ML610124942

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Possibly continuing or a new bird*. Brief encounter/heinous viewing conditions. Stocky, fall, ‘Baypoll’-type warbler that immediately stood out from the nearby YRWAs by its yellow-washed front half. Thought I saw some streaking on the flanks and maybe breast in the field - thus eliminating BBWA and PIWA - but my views were so poor I honestly couldn’t be 100% positive until I saw my photos on a bigger screen. A couple additional details, other than it having two white wing bars, were only gleaned from photos after the fact: it appeared to have a dark eye line that split a paler eye ring and its legs appeared to be red or fleshy (not dark). Lost in the highest crown of a euc and not relocated. Seen in group of eucs around this spot (33.9080033, -117.9375666). Silent as far as I could tell, except for a quick 'seet'/'zeet' call heard in flight. Poor photos. *While it’s ultimately probably impossible to know whether this individual is a new bird or a continuing bird (if it’s continuing that would mean it’s been here for 24 days and went undetected for 18), I don’t believe it’s unreasonable to think this might be a new individual. A quick, unscientific check of fall Blackpoll warbler records in SoCal over the last three years shows several precedents for more than one bird showing up at the same hotspot over a similar timespan: 2 birds at Signal Hill in 2023 over 22 days, 2 birds at Silver Lake Reservoir in 2021 over 27 days, 2 birds at Carmel Valley Community Park in 2023 over 11 days and likely 3 birds at Tech Park in 2022.

Technical information

Model

NIKON D500

ISO

900

Focal length

500 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/7.1

Shutter speed

1/2000 sec

Dimensions

1089 pixels x 726 pixels

Original file size

386.34 KB