Greetings All:
I spent two hours at Clapp Park this morning. The best highlight: the
number and variety of thrushes along the berm splitting the playa. I would
closely follow one until it bumped up against another, taking care to leave
a bird completely behind in order to prevent double-counting. From west to
east it was Hermit Thrush - Veery - Hermit Thrush - Swainson's Thrush -
Hermit Thrush - Hermit Thrush. I got the same count, in reverse order,
working from east to west. The birds seemed loath to push into the next
birds space and at least a couple of very territorial looking skirmishes
broke out between the Swainson's Thrush and its neighbors. The Veery kept
a low profile, looping back when I bumped him up against a Hermit Thrush.
The Veery looked to be a western race bird with some brown tones in the
back and wings. All in all, though, very reddish-orange, almost no eye
ring, and very weak spotting on the orange-tinged breast. Veery reports
from our region are split 50:50 between spring and fall. We have one
record from late in a September: all other fall reports fall in the first
17 days of various Octobers.
The second best highlight: a Merlin repeatedly harassing a Common Poorwill
from one ground perch to the next. It looked like much too much bird for a
Merlin to take but it kept trying.
The third best highlight: when the Merlin flew over the berm, five
accipiters rose to meet it and there was a tangle of falcon and accipiters
for several minutes before things got sorted out.
Other highlights: 2 Green-winged Teals, 1 Green Heron, 1 Yellow-crowned
Night Heron, a total of 3 Sharp-shinned Hawks, a total of 4 Cooper's Hawks,
1 other Common Poorwill, 1 House Wren, 2 Gray Catbirds, 1 Brown Thrasher, 8
Orange-crowned Warblers, 2 Nashville Warblers, 1 female Common
Yellowthroat, 3 Wilson's Warblers, 2 Chipping Sparrows, 1 Song Sparrow, and
1 adult female Indigo Bunting (initially mistaken for a Lazuli Bunting but
the faint streaking on the brownish breast, the pale throat, and the rich
brown rump over-ruled, to my mind, the distinctly white wingbars).
The Veery was new for my site list this year, bringing me up to 174 species
of bird at Clapp Park in 2015.
Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson
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