ML90579161

Age and sex

Adult Male - X

Observation details

The story surrounding this bird is rather remarkable. Phil Henderson, 17 year Southeast Farallon Island alum, is visiting this week with Harry Carter to band Ashy Storm-Petrels. A few days ago, Phil told me a story about capturing a Prothonotary Warbler on SEFI years ago, and thought that Prothonotary Oriole would be a more fitting name, based on bill shape and in-hand behavior. This afternoon, Phil asked if there were House Sparrows on the island, and I explained that they're pretty localized (near the bar and near the airfield). As I needed to get bottles of water at the store, I asked if he wanted to tag along so we could find a House Sparrow for his island list. We found our quarry quite easily. He pointed out a Lavatera, and mentioned how good of an attractant it is for birds, and how they have a few on SEFI. As if on a cue, an unseen bird chipped. I pished for a few seconds and then largely ignored it. We had a few minutes to spare before the store opened, so we did a brief loop around the Fed Fire building, and then returned to the tree outside the bar. I noticed a small bird perched on the gutter, raised my binoculars, and exclaimed, "HOLY SHIT, THERE'S A PROTHONOTARY WARBLER!" Phil got on it, then it broke into song. It flew over the building and I went to call Ben and the others. Mike, the cook from the bar, came outside and unprompted, told me how, yesterday, he'd found a yellow bird dead by the window "with its guts hanging out" and he'd thrown it in the trash can. I looked in the trash can, but someone had recently emptied it. When he came back outside, he said, nonchalantly, "It was one of those birds," and pointed at the ground under the tree. There on the ground was the male Prothonotary Warbler, foraging confidingly. I was without camera, but fortunately Ben and Sue had theirs. I borrowed Sue's to see just how close I could get. Here is an uncropped photo with a 300mm lens. This is the third record for San Clemente Island.

Technical information

Model

NIKON D5000

ISO

250

Focal length

300 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/13.0

Shutter speed

1/250 sec

Dimensions

4310 pixels x 2868 pixels

Original file size

1.55 MB