Brian writes:

"After many years of running this route, a bit of fine-tuning, tweaking, and good luck helped produce this record count. Overall, the southern section was flawless, with all the regular breeding birds showing up and a few winter birds lingering long enough to get on the list. The central portion of the route is also more streamlined now, and we got lucky with the rarer river birds at the few places along the route where we have a chance to scan the river. The coastal portion of the route was likewise excellent today, though light winds made sea-watching a challenge. Those same light winds made for a beautiful evening in the Moss Landing/Elkhorn Slough area, where the number of birds was astounding. Highlights included: great lingering waterfowl including a surprise male Canvasback, 4 Ring-necked Ducks, and all three scoters; 4 falcon species including a spectacular Merlin chase with thousands of peeps at Elkhorn Slough; and a surprise Swainson's Hawk near King City."
  

Their 2024 effort is now is the highest Big Day in Monterey County. Congratulations on this record achievement!

The table below sets out a compilation (bottom to top) of formal ABA Big Day Rules in Monterey County that either broke preceding records or had 200 or more species for the Day. ABA Rules require that a team (minimum 2 observers) stay in voice contact with each other throughout the day in one vehicle; that >95% of species must be identified by all of the team; that they receive no help by others during the day; and that they use no audio playback to get birds to vocalize [part of Big Day rules in 20th century; Brian & Paul used no playback in 2024, making their effort comparable with even the oldest MTY Big Days]. These rules make it possible to make comparisons of Big Days over time.
    As you can see, the first record back in 1981 had 196 species and the new record is 221 species — a 25-bird (12%) improvement over 43 years — as the routes get shorter and more efficient, and the efforts benefit from good weather and lots of pre-effort scouting. In some ways, species totals are easier in the 21st century with local populations of Great-tailed Grackle plus non-native Eurasian Collared-Dove and Scaly-breasted Munia now available. Changes in taxonomy have aided a tiny bit as well, with Western & Clark's Grebe now split [they were still lumped as one species in 1981]. The table below also includes all Big Day efforts that reached 200 species or more, even though the some of the 200+ efforts did not set a county record. The compilation is organized by Species Total and not by date.

In early 2024, various rarities from the autumn of 2023 were still present, and set record late dates. MTY's first and only Yellow-crowned Night-Heron stayed at Stillwater Cover, Pebble Beach, until 31 March. The first-year Long-tailed Duck and the first-cycle Franklin's Gull found in Monterey harbor on 28 Nov and 2 Dec 2023, respective, were accommodating to 21 March (duck) and 5 Feb (gull), as attested by multiple photos. A Blackburnian Warbler in Pacific Grove's Greenwood Park lingered until 1 March. Three different Lucy's Warblers were seen during the winter months of 2024. The wintering Tropical Kingbird at Laguna Grande Park, Seaside, stayed until 2 May for its 5th full winter of local presence.

   Late winter rarities included a White-winged Dove in a neighborhood of Marina from 9 Jan-31 March, spending its time with flocks of Eurasian Collared-Doves (Jim DiMaggio, Steve Rovell, et al.). A fly-by Yellow-billed Loon from Pt. Pinos on 2 Mar (B.L. Sullivan) and another seen from a boat offshore Pt. Lobos on 8 Mar (James Maughn). A Sage Thrasher was rare to the coast, especially in spring, at Grimes Pt., Big Sur coast (Mark Chappell). A second-cycle Lesser Black-backed Gull was at Salinas R. mouth on 9 March. And a cornucopia of Orchard Orioles frequented Laguna Grande Park between 28 March and 20 April. Presumably these were a congregation of wintering orioles (also joined by Hooded Orioles at favored spots), and included at least two males and two (presumed) females. By late April, at least one male was singing and starting to molt into breeding plumage (photo right, 17 Apr, © Jeri M. Langham).

Certainly the most unexpected appearance of the first half of 2024, and the 'Bird of the Year' to date, was in a private backyard in the San Benancio Canyon neighborhood, not far from Toro County Park. On 13 January, Michael Thompson saw a Common Redpoll at their feeder along Rimrock Canyon Road; Michael photographed it the next morning. Word of the observation and photo was posted, and multiple birders — locals and birders from as from distant counties — were permitted to view the feeder from the back yard over the next two days. The redpoll arrived during a cold weather snap (temperatures in the upper 40s-low 50s° F), but most of those who persisted for hours in the cold, including into the morning of 15 January, saw its return to the feeders (photos above 15 Jan, © D. Roberson).
   This was a first record for Monterey County. It is a rarity anywhere in California, with just over 50 record since 1899. The vast majority has been in the northeastern corner of the State, and particularly at Tule Lake and Lower Klamath wildlife refuges. There have been winters when small incursions appeared just south of the Oregon line — 16 were collected in 1899, and 54 were seen in Dec 1985-Jan 1985 — but those seem to be 'once-a-century' situations. There was one at a feeder in Santa Cruz [24-25 Feb 2012] and a couple have reached California's Channel Islands or the Farallones, but it was not thought to be likely here in MTY. This was particularly true in winter 2023-2024, as there were not any southward irruptions in Oregon preceding this occurrence, nor elsewhere in the Northwest. It seems to be pure happenstance that it appeared here at all.
  [A side note: this page in posted in July, just after the release of the American Ornithological Society's annual supplement to the official AOS Checklist of the Birds of North America. One of their new decisions this year was to lump all the of the world's redpolls — Common Redpoll, Hoary Redpoll, Lesser Redpoll (in Europe) — into just one species, now simply renamed Redpoll Acanthis flammea. We wonder when, or if, a Redpoll will appear again.]

Literature cited:

• Roberson, D. 2002. Monterey Birds, 2d ed. Monterey Audubon Soc., Carmel, CA.
• Roberson, D., and C. Tenney, ed. 1993. Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Monterey County, California. Monterey Audubon Soc., Carmel, CA.

I thank Rita Carratello and Michael Rieser for editorial comments on an earlier draft of this page.

Page created 13 June-23 July 2024

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