Date: 4/20/26 12:06 pm From: Carter Gasiorowski via groups.io <carter.gasiorowski...> Subject: [southbaybirds] SCU Migration Insanity
This weekend has been absolutely phenomenal for migrants here at Santa
Clara University! It has been great to take a bit of a break from my
Mechanical Engineering studies to see some birds over the past few days.
Highlights were 4 MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLERS, 1 NASHVILLE WARBLER, 2
BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER, 2 LAZULI BUNTINGS, and 1 ASH-THROATED
FLYCATCHER. A play-by-play description with locations & details is below.
On Friday evening, I took a stroll around campus to relax after a long
week. A pair of BEWICK'S WRENS fed three begging young while a BUSHTIT
carried aphids to its nest. DARK-EYED JUNCOS and BEWICK'S WRENS gave their
final verses of song for the day, and MOURNING DOVES flew to their roosts.
As the blue sky faded to orange, the air began to stir with a breeze from
the south. I headed to my dorm for a good night's rest, eagerly awaiting
what that south breeze might bring in the morning.
On Saturday morning, I awoke groggily to my 6am alarm. I grabbed my camera
and binoculars before walking out to the brightening dawn. I rubbed my eyes
as a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD, HOUSE FINCH and CALIFORNIA TOWHEE continued
their dawn chorus, then suddenly I heard a loud "tack!" chip note from a
bush. I walked quickly forward, and saw the silhouette of a chunky warbler
pop up against the dawn sky. I turned to look through the backlit branches,
wondering what the bird was. Immediately, it answered: "cheery cheery
churry churry!" It was a male MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER! While I fumbled with
the Merlin app and accidentally deleted my recording (the new version
doesn't autosave, apparently), the bird went silent and disappeared. New
songs began to ring out, as a WESTERN TANAGER warbled from a redwood and a
male BULLOCK'S ORIOLE flew between the treetops. As I hurried towards the
center of campus, I stopped to investigate a broken warbler song emanating
from a tree in front of the library. A quick look revealed a male
BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER!
As I arrived at the always-bountiful lawn area around the St. Ignatius
fountain (north of Kenna Hall), I heard a familiar "kwip!" call in the
distance. I walked towards it, and right on cue an ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHER
popped up onto a snag- my 85th campus bird! Returning to my normal circuit,
the short, bare "warbler tree" with yellow fluffy pollen on it just north
of the St. Ignatius fountain had tons of activity, as usual. Standing at
the trunk, I turned 360 degrees to see 6 ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS and 5
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS with my naked eye, which was super cool! Heading
towards the St. Clare garden, the activity died down as the birdsong from
the fountain area faded to silence. Suddenly, a loud "tack!" pierced the
quiet air, giving me deja vu from just 30 minutes ago. I shuffled around
and titled my head, eventually catching a glimpse of a female
MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER through the shrubs! Two in one day! Another birder,
Kim, was nearby, and we both got looks at the bird as it briefly flew up
into a coast live oak.
As I continued birding, a pair of WESTERN TANAGERS appeared near the St.
Ignatius fountain and a beautiful male BULLOCK'S ORIOLE foraged atop the
Silky Oak next to Bannan Alumni. HOODED ORIOLES chased each other through
the fan palms and four WILSON'S WARBLERS sang from hidden perches. I
eventually re-found the MacGillivray's Warbler in a tiny hedge against the
front of Vari Hall, and after waiting for ten minutes I finally managed a
two-star photo. I returned to the fuzzy warbler tree near the St. Ignatius
fountain and spent some time photographing the birds there, before finally
ending my checklist and heading off to do homework. I got an alert for high
migration activity from Birdcast, so I set my alarm for 5:45 am to make the
most of it.
At 5:45 am on Sunday morning, I fought off my bedsheets and threw my
binoculars, camera, and food into my backpack before once again setting out
to look for migrants. This time, I didn't detect anything except resident
birds on my walk to the center of campus, making me wonder if it was
another one of those nights where all the birds passed through without
landing. Nonetheless, I knew there would be something to be found. Little
did I know how right I was!
Around the fountain, I was greeted by an overwhelming variety of “tsip” and
“seet” flight calls coming from all directions, as well as an odd rattling
sound. There were a lot of new arrivals! I was a bit overwhelmed, so I went
to areas with fewer resident birds so that drop-in migrants would be easier
to spot. As I walked past some bushes near the church, I heard a single
loud chip note that sounded like a MacGillivray’s and crouched down to get
a look. I heard some buzzing sounds in the distance, but I’d have to check
that out later. After five minutes, I never got a look at the probable
MacGillivrays. This is a pretty typical MacGillivray’s encounter, and I’ve
avoided detailing the numerous other times this happened.
Along the north side of the church, I heard a loud “bzeet!” as two small
birds darted into a tree. I raised my binoculars and was amazed to see not
one, but two male LAZULI BUNTINGS! One of the birds even sang a few times
as I approached, then both vanished and I didn’t see them again in the next
three hours of birding. Getting out at sunrise really is worth it!
Heading to the south side of the church, I noticed a flock of warblers in
the large tree with purple flowers. There were numerous Yellow-rumped and
Orange-crowned Warblers, and several groups of yellowish colored warblers
flew away from campus before I could get a look at them. A male
BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER flew south fairly high up, possibly
backtracking along its migratory flight path to return to more suitable
habitat. Just as I was about to move on, I briefly looked at what I thought
was another Orange-crowned Warbler. I did a double take as I saw a gray
hood and a white eyering- it was a female NASHVILLE WARBLER! I had been
hoping for this species on campus, so it was amazing to get it so easily! I
watched the bird move through the sparse canopy, and I had an easy time
picking it out from the rear due to the white color around the legs, which
differs from the Orange-crowned Warbler’s uniformly yellow underside. I’ve
never noticed this field mark before, and was excited to learn something
new!
As I continued birding, the Nashville Warbler followed me to the fuzzy
warbler tree where it posed for some photos. A few minutes later, I got a
text from Kim that she was on a MacGillivray’s Warbler in the exact spot I
thought I’d heard one earlier! I went over to check it out, and ran into
Kaiting. The bird once again disappeared, but it was nice to have two more
sharp pairs of eyes! Kaiting picked out a singing WESTERN TANAGER, as we
looked through the ever-present Orange-crowned Warblers. Suddenly, I heard
a loud “tack!” and saw a bird pop up from a bush, immediately calling out
“MacGillivray’s!” to Kaiting as we chased after the bird. It darted between
shrubs, eventually seeming to settle in some bushes between St. Joseph hall
and the Bannan Alumni house. I noticed it was moving to the left on the
ground beneath the bushes, so I moved to the left such that my shadow
pointed to where the bird might pop out. I sat on the ground and waited
tensely with my camera. Suddenly, the bird's gorgeous head of uncut
sapphire appeared, as its bright eye-arcs peered at me curiously from the
edge of the grass. Judging that I wasn’t a threat, the bird jumped out and
foraged on the ground right in front of me! I was nearly shaking with
excitement, but I steadied my hands and fired off a series of photos as the
bird cautiously picked through the leaf litter. After about a minute, the
bird remembered it was supposed to be sulky, and once again disappeared.
What an experience!
High off that amazing encounter, I headed off to see what else could be
found. Two CANADA GEESE were on the lawn (only the second time I’ve seen
one on campus) near the resident MALLARD in the fountain, which along with
flyover DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS and CASPIAN TERN provided a nice boost to
my species list for the day. A NORTHERN HOUSE WREN sang quietly from a
coast live oak in front of St. Joseph hall, bringing my SCU list up to 87
species! While writing this report, I realized the origin of the odd rattle
I’d heard earlier in the day- it was the House Wren’s ‘churring’ call! In
the law school garden, a female COMMON YELLOWTHROAT chased another
geothlypis sp. that I never got a clear look at. I walked over to the Forge
Garden, and since the gate was closed I cupped my ears and listened for any
activity. I heard a distant clicking sound that really sounded like a
MacGillivray’s, but I thought surely there couldn’t be another one. Then,
right on cue, a warbled “churry churry churry cheery cheery!” rang out. It
was a fourth MACGILLIVRAY’S WARBLER! At this point it was just surreal; I
was somehow both unfazed and shocked beyond words at the sighting. After
the first three, a fourth wasn’t a stretch, but four MGWA in two days at
one location on the valley floor was hard to wrap my head around! There
have now been at least 13 individual MacGillivray’s Warblers on SCU’s
campus, making it the “MacGillivray’s capital of Santa Clara County” as my
predecessor Jason Vassallo calls it.
The sun was now high in the sky, and the birds hunkered down, tired from
the morning activity. My attempts to re-find the morning’s rarities were
unsuccessful, but I think that fleetingness is what makes the experience so
special. There are only a few days out of the year that have even the
potential for such an avian spectacle, and I feel so fortunate to have
witnessed it.
A map of all of the locations I've mentioned is attached to this posting. I
recommend parking at the Togo's next to campus (1000 Lafayette St, Santa
Clara, CA 95050) to avoid any possible issues with the ever-present campus
security.
Do not disclose information that identifies the location of nesting birds of any species, to minimize stress on the nesting birds and the risk of vandalism or abuse.
