Date: 5/18/25 8:00 am From: <lehman.paul...> via groups.io <lehman.paul...> Subject: [SanDiegoRegionBirding] La Jolla Manx Shearwater, Tree ID
First of all, for those interested, the identity of the "magic tree" at Point Loma Nazarene University, where yesterday's Tennessee Warbler And a number of Western migrants were hanging out off and on, was identified for us by the campus groundskeeper as a Catalina Cherry. He says there's one other one on campus, so it'd be worth somebody trying to figure out where it is!
This morning, Sunday, the first increase in Black vented Shearwater numbers in many months at La Jolla seawatch, where I had a total of 58 birds in an hour and a half. And at 6:40 a.m. a Manx Shearwater flew by southbound very close to shore. About a third of the Black -venteds were using the same flight line which is as close as I've ever seen them to shore, either over where the kelp usually is or even inside the kelp, possibly associated with a herd of Common Dolphins working that area which is also closer to shore than I normally see numbers of Common Dolphins. There is sort of a sweet spot time-wise where the light is sufficient to well see coloration on the shearwaters, but not so glary that all the black vents start looking much whiter underneath than they really are and can make one think they might be looking at a Manx. So you don't want to look on a sunny day more than an hour after dawn, and high overcast is preferred. Virtually all the shear waters were southbound, so it's unknown whether they're working the general area and may stick around or if they were just passing by only once. Otherwise, it was very uneventful for those 90 minutes scoping offshore.
Paul Lehman, San Diego
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