This afternoon I took a bike ride to the Upper Santa Ana River to chase a Virginia's Warbler found by Doug Willick yesterday. Vagrant warblers have a reputation of not sticking around, so I was happy to find the Virginia's without too much trouble in the same tree described by Doug. I actually ran into Doug there; I seem to see him every time I bird the river. If he's not careful, I'll start rumors that he sleeps under the bridges there...
In addition to the Virginia's (which, incidentally, was a life bird) I found some other good birds. Best of the bunch was a Blackburnian Warbler, actually a rarer bird in the county than Virginia's Warbler. Other notables included three Pectoral Sandpipers, a Hermit Warbler, and a weird wigeon that was either a Eurasian Wigeon or an American x Eurasian Wigeon hybrid.
Weird wigeon. Eclipse male Eurasian Wigeons are very similar to this, though the head stripe was very strong, more like an American. I know a hybrid has wintered near here recently, so I am hesitant to call it anything other than weird.
Blackburnian Warbler.
Hermit Warbler.
Virginia's Warbler
Warbling Vireo
1 comment:
Nice Nashville Warbler ;)
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