Date: 7/12/25 11:54 pm From: Conor McMahon via groups.io <conormcmahon22...> Subject: [sbcobirding] Baby Flycatchers, Grebes, Musings on Plants
Hi guys,
This morning I did a little birding at Stow Grove and then Lake Los Carneros.
My favorite part of the morning was watching a pack of 3 fledgling Western Kingbirds at the LLC parking lot being periodically provisioned by an adult. Western Kingbird is a very local breeder on the South Coast. I got a bad recording of the fledglings, and also for a couple packs of Black Phoebe fledglings at Stow Grove earlier in the morning. To my ear the begging calls from these and the Western Flycatchers I've heard recently all sound relatively similar to some of the adult calls, but a bit different tonally, and much more insistent. That's in contrast to a lot of other groups, e.g. sparrows, where the fledglings sound very different from adults.
Also got some audio from the several groups of squeaky, zebra-faced Pied-billed Grebe young at the lake. Although they were clearly young and still bothering the adults, the adults weren't obviously feeding them. Increasingly I'm seeing many juvenile birds which are in juvenile plumage but independent from their parents - today lots of those especially for Juncos and Song Sparrows, and one Coot. Also lots of squealing young Red-tailed Hawks everywhere.
Just before leaving Stow Grove, I found a singing Tennessee Warbler. I think (?) this is maybe only the second July record in the county. The Tennessee was hanging around some flowering Brachychiton trees. I don't think I've seen Brachychiton discussed much as a bird magnet, maybe because they're less common locally vs. some of our other nectar trees, but they can be pretty attractive to birds in season (i.e. right now). Today I also saw Bullock's and Hooded Orioles, House Finches, both Hummingbirds, Juncos, Munias, etc. foraging at the flowers.
I've recently started seeing lots of fresh lerps again on the red gums at Stow Grove and Lake Los Carneros. I think the red gums become most heavily infested later in summer and fall when they're most drought stressed. I think ability to resist infestation is linked to water access and it often seems like heavy lerp infections progress over time from drier to wetter microsites within a stand. This could be a 'severe' lerp breakout year, because we had lots of rain the previous two winters, but little this winter - so the canopies are over-developed for the resources currently available. I'm not sure what that would mean for birds - it could be nice for migrants if the trees are able to hold on to some leaves until fall, but could be less useful if the outbreak advances too quickly and causes defoliation before the birds arrive. Something interesting to keep an eye on.
I also had a male Western Tanager in the eucs around the LLC parking lot. I guess this is most likely an early post-breeding disperser? Lehman's book says the earliest arrival dates are 7/3, 7/10, and 7/11. It's "fall"!
