Date: 10/5/25 8:50 pm From: Marty Freeland via groups.io <martinf3...> Subject: [northbaybirds] Bay-breasted Warbler and other notes
Hi all,
Although it can't compare with the really big news coming from Marin County today, I had a Bay-breasted Warbler on Sir Francis Drake early in the morning and a Chestnut-sided Warbler near Stinson Beach in the midafternoon.
The Bay-breasted Warbler was with a flock in the riparian on the south side of Sir Francis Drake close to the intersection with Pierce Pt Rd. Details and photographs are on eBird, as always. Numbers of Neotropical migrants were rather low for most of the day; there were huge numbers of Townsend's Warblers and (for the most part) little else. To provide a sense of the migrant numbers that were present, over the course of c. 8 hours of coverage of riparian between Drake's Estero and Muir Beach I had 5 Yellow Warblers, 6–8 Wilson's, 6 Warbling Vireos, 4 Black-throated Gray Warblers, and 2 Western Flycatchers. These numbers feel low, especially compared to last Sunday when western migrants were through the roof and there were multiple Black-throated Grays in nearly half the flocks I saw. Similarly, I had several each of Nashville Warbler and Cassin's Vireo last week and none of either today, though due to crowds and no parking spaces (beach parking lots were closed because of the government shutdown) I could not check the area in Stinson Beach that held 2–3 Nashville Warblers last week. On the other hand, today I had two Hermit Warblers (at Inverness Way and at the Inverness Tennis Courts), and did not see any last week. Also up in numbers were gray-headed Orange-crowned Warblers, with 8–10 over the course of the day.
The other highlight was a Chestnut-sided Warbler at Morse Gulch along Bolinas Lagoon. This spot is fairly close (0.45 miles) from the location where I had a Chestnut-sided exactly a week ago, but the area in between is scrubby and (I would imagine) isolates the spots pretty well from one another. That is, I think the area in between is not likely frequented by the flocks from the riparian either in Volunteer Canyon, where last week's Chestnut was, nor by the flocks from Morse Gulch. Together with the gap in time I lean toward the idea that these are separate birds, but it is hard to be very confident.
And lastly, on the topic of Waved Albatrosses: the one that today's Cordell boat had is of course the first real substantiated North American record. It is also mind-bogglingly amazing and one of the most impressive vagrant seabirds to reach California! (Congrats to the observers!!) However, Debi Shearwater apparently knows of two other records for California, which, although they lack documentation, she considers legitimate. I do not have any further information about these records, but as I recall she is positive that both are real.
