P.G.'s Prothonotary had been held over for its second week when Bill Hubick introduced the two next show-stoppers. He did this, at least initially, by taking his family to explore the local tidepools at John Denver Memorial beach, on the Bay side of Pt. Pinos, where there is sand and lots of squishy non-native ice-plant. Bill writes: "While packing up the car and with no binoculars or camera in hand, I spotted an intriguing bird hopping around in the ice-plant. My wife Becky saw the look on my face (as Tennessee Warbler and others were ruled out) and offered to run and grab my camera from the car." Yet, oblivious to the fact that ice-plant is never used by hungry migrants, was a fresh young Yellow-green Vireo! (below left, 8 Oct, © Bill Hubick). The ice-plant-walking vireo remained for four days, ignoring hordes of beach-loving tourists, and permitted itself to be photographed many times in this supposedly unsuitable habitat.

So about ten days go by. By 19 Oct both the glowing Prothonotary and the naive Yellow-green have continued on. Bill Hubick was back to birding parks and cemeteries, with camera in hand. On this particular day, Bill was at one of the El Estero cemeteries in Monterey, but we'll let him tell the story (to quote his eBird account): "On this warm and sunny afternoon, many migrants were feeling the heat, standing in the shade with bills open. I thought, wow, that Palm Warbler looks weird and hot, almost like a vireo. Wouldn't it be funny if it was a vireo on the lawn? Maybe it's a Yellow-green Vireo... Oh god, it is!" (photo above right, 19 Oct, © Bill Hubick). And so here we have a Neotropical vireo foraging on the grass. What ever became of trees or vine-tangles or shady canopies? This silly bird was also photographed by "millions of birders" (caution: hyperbole).
    In fact, in an ironic and funny back-story, I (Don Roberson) ran into some comparative new birders at Monterey cemetery after hearing about Bill's second Yellow-green Vireo. One of them told me he'd photographed a “Red-eyed Vireo” at that spot the previous day. When he forwarded his photo to me at my request, it was clear that he had actually photographed this Yellow-green Vireo on 18 Oct (and yet another photographer on 18 Oct had made the same mistake). It turned out that the full dates for the Monterey cemetery Yellow-green Vireo were 18-23 October. [There were also two actual Red-eyed Vireos in MTY in fall 2022 ... and with photos.]
    There were previously 17 records of this vireo for MTY — including an incredible four of them in fall 2021 — so these two in 2011 bring the county total to 19 Yellow-green Vireos.

 
On the last day that the Monterey cemetery Pine Warbler was present (27 Oct), Brian Sullivan and Richard Crossley discovered a hatch-year Bay-breasted Warbler at Laguna Grande. There had been only 9 previous records for MTY, so it, too, was startling. Yet two more Bay-breasts would be discovered in the following two weeks: the second one at Berwick Park in Pacific Grove on 4 Nov, found by Bill Hubick during a long run on the coastal rec trail (!) and the third at Carmel River mouth on 13 Nov (Michael Rieser). All were photographed, but only the Berwick Park individual lingered for photo opportunities by dozens and dozens of birders between 4–6 Nov. Like the remarkable Yellow-green Vireos this fall, and both of the Pine Warblers, this vagrant spent a lot of time foraging on manicured grass in parks (here) or cemeteries. I like this shot with its unique perspective of a crisp autumn Bay-breasted Warbler (photo left 4 Nov, © Cooper Scollan).
    These 3 Bay-breasted Warblers, breaking the prior high count of two in one autumn (2018), bring the MTY county total 12 records.

The table below compares how fall migration in 2022 — September into early December 2023 — to Monterey County's "average" numbers of "vagrant eastern warblers" from prior autumn occurrences. The book Monterey Birds, 2d ed (Roberson 2002) summarized the status and distribution of rare eastern warbler through 2001. In the table, the "top dozen" most regular "rare eastern warblers" are ranked by their averages as published in Monterey Birds. Those averages for fall migration are then compared to data from the last then years (2012-2021). Another column sets out highest historic total in any fall migration. The final two columns set out how many were tallied in fall 2022, and provides a brief comment.
   You'll note that there have been changes in rankings this century. While previously Chestnut-sided Warbler averaged about 6 per fall last century, its recent average is 9.1/fall, and it has become the third-most-common 'eastern' warbler locally. This fall was even stranger. The most common 'eastern' warblers in Sep-Oct were Tennessee (33), Black-and-white (13), and Chestnut-sided (11); most of the 23 Palm Warblers appeared in late October through November. Much less common species — Magnolia, Blackburnian, and Canada — had or tied their best fall ever here in MTY. The even-rarer species — Bay-breasted and Pine — had their best fall ever.
   [Not included in the table are the southwestern Virginia's & Lucy's Warblers. They have averaged about 0.5/year — one every other year — pretty much steadily for 5 decades. We had one of each this fall.]

Blackpoll

MONTEREY AUDUBON SEAWATCH at Pt. Pinos  1 Nov–15 Dec 2022

Monterey Audubon's seventh annual seawatch from Pt. Pinos featured expert Michigan seawatcher Alison Vilag. From dawn to dusk, 6 days a week for six weeks, she tallied migrant seabirds in every kind of weather. Sunny, calm days can be slow, but breezy or stormy days can bring too many birds to count. Her tallies of primary interest migrants included over 97,000 Pacific Loon & over 53,000 Surf Scoters. Rare waterfowl included 30 Black Scoter (one female with Surf Scoters below, © Blake Matheson) and 5 Long-tailed Ducks.

Alison also documented some remarkable landbird vagrants from Pt. Pinos during her six weeks, including a Lesser Nighthawk on 8 Nov, Short-eared Owl on 9 Nov, White-winged Dove on 25 Nov, and a Lapland Longspur that landed on the shore on 3 Nov (photo below, © Blake Matheson). She saw a Brown Booby fly past on 1 Dec.



Local birders joined Alison most days during the formal seawatch, or were drawn to Pt. Pinos when windy conditions provided opportunities for rare seabirds. This photo (above) is from 2 Nov, when a Laysan Albatross was seen by many. In Dec, Alison and others watched Leach's & Fork-tailed Storm-petrels. Prior to the seawatch, on 22 Oct, Brian Sullivan and others saw another Laysan, a Flesh-footed and a Manx Shearwater, up to 9 Tufted Puffins, and a passing Yellow-billed Loon (first spotted by Carole Rose).

SIDEBAR: California's amazing autumn for Old World passerines

While Monterey County (MTY) had a wonderful autumn migration of vagrant Parulid warblers and other passerines from the east or southwest, two astonishing "Old World Warblers," in family Phylloscopidae, occurred in October: one south of MTY and the other north of us. Previously, the State had multiple records of Dusky Warbler Phylloscopus fuscatus and a few of Arctic Warbler P. borealis [incl. records of each in MTY], plus one Yellow-browed Warbler P. inornatus. These three Phylloscopus breed into Siberia, and were 'wrong-way' vagrants that reached western North America. Although they are "mega-rarities" in the lower 48 United States, their range and long-distance migration routes, which had brought prior records to Alaska, made them almost predictable.

   
        Wood Warbler in Long Beach, Los Angeles Co. (photo above, D. Roberson)

        Willow Warbler at Rodeo Lagoon, Marin Co. (photo below, D. Roberson)
    

A Wood Warbler in Los Angeles Co., and a Willow Warbler in Marin Co., were not among the Old World passerines must of us thought would occur in California. Their ranges in eastern Europe and central Asia, with wintering routes mostly towards Africa, did not seem to favor vagrancy towards us. The most likely route would be over the North Pole! Yet, here they were. Each warbler stayed 6-9 days for long-distance twitchers.
    Then at year's end, Matt Brady discovered a Red-flanked Bluetail Tarsiger cyanurus in Santa Cruz. This shy, skulking Old World flycatcher breeds into Siberia and winters to southeast Asia. There are now 6 State records, with 4 of them on islands (Farallones, San Clemente I.). One wintered in a formal garden in Los Angeles from 21 Dec 2018–22 Mar 2019. It was seen by many State birders but views tended to be brief.
    This seems to be true of the Santa Cruz bird as well, where views and photos have been brief and difficult. Some MTY birders went up to (try to) see it; Beth Hamel managed this fine shot (below) on 30 Dec. The Bluetail is still present into mid-January and, if it survives the storms, might even winter.

    Red-flanked Bluetail at Lighthouse Field SP, Santa Cruz Co. (photo below, Beth Hamel)