Date: 5/6/26 5:05 pm From: Ethan Monk via groups.io <z.querula...> Subject: [EBB-Sightings] today and yesterday, warblers and waterbirds
Hi folks
This morning I went to scout out a potential new morning flight spot --sorry, on private property--on the east side of Mt. Diablo, east of Morgan Terr. Rd., and then do some atlasing for the California Breeding Bird Atlas closer to Morgan Territory Road. I arrived to find my hoped for flight spot with patchy fog around and overcast above, not ideal, but I still had over 100 migrants fly by me between 5:50 and 8AM. The biggest movers (identified to species, most were sps.) were Townsend's Warblers (15), Lazuli Bunting (22), Western Tanager (18), and Wilson's Warbler (21). Bonus points for a Gray-headed Orange-crowned, seen well when it paused in a blue oak on the ridge top. My previous records of this taxon, presumably ssp. orestera, in spring in interior Contra Costa County are on May 9th and May 10th. And the only other on eBird in spring in the Contra Costa Diablo Range is a bird Kai Mills, Armin Adly, and Jaedon Tembrevilla had May 5th, 2024, in Mitchell Canyon. The tight temporal clustering is neat.
Hiking down back to Morgan Terr. Rd., I ran into a singing Say's Phoebe and a pair of Horned Larks (one singing) set up on a bare grassy knoll at about 2000'. I then spent until noon moseying around Morgan Territory Preserve and along the main road. The highlight was a Townsend's Solitaire chowing down on mistletoe just east of the Preserve parking lot, but scattered flocks of Hermit/Townsend's Warblers and a scattering of Hammond's Flycatchers were nice. On Morgan Territory Road, I followed around a Sharp-shinned Hawk for a while in an attempt to find a nest (no cigar) and counted at least 8 Cassin's Vireos apparently on territory.
Yesterday evening I made a run through the delta, highlighted by what may be a first-for-Bethel Island (off the top of my head, I can remember no others) Brown Pelican on Frank's Tract! This was an adult that spent its time with a feeding mass of ~100 Cormorants and sea lions. I also found a Western Gull among the Californias--the first I have seen here in a while. I finished my evening at Clifton Court Forebay, where I unsuccessfully checked for nighthawk. But I did manage a female Red-breasted Merganser, almost certainly a spring migrant, as well as 3 Common Mergansers, and lingering pairs of Lesser Scaup and Common Goldeneye. I only saw 4 Bonaparte's Gulls among what I thought was over 5000 California Gulls.
