Date: 11/10/25 8:54 am From: Marty Freeland via groups.io <martinf3...> Subject: [pen-bird] Recent notes: Yellow-breasted Chat, inland Brant, Orchard Oriole, Worm-eating Warbler, etc.
Hi all,
Highlights from the first week or so of November have included a late Yellow-breasted Chat, an inland Brant, a new adult male Orchard Oriole, a Tropical Kingbird, two new Tennessees and two wintering Black-and-whites (likely continuing), and a presumably continuing Worm-eating Warbler. It continues to be a strong year for Orange-crowned Warbler (especially but not solely gray-headed Orange-crowns) and Ruby-crowned Kinglet; White-throated Sparrow numbers also have felt very high over the past several days in particular. Regionally it seems to be shaping up to be a great year for Rough-legged Hawk and we should be on the lookout for more in San Mateo!
On 11/1, I birded the south coast for most of the day. At Pie Ranch, a Tropical Kingbird was flycatching from the ranch buildings and powerlines and a Tennessee Warbler was in the scrubby willow stuff on Green Oaks Ck, which in the actual farm area is really just a small ditch. It continues to be a great year for Tennessee Warbler! Malia recently created an eBird hotspot for Pie Ranch, so please consider moving your checklists there if you have visited. Numbers of birders have been able to see the Tropical Kingbird and were also able to see the Blue-headed Vireo earlier this year, which is awesome. If you are at Pie Ranch while the farmstand is open, please consider buying something to help keep the ranch folks positively disposed toward birders. Later in the morning, 2+ Horned Larks were in the newly plowed field just north of the Gazos Ck beach parking lot. Horned Larks are fairly regular in very small numbers in fields on the south coast late in the season, but usually in much more inaccessible locations! Two Black-and-white Warblers several miles apart on Stage Rd., one at Seaside School Rd. and one near the sapsucker grove toward the south end, were each about a quarter-mile from locations that had Black-and-whites earlier in the season: Seaside School from 9/21–10/1 and southern Stage Rd. on 10/19. My guess would be that the Seaside School individual is a new, different bird and that the southern Stage Rd. bird is continuing, but those are just guesses.
On 11/3, I birded the Colma cemeteries and flowering eucs at Orange Memorial Park. I was shocked to see a Brant at Cypress Lawn Cemetery, bullying coots and walking around through the bushes by the entrance ponds. I do not know of other inland records of Brant from San Mateo Co., and Ron Thorn kindly let me know that he does not know of any either, so it seems that this may really be a first interior record for the county.
On 11/6, I checked a couple restricted-access south coast farms early in the morning after duly getting permission from their owners. A White-throated Sparrow and what I believe are the new record-holders for the most coastal population of Acorn Woodpeckers in the county were at Santa Cruz Permaculture, near Ano Nuevo (and in San Mateo County). The woodpeckers have old established granaries and everything and yet are just 550–650 m from the ocean.
On 11/8, Mei Li Palmeri and I birded the south-central coast from Half Moon Bay to Whitehouse Ck. A Yellow-breasted Chat was at the HMB WTP in the middle of the morning. Yellow-breasted Chat is a scarce migrant in the county and exceptional in November: this is the latest record that I am aware of for the peninsula. My feeling is that this likely represents a late migrant, as opposed to an attempt to winter, but I suppose wintering is also a possibility: however, NorCal has only c. 5 winter records of chat to my knowledge and there are many more records of presumed migrants from the first few days of November. This chat appeared consistent with the expected western subspecies. Later in the day, the Loggerhead Shrike first reported by Troy Pittock was still at Verde Rd x Purisima Ck Rd.
On 11/9, I birded the central coast with Caitlin Chock, Chris Henry, and Alex Castelein. An adult male Orchard Oriole and two Tennessee Warblers together were in Ocean Colony. Ocean Colony is a private neighborhood that can be accessed only with permission. It continues to be an amazing year for Tennessees in the county! Also at Ocean Colony were three White-throated Sparrows in different locations, and another was along Miramontes Creek a short distance to the south. Yet another was in the brussels sprout fields by the Johnston House. Checking Arroyo Leon from the edge of Our Lady of the Pillar Cemetery in east Half Moon Bay, a Worm-eating Warbler first spotted by Chris eventually gave us excellent looks as it foraged in the creekbed almost directly below us. This is not too far from the area where Richard Jeffers' bird was in late October and is almost certainly the same individual, although it is on a different creek. These views were much better than the ones many of us had on the day when Richard discovered the bird.
