Date: 9/26/25 11:52 am From: <lehman.paul...> via groups.io <lehman.paul...> Subject: [SanDiegoRegionBirding] Alder Flycatcher at FRNC
Around 7:30 a.m. Or so this morning, Adrian Hinkle found an Alder flycatcher which he both heard and briefly saw and he got recordings. After the initial views, the bird played hide and seek and while it did call back to his playing recordings of it, it didn't come out. Fast forward 2 hours and Charley and I finally refound the bird at exactly the same place where Adrian first had it, when it finally started calling again after nothing for 2 hours. We had brief looks and then it disappeared and were thwarted in taking photos by the fact it was on through the fence and our cameras would only focus on the fence. 45 minutes later after that it called one or two times and it reappeared again in exactly the same area. But this time it went high enough that I was able to photograph it over the top of the fence and I will include photos in an ebird list when I get home in an hour. The location is as described by Adrian In his WhatsApp message which is the southeast corner of the cemetery and if you follow along the fence at the extreme South end that runs east west, and where the Alder flycatcher was two June's ago, the fence then bends and angles to the Northeast and as you walk up the fence just before you get to the two big pine trees where it jogs again to go due north, before the pines on your right is an obvious moderate size patch of ice plant immediately on the other side of the fence and the bird keeps showing up in the various low bushes all around the margins of that patch of ice plant on all sides. It is not responding to recordings anymore and just calls on its own but only for a minute or two every hour or so. Be aware there are one or two Western Flycatchers and a Pewee here as well. This bird is most apt to be confused with a Least flycatcher given the circular whitish eye ring and the distinct white throat. But it is giving hard sharp, pip or bik notes.
Although the cemetery is off limits between around 8:00 and 5:00 p.m., like we did for the Alder in June 2024 we are just quietly standing along the fence line in this very corner and not going anywhere else at all in the cemetery, which does have visitors and should be avoided at all cost until the appointed hour.
Paul Lehman, San Diego
Sent from AOL on Android
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