December The year typically winds down with our local Christmas Bird Counts — Big Sur CBC on 17 Dec and Monterey Peninsula CBC on 27 Dec this year — but it was a major rarity found by a visiting birder that was the Christmas present for many local observers. David Dolavina was birding along the Big Sur River in Pfeiffer Big Sur SP on 23 Dec when he discovered this Louisiana Waterthrush bob-bobbing among the rocks and colorful fallen leaves at river's edge [photos above 24 Dec © Don Roberson and right 29 Dec © Bill Hill]. Its bubblegum pink legs, flaring white supercilium, and the delicate buffy wash to flanks and undertail coverts help to identify it.

We hope it might winter, as the species has done once before in southern California. It was remarkably elusive on some days but was seen through 31 Dec. There is just one prior record for MTY: one netted and banded farther downstream along the Big Sur River, within Andrew Molera SP, by the then-existing Big Sur Ornithology Lab on 30 May 2003.

On the final day of 2017, Bruce Mast, a visiting Bay Area birder, discovered a hatch-year female Northern Parula at Laguna Grande Park (left, photo 31 Dec © D. Roberson). Comparison of photos of a Parula found here on 29 Nov by Don Glasco show several plumage differences, plus the lapse in time between sightings, suggest that this year-end Parula is a newly arrived individual. If so it may try to winter. One at Laguna Grande from 17 Nov-6 Dec 2015 did not make it through the winter, but at least three other Northern Parulas have wintered in MTY.

Single Lucy's Warblers in Pacific Grove on 7 Dec (Blake Matheson) and at Carmel R. mouth on 30 Dec (Brian L. Sullivan) were excellent December vagrants.

Meanwhile, on 22 Dec, Paul Fenwick found and photographed a dark-morph "Harlan's" Red-tailed Hawk in the lower Carmel Valley (photo right © Paul Fenwick). A "Harlan's" was seen again at Carmel R. mouth near year's end (B.L. Sullivan). This is only the 3rd MTY record; the most recent was at Elkhorn Slough Reserve in Feb 2016 (see that seasonal report).

The formal MAS Pt. Pinos seawatch [see below] concluded on 15 Dec, with Karl Bardon recording 142 species over his 6 weeks of seawatching, but the generally calm conditions turned to strong NW winds the very next day. Karl set up his tripod one last time on 16 Dec and was among those to record a dozen Fork-tailed and a single Leach's Storm-Petrel that date. Another Fork-tailed was seen on the Monterey Peninsula CBC from Pt. Pinos (Rob Fowler).

Up to 2 juv Pacific Golden-Plover, discovered by Amanda Preece on 14 Dec on the rocky shores of Asilomar SP, may be attempting to winter (photo left on one of them on14 Dec © Blake Matheson). A handful of Pacific Golden-Plovers have wintered locally in past years. In late November, a recently plowed field along Molera Rd., just southeast of Moss Landing, attracted up to 10 Pacific Golden-Plovers, plus up to two each of Lapland and Chesnut-collared Longspurs.

A visitor to Pt. Lobos State Reserve on 5 Dec photographed this Scissor-tailed Flycatcher there with her iPhone (below right © Brook Knowles). This appears to be the 13th MTY record. Alas, efforts to relocate it in subsequent days were unsuccessful.

Several interesting birds that arrived earlier in the fall lingered to year's end in addition to the Yellow-breasted Chat (discussed below). Among them were an incursion of Red Crossbills, first noted in Pacific Grove on 6 Sep. Small flocks have scattered across the Monterey Peninsula and Jacks Peak; Blake Matheson's excellent photo of a male was taken near Jacks Peak (above left, taken 24 Nov © B.T. Matheson). Only two "types" of Red Crossbills have been known to reach Monterey County. Various incursions have been attributed to "type 2 or Ponderosa Pine Crossbills," particularly huge numbers in fall 1996 [tape-recordings by locals confirmed by Jeff Groth]. More recently, in fall 2012 and again in winter 2014-2015, recordings have confirmed the presence of "type 3 or Western Hemlock Crossbills." Various observers describe calls in varying ways; I (D. Roberson) tend to describe the calls of type 3 as "softer, light scratchy 'jip-jip-jip' calls" compared to the "loud, sharp, staccato 'kip-kip-kip' notes" of type 2 crossbills. However one says it, the experienced locals feel that this fall's flight is of type 3 Western Hemlock crossbills, and presumably Blake's photo is of one of them.

A male Summer Tanager, first noted 20 Nov in Pacific Grove (D. Roberson) was back in town for its 5th winter of occurrence, and making its usual rounds from the vicinity of the P.G. ballpark south to near Asilomar Conference grounds. Another Summer Tanager, this one a first-year immature, was found at Asilomar on 27 Dec (Amanda Preece).

November Seaside's Laguna Grande Park once again became the center of the MTY birding scene in November. It began Friday, 3 Nov, when Mark Kudrav discovered a Scarlet Tanager in the "chat patch" portion of the Virgin patch [photo near right 4 Nov © Cooper Scollan]. The tanager would linger to 12 Nov and be seem by perhaps a hundred observers from far and near. The "chat patch" was named for a Yellow-breasted Chat — present from 20 Nov 2016 to 21 Apr 2017 — that was the first to winter in northern California. Remarkably, a visitor looking for the tanager found a Yellow-breasted Chat on 3 Nov, back in the "chat patch"! Since this chat was in fall adult plumage [e.g., black lores, photo far right from 11 Nov © Steve Rovell], we believe it is the same chat returned for its second winter [it was still present through 27 Dec].

In early October, unprecedented numbers of "Aleutian" Cackling Geese passed over the Monterey coast. On the morning of 4 Oct, for example, Mark Kudrav watched 338 fly north over the Big Sur R. mouth [flocks of 78 and 260]. Between 9:30-11:30 a.m., Paul Fenwick, Brian Sullivan and Cooper Scollan had 131 go over Pt. Pinos [photo below © P. Fenwick; shows 61 geese]. Right around noon Don Roberson had 105 fly over his Pacific Grove home and within minutes the same flock was over Fenwick and company at the P.G. cemetery. Then between 1-5 p.m. that day, Kent Van Vuren counted 245 in flight over Pt. Lobos (245 in one flock, exactly 100 in the other; photo right © K. Van Vuren of 23 geese). Even assuming the mid-morning Pt. Pinos birds were part of Kudrav's Big Sur birds, that's at least 688 Aleutian geese in MTY in a single day. Several hundred more were located widely, in flocks of varying size, into November. Surely more than a thousand visited MTY in October. These numbers break the all-time abundance records of this Aleutian subspecies leucopareia in MTY.

The occurrences might suggest the flocks migrating south from Alaska became lost over the sea (due to fog?) and had to return northward to reach the intended winter locales. The numbers also illustrate the extent of the population's impressive comeback from "endangered" status just a half-century ago.

Back to warblers in early September — on 3 Sep, Rita Carratello and Larry & Carole Rose discovered an Ovenbird walking through "the thicket" at El Carmelo cemetery in Pacific Grove (above © Rita Carratello). This is the exact spot frequented by another Ovenbird in fall 2014 [see details here, halfway down page] and the finders were just talking about that bird when this individual appeared! Ovenbird remains quite a rare eastern vagrant locally; this was perhaps the 24th county record but we average fewer than one a year.

Later the same day, Brian Sullivan found a hatch-year Magnolia Warbler in "the thicket" (right © B.L. Sullivan). Both the Ovenbird and the Magnolia were present through 4 Sep. We are now averaging about 2-4 Magnolias each fall (Roberson 2002).

Literature cited:

• California Bird Records Committee. 2007. Rare Birds of California (R.A. Hamilton, M.A. Patten, and R.A. Erickson, eds). Western Field Ornithologists, Camarillo, CA.
• Roberson, D. 2002. Monterey Birds. 2d ed. Monterey Pen. Aud. Soc., Carmel.

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