In an autumn full of surprises, one of the most unexpected was documented by a visitor from New York State during a field trip, looking for condors, offered by the annual Monterey Bay Bird Festival in Watsonville. At a stop at Grimes Point on the Big Sur coast on 29 Sep, Suzanne O'Rourke wandered over to some blooming Salvia and snapped this photograph of a young male Broad-billed Hummingbird! (photo left 29 Sep © Suzanne O'Rourke). By the time the rest of the birders on the trip got to the spot, the hummer had vanished and was never seen again.

This was just the second record for this Mexican hummingbird in MTY. In a touch of irony, Bob Tintle and Chris Tenney discovered the first county record at the Carmel River mouth exactly 34 years earlier — on 29 Sep 1984. That individual hung around a blooming mallow at at "Rio Park," behind the Carmel Mission, for two days. [Tintle's photo of that young male is in the first edition of Monterey Birds.]

Birders were luckier with another rarity in late September — this young female Bay-breasted Warbler at Pt. Pinos, found by Blake Matheson on 22 Sep, that lingered through 26 Sep and was photographed by many (photo right 23 Sep © Bill Hill). Note the lime-green crown and back and the black legs and feet that help separate it from hatch-year Blackpoll Warblers.

A week earlier, on 15 Sep, visiting tour leader Mary Gustafson found another hatch-year female at Moonglow Dairy. The only year we've never had two different Bay-breasts in MTY on the same year was in 1985.

This now makes eight MTY records, all in fall migration. The two records this fall, plus a young male at the Pacific Grove cemetery 20-25 Sep 2014, are the only ones from this century — and the only ones from September. All prior records were in October to early December.

Autumn rarities started early in 2018. Surprisingly, they began with a run of adult vagrant passerines — this is a surprise because more than 90% of fall vagrants are hatch-year birds in their first migration. The best was a Gray Catbird discovered by the remarkable Bill Hill on 28 August (photo right 28 Aug © Bill Hill). It took up residence in a riparian thicket, eating creek dogwood berries and occasionally singing or giving its 'mew' call. You can see from Bill's photo that an outer rectrix is growing in on 28 Aug. When we saw it on 9 Sep, the tail seemed complete. It seems this bird was present to molt before moving south. Did it summer here? Or is this an example of "molt migration" — adults moving away from the breeding locale to another spot to molt before migrating, something that is documented in eastern passerines and is currently being studied (fide Scott Terrill).

It's been a long time since there was a 'chaseable' Gray Catbird in MTY, so all the locals put on rubber boots to wade to see it. The last one at the Carmel River was back on 7-8 June 1997. That Catbird was discovered by — drum roll — Bill Hill. Long before digital cameras, MTY has been blessed with excellent photographers who documented local rarities. In the 1960s-1970s it was Ron Branson. In the 1980s, John Sorensen. And from about the 1990s, the go-to guy has been Bill Hill. Now with digital cameras we have several fine photographers, but Bill is a local lad who grew up to be the Carmel Fire Chief until retirement gave him more time to photograph birds.

Two unexpected vireos also proved to be adults. Brian Sullivan found this scruffy Yellow-green Vireo (below left, photo 28 Aug © B.L. Sullivan) in Pacific Grove's "El Carmelo" cemetery on 28 Aug. We can tell it is an adult by the red eye. It was very elusive but was seen to 3 Sep. Carole Rose found this worn and beat-up Red-eyed Vireo — with its adult red eye — in Monterey's "San Carlos" cemetery on 5 Sep (photo below right © C. Rose). Yellow-green is the rarer of the two 'red-eyed' vireos in MTY, with just 11 records. We now average about 1-2 Red-eyed Vireos a year, and the species has attempted to summer at Big Sur River mouth. Remarkably, two vagrant hatch-year Red-eyed Vireos — with dark eyes — have already been one-day-wonders this fall.

Another potential adult vagrant was this Blackburnian Warbler, found by Rick Fournier at Pt. Pinos on 5-6 Sep (photo right 5 Sep © D. Roberson). Rick thought it was a worn adult female, and details of the amount and shape of the white tips that create the two wingbars further support the theory (per Pyle's 1997 banding guide).

Michael Rieser found a more typical hatch-year Blackburnian at the Presidio of Monterey on 6 Sep. From a MTY perspective, these are the two earliest fall Blackburnians on record. Most of MTY's records are from October.

Two small Spizella sparrows sparked discussion as well. On 6 Sep Paul Fenwick found this Brewer's Sparrow at the Pacific Grove cemetery (below left, photo 6 Sep © D. Roberson), and it remained to 7 Sep. There is only one earlier fall record in MTY (5 Sep 1979 near Robinson Canyon, Rich Stallcup), and one other from 7 Sep (in 2009 at Salinas WTP, Scott & Linda Terrill). But it was not so much the early arrival that was curious. Birders noted that at certain angles the extensive soft-gray half-collar of the P.G. bird was more extensive than typical, and the face more patterned, bringing to mind the possibility of "Timberline Sparrow." Described as a separate species by Swath & Brooks in 1925, "Timberline Sparrow" breeds in isolated populations at subalpine elevations in the Rockies of s.e. Alaska to s.w. Alberta. It is currently considered a subspecies of Brewer's Sparrow: S. b. taverneri. It apparently migrates to the winter range of nominate Brewer's Sparrow, and there is said to be a specimen from California (Rotenbery et al. 1999). Otherwise, there is very little known about it.
   We'll probably never know if the P.G. cemetery sparrow was a "Timberline Sparrow." The odds are against it. We can, however, compare it with a presumed nominate S. b. breweri Brewer's Sparrow that was found by Rita Carratello at Pt. Lobos on 8 Sep, becoming the 4th earliest ever (photo below right © Carol Greenstreet).

More tropical boobies! Farther down this page you'll find that the top highlights of summer 2018 were tropical boobies usually limited to warmer seas in the eastern tropical Pacific. Two more were headlines in August. On 25 August, Brian Sullivan watched this immature dark-morph Red-footed Booby fly past Pt. Pinos while Brian was sea-watching — and he even managed a few photos! (photo right © B.L. Sullivan). This is just the 5th record for MTY.

On 24 August — the day before the Pt. Pinos Red-footed Booby — a larger and more controversial booby was a few miles west of Pt. Pinos, found from a Shearwater Journeys pelagic trip (both photos below © Alex Lamoreaux; in the upper photo the booby is harassed by an imm Heermann's Gull). It is clearly a young booby just beginning post-juvenal wing molt (at innermost primary) and undergoing body molt on the head, neck, and upperwing coverts.

Some have labeled it "Masked Booby," largely on bill color, but the more recent trend in analysis leans towards Nazca Booby (as does this commentator). As you see down the page, there are 6 recent records of Nazca in MTY — and an amazing influx off southern California.

Note that only the distal half of the bill is yellow (and a small stripe along the cutting edge), but the basal half is essentially bone-white. A half-yellow bill is just fine for Nazca — it is the color at the base of the bill that separates Masked from Nazca. The state of molt of this booby suggests it is about a year old. Some observers now think that perhaps only Nazca Booby can have a chalky-white base to the bill a year after it is hatched — perhaps Masked Booby should have a more completely yellow or yellow-green bill by this age. More study is needed.

More unexpected was the presence of two subadult Red-footed Boobies in MTY this summer. The first was found dead, washed up on Moss Landing SB, on 1 July (photo right © Ryan Carle). It appeared to be emaciated and perhaps died of starvation. In tropical seas, Red-footed Boobies forage far offshore — often chasing and catching flying fish — but perhaps there is not enough surface fish in Monterey Bay to support their foraging strategy? Red-foots are also notorious for their habitat of resting and sleeping on anything that is floating on the sea: flotsam, kelp, sea turtles (dead or alive), and (most often) ships. When I spent 4 months at sea as a NOAA naturalist, one Red-footed Booby rode on our research ship for 5 days and hundreds of miles, sleeping on the mast each night, until we could see Hawaii in the distance.

In California — and before Nazca was split from Masked Booby as a species — Red-footed was the rarest of all State boobies. Until recently, except for an incursion in fall 1987, there had never been more than 1-2 in any year. From Aug-Dec 1987 at least six reached California, four of which were in central California). MTY's first records were in that incursion.

During 2017 & 2018 so far, at least a half-dozen Red-footed Boobies have been seen on-shore or offshore in southern California. But the most visited by birders was one at Pillar Point Harbor in San Mateo County from 29 Oct-13 Dec 2017. July's specimen from Moss Landing added another.

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