extension along the California coastal mountains.
The first MTY record was the corpse of a female picked up in the Costco
parking lot in Seaside on 5 June 1994 (and now a specimen as Calif.
Academy of Sciences, San Francisco). Since then there have been a
half-dozen sightings in the Santa Lucia Mts or along the Big Sur coast
— some better documented with details than others — but photographic
confirmation of a live bird has been lacking. Until now.
During
the first week of November 2013, resident ranger Larry Born heard and
then saw an adult female Pileated Woodpecker in the campground at
Bottchers Gap in the Santa Lucia Nat'l Forest. Over a period of several
days, the woodpecker came back to one Black Oak to work on a diseased
limb, where it fed on carpenter ants. The woodpecker's workings at very
apparent (photo right © D. Roberson). On about 6 November, Born
took a very nice handheld video (a screen shot with my point-and-shoot
of that video is below). This is the first photo of this species in
MTY.
In
the video the Pileated hammers very vigorously at the wood, and the
blows are very audible on film. The bird hammers so hard at one time
that puffs of sawdust appear in the air. Greg Meyer heard about the
event on 8 Nov (but did not see the bird) and reported to MBB after his
camping trip on 11 Nov. Efforts to see it thereafter failed. It was
last seen on 10 Nov, per Larry Born. |
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While
August through early October had its run of excellent waders and
seabirds — including the unprecedented invasion of Blue-footed Boobies
— late October brought the more expected "eastern fall vagrant
landbirds," but in exceptional diversity. It seemed like there was
something great to 'chase' every weekend for the weeks following the
middle of October. The best was during the final week of October, when
Cooper Scollan and Brandt Bates discovered a hatch-year (HY in banding
lingo, meaning born this year) Rusty Blackbird
feeding on the lawn in San Carlos Cemetery, near El Estero, in downtown
Monterey, on 27 Oct. This was just the 9th MTY record and the first
since 1993, some 20 years ago (photo above 28 Oct © Don Roberson).
The Rusty remained cooperative for just two days. However, on 11
November visiting birder Kumaran Arul stopped at the cemetery to look
for the blackbird (perhaps not realizing it had been gone for 2
weeks?), and discovered MTY's second imm Painted Bunting
of the fall — this time a brightish one that may be a HY male (photo
right 13 Nov © Bill Hill). It remained until at least 14 Nov, to
the delight of many local listers. There are now about 10 MTY records.
Late Oct-early Nov was also good for Tropical Kingbirds, with five reported, including this one at Garrapata SP on 6 Nov (photo below © Cooper Scollan).
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On the morning of 17 Oct, Don Roberson & Rita Carratello were doing a loop around Laguna Grande when Don spotted a HY Magnolia Warbler along
the north side of the lake. That bird would remain 9 days, and would be
seen by many (photo second row below left © Rick LeBaudour). Don
came back in the afternoon for photos (his shots were poor) but he also
found a Blackpoll Warbler, two Brewer's Sparrows, and two Clay-colored Sparrows.
These would grow to 3 Clay-coloreds by the next day, and many of the
sparrows would remain until 25 Oct (two quite different Clay-colors are
shown in the first row below: a bright one, below left, © Rick
LeBaudour on 22 Oct, and a dull one, below right, © D. Roberson on
17 Oct). Meanwhile, on 19 Oct, Don discovered yet another HY Magnolia Warbler near the Carmel R. mouth . . . birders chasing it dipped but found two Black-and-white Warblers (both still present the next day, one photo'd 20 Oct, below right © D. Roberson). |
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