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Thank you for subscribing to the <daily> San Luis Obispo County Rare Bird Alert. The report below shows observations of rare birds in San Luis Obispo County. View or unsubscribe to this alert at https://ebird.org/alert/summary?sid=SN36231 NOTE: all sightings are UNCONFIRMED unless indicated.
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Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis) (1) CONFIRMED
- Reported Jan 18, 2025 11:41 by Nancy Hedgespeth
- Morro Bay harbor mouth, San Luis Obispo, California
- Map: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=p&z=13&<q...>,-120.8658353&<ll...>,-120.8658353 - Checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S210375069 - Comments: "Continuing bird first reported on yesterday's afternoon bay cruise. Poorly seen because of lighting, but it was a small duck that rode low in the water with a rounded head and small bill. Sex not determined. Poor photo will be added to the checklist."
Sagebrush Sparrow (Artemisiospiza nevadensis) (2) CONFIRMED
- Reported Jan 17, 2025 13:35 by Nancy Hedgespeth
- stakeout Sagebrush Sparrow -- Elkhorn/Simmler Rd Intersection (2025), San Luis Obispo, California
- Map: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=p&z=13&<q...>,-119.8400327&<ll...>,-119.8400327 - Checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S210373857 - Media: 10 Photos
- Comments: "Continuing; photos. Pale gray head and nape, thin dark malar. Dark streaking on a pale gray back, with streaks extending across the center. Both actively feeding on the ground together."
Pine Warbler (Setophaga pinus) (1)
- Reported Jan 21, 2025 09:10 by Curtis Marantz
- Grover Beach, Sixteenth Street Park, San Luis Obispo, California
- Map: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=p&z=13&<q...>,-120.6102284&<ll...>,-120.6102284 - Checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S210326719 - Media: 5 Photos
- Comments: "I initially saw this bird foraging on the lawn in the northern part of the park, but it soon flew up to a fence, and then one of the two pines located in the middle of the park, in which it foraged for a short time and called several times before flying across the baseball field to the northwestern corner of the park. I managed to relocate this bird while it foraged at eye-level in a broadleaf tree, where it spent a short time providing good views and photo opportunities. I then saw the bird fly into a nearby tree before it flew diagonally across the intersection to the southeastern corner of the Mentone Basin Park. Over this time, I was able to get good views and photos of this bird while it foraged on the lawn and in various trees, both a pine and amid deciduous trees, often fully in the open. The calls that I heard were soft, "sweet" chips that were reminiscent of the calls of a Yellow Warbler, and unlike the calls of the other species found in the park.
This was a medium-sized warbler that appeared to be maybe slightly smaller than a Yellow-rumped Warbler, yet I suspect it was a bit larger, or at least plumper overall than a Townsend's Warbler. The bill was short, in that it would have extended backward on the face to a point just behind the eye, and stouter than those of some warblers, tapering from a base of medium depth to what appeared to be a moderately pointed tip along a culmen that was straight, if not ever so slightly decurved. The forehead was sloping and the crown was rounded, both on a head that was unremarkable in size for a warbler. The neck was short and inconspicuous, and the body was plump, full-chested, and with a posture when on the lawn that appeared to be approximately midway between horizontal and diagonal. The wings were of medium length, with a primary projection that was between one-half and two-thirds the length of the exposed secondaries, but I was unable to discern the number of primary tips extending beyond the longest secondary in the tapered wingtip, and I failed to note in the field the placement of the wingtips relative to the uppertail or undertail coverts. The tail was relatively long, probably about the length of the body without the head and neck, though I estimated this only roughly in the field. I note more specifically that the tail flared from a relatively slim base to a conspicuously, though not deeply, notched tip. The legs and feet appeared unremarkable for an arboreal warbler in both their length and mass.
This was a colorful and well-marked warbler with the plumage patterns typical of a male Pine Warbler, yet somewhat muted, suggesting that it was a first-winter bird. The forehead, crown, and nape were unmarked and a lime-green color, though seemingly with a yellowish or bronzy cast as opposed to being purely green. I further noted that the face, auriculars, and the back and sides of the neck were similarly colored. The face pattern was relatively muted, and dominated by a short, yellow supercilium that extended from the base of the upper mandible narrowly through the supraloral region, and over the eye, but seemingly only a short way back along the upper edge of the auriculars before tapering to a point and fading out. The supercilium was narrow, yet well-defined, before the eye, broader over the eye, which it almost appeared like a crescent, and narrow again behind the eye. Complementing the supercilium was a yellow crescent below each eye that was demarcated below by a narrow band of green that extended forward from the auriculars into the moustachial region and continuing to the lores. The lores were certainly dark, and although I was unsure if they were the same shade of green as the crown and auriculars, or instead a bit darker, I am confident that they were demarcated sharply above by the supercilium and below by the yellow throat. The lower edge of the dark mask was sharply demarcated as it extended backward from near the gape along the lower edges of the moustachial and auricular regions to the rear terminus of the latter, which was further demarcated by an extension of the yellow as a narrow and possibly somewhat diffuse, band of yellow that extended upward form the outer corner of the throat up toward the nape. The throat was bright yellow from the chin down to its junction with the upper breast, which was similarly colored down to the junction of the lower breast and the upper belly, below which the belly was a dingy, whitish color that appeared to continue through the undertail coverts. The yellow throat extended right up to the gape and the lower edge of the mask through the malar and submoustachial regions without any indication of a darker malar-stripe, and it also continued backward to the corners of the throat, and as noted above, with a narrow continuation upward behind the auriculars. Although the throat and the center of the breast and belly were unmarked, the sides of the breast had two or three rows and rather conspicuous, though somewhat diffuse streaks that appeared to be dark green. The flanks were washed with buff, and although I did not see obvious streaks on the flanks, it is possible that they had some narrow streaks that were inconspicuous and easily overlooked. The undertail coverts were whitish, but I failed to notice in the field their precise length or pattern. I was able to see that the underside of the tail was dull whitish centrally, but with dark, and possibly blackish, borders that extended the length of the outer edges of the outer feathers, but also expanding somewhat distally despite not curving around the tips of the feathers. Returning to the upperparts, the more purely green color of the head and neck appeared to blend into a more bronzy-green color on the mantle and scapulars, which appeared to have a brownish or olive cast, but seemingly no streaking. I am not sure I ever clearly saw the rump, and my views of the upperside of the tail were sufficient only to notice that it was mostly dark, but I think with a striped pattern that presumably reflected pale edges to the rectrices, the finer details of which I failed to notice in the field. The wings contrasted as a bit darker than the body, with the background color being a sooty-brown as opposed to black or gray. Both the greater and median coverts had white tips that produced two relatively bold wingbars. Further apparent was that the shorter, upper wingbar weas shifted forward on the wing a bit relative to the lower wingbar, and that neither wingbar appeared strikingly white. I was unable to see clearly the lesser coverts or the bases of the median coverts, but the greater coverts had sooty centers that contrasted not only with the rather broad, white tips, but also with narrow edges of gray that produced a row of narrow stripes between the wingbars. I was unable to discern the primary coverts in the field, but the remiges were the same sooty color as the coverts, but with each feather having a narrow, but well-defined, edge of medium-gray that produced a series of fine stripes on the rear part of the wing that appeared similar in both color and character on the primaries and secondaries, and even the innermost secondaries had similarly colored edges that were equally well-defined, but just a bit wider than those on the other feathers. The exposed primary tips appeared to be sooty-brown and without obvious fringes, so it was impossible for me to discern the various feathers in the wingtip.
The bill was at least mostly dark, yet I thought the lower mandible, and possibly also the cutting edge of the upper, were noticeably pale, and possibly a pale flesh in color. The eyes were dark, and even though I could not see the color of the irides in the field, my photos show them to be dark brown. The legs and feet were both quite dark, and I saw no distinction in the color of the legs and toes, but I was unsure if they were blackish, or instead dusky with paler tones."
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