This morning, I met some birder friends from out of town at 6:40am at
Vollmer Peak. Last night was (I think) the first clear night/morning for
several weeks, and I suspect this, along with the warm temperatures and
minimal breeze, spurred a nice flush of migrants.
We witnessed some visible migration - with occasional small groups of 3-5
passerines zipping over the peak, often giving flight calls, all heading
East to West.
Our goal for the outing was to find my friend a lifer Hermit Warbler -
which we did (at least 4). Amazingly, we had an 8 warbler morning (every
expected N CA species except Yellow-rumped!), with the highlight being a
Nashville Warbler (wears in eBird due to the early date). 8 species is the
best non-vagrant warbler haul I’ve had outside of the Mines Rd area:
We also encountered a nice variety of other migrants:
- 25 Vaux’s Swifts (probably an undercount)
- 1 juvenile Chipping Sparrow
- 6 Western Tanagers
- 1 Western Wood-pewee
- 1 Western Warbling Vireo
- 1 Swainson’s Thrush
- 5 Pine Siskins
- 1 Purple Finch
- 2 American Robins
- 3 Northern Flickers
- 15 Red-breasted Nuthatches (tough to estimate)
- 3 Blue-gray Gnatcatchers
- 20 Western Flycatchers (conservative estimate of birds heard and seen)
- 10 Violet-green Swallows
- 1 Tree Swallow
- 12 New World Warbler sp. - in flight
- 3 passerine sp - possibly Lazuli Buntings, but tough to say for sure.
Zipped over the top of the peak without pause.
The wind was mild (3-6 mph out of the SW), clear overhead with scattered
clouds in the distance plus some haze from wildfire smoke, temperatures
57-67F.
