Date: 11/5/26 9:20 pm From: Marty Freeland via peninsula-birding <martinf3...> Subject: [pen-bird] Recent notes: Great Crested Fly etc.
Hi all,
Yesterday was the most amazing day I have ever had in San Mateo County, with a Philadelphia Vireo at Pie Ranch, a Black-throated Blue Warbler on Eden West Rd, and a Great Crested Flycatcher along San Gregorio Ck at Seaside School Rd. Highlights from the week or so before that were a stunning Grace's Warbler in Pescadero; an assortment of more regular eastern warblers including a remarkable 5 Tennessees, 2 Black-and-whites, one N. Parula, and one Am. Redstart; late Yellow Warblers, Warbling Vireo, and Western Flycatcher; and a couple other misc. birds of note, like a Tropical Kingbird, a Slate-colored Junco, a couple Palm Warblers, and a Long-tailed Duck. More detailed notes are in reverse chronological order below, and (as always) photos/audio, exact locations, and so on are on eBird for all rarities. San Mateo is always a phenomenal county, but this has been a truly unimaginable lucky run of astounding birds and I feel like I should go and buy up all the lottery tickets I can find!
First and more importantly, congratulations to Chris Hayward on breaking the San Mateo County big year record this week!!! A fantastic and very well-deserved achievement by Chris, and all the more impressive as he broke the record in October! I think the record-breaking bird was Cédric's Black-throated Green Warbler in Pacifica on 10/26 and it will be exciting to see Chris's sky-high final tally.
Yesterday, 11/4, I birded the south coast from Green Oaks Ck to San Gregorio Ck. A White-throated Sparrow was with excellent sparrow flocks along Artichoke Rd in the early morning. At Pie Ranch, a small flock in the willows south of the barn contained a Philadelphia Vireo. This is a late date; in fact it is only the sixth November record for NorCal to my knowledge, following one in Marin this week (found by Lucas Stephenson on 11/2), one 1991 record for Marin, one 1993 record from Southeast Farallon Island, and two records from Humboldt (2023 and 2024). After enjoying the cooperative Philly Vireo with local birders for a while, I checked Gazos Ck and had a large group of c. 30 Red Crossbills at Kent Forward's Kentucky Warbler spot, but no Kentucky Warbler. Driving back to Pescadero, I stopped at Eden West Rd to check for sapsuckers and was astonished to find a gorgeous male Black-throated Blue Warbler feeding on newly-emerged flying termites with many Townsend's Warblers. It put on an amazing show, at one point perching briefly on the white fence/vehicle barrier in the parking area at the end of the road. After tearing myself away from the Black-throated Blue, I checked Pescadero and Stage Rd and noted two more White-throated Sparrows in the yard with feeders at Stage Rd x North St in Pescadero town. Making a final stop at San Gregorio Ck and Seaside School Rd, a large flycatcher with a bright yellow belly popped up onto the powerlines. Expecting to see a Tropical Kingbird, I was astonished yet again to see that it was a huge Myiarchus with a vivid saturated yellow belly. Great Crested Flycatcher has been a county dream bird for ages and it was unbelievably electric to see one after years of having it in mind. I had time to obtain photos and run around for a better angle to try and see the bird's back to view the tertial pattern before it dropped back into the riparian. Despite effort by a group of up to 20 people until dusk, the bird was not relocated, as far as I know, although several folks thought they might have heard it calling around sunset. This is a very long overdue first for the county and leaves Mendocino and Del Norte as the only remaining coastal counties in the state lacking a record of this species. It is also an exceptionally late date, as with Philadelphia Vireo, except with even less precedent; I am not aware of any other November Great Crested Flycatchers for NorCal, though there are records as late as October 31 and several records of migrants from the first week of November in SoCal.
On Tuesday 11/3 the central coast was windy with gusts from the south breaking 20 kt and bringing occasional periods of fairly heavy rain. Passerine activity was correspondingly not too great, although chunks of the day without rain were not bad. On upper Miramontes St in eastern Half Moon Bay, a Western Flycatcher was in elderberries by the old emu paddock. At this date it is very likely to winter; the area is suitable for a winterer too. In riparian at the end of Bridgeport Dr in El Granada, a small flock contained a nice male Northern Parula. This is the first November parula I have had in the county. Nearby, in willows and bottlebrushes at at Princeton-by-the-Sea Park, there was a late male Yellow Warbler with a gummed-up face, also (I think) a likely winterer. I had great numbers of Orange-crowned Warblers on this day, unlike the past several days, including 4 gray-headeds, something like 10–15 normal lutescens, 2 dusky birds (sordida-ish, but neither clearcut), and a couple ambiguous ones, including one of the very gray individuals that shows some traits of nominate celata at the east end of San Juan Ave in El Granada.
On Monday 11/2 I covered parts of the north-central coast between Frenchman's Ck and Montara. Starting at Pillar Pt, a Scaly-breasted Munia flew out of the marsh in the early morning. Over the past two years or so munias have been patchier and scarcer than they were over the preceding 3–5 years: this calendar year so far there was one at Alpine Pond a couple days ago (George Chrisman), and that is all. Two very late Yellow Warblers were in separate parts of Princeton Willows. At the Park Ave neighborhoods in Moss Beach, a Tennessee Warbler was right where I had a Palm Warbler last week (Park x Orval) and a Slate-colored Junco, I think consistent with Boreal Slate-colored, was at Park x Alton in a yard with feeders, already my second this season. Checking eastern Moss Beach, a Black-and-white Warbler was in precisely the same location where the Yellow-browed Warbler was 10 days ago and another Tennessee Warbler was in the bottlebrushes at the base of the driveway to the Moss Beach hospital. While this fall was not equal to last year's amazing fall for Tennessees, this winter is off to a very strong start. Also at the Moss Beach hospital was a striking leucistic Pygmy Nuthatch all-white remiges and rectrices and scattered white dorsal contour feathers. Seeing a huge raft of scoters off of Montara SB while driving along Hwy 1, I stopped to scan through them and counted about 1600 Surf Scoters, 4 Black Scoters, and one nice male Long-tailed Duck, the earliest one I have seen in the county. 7 Aleutian Cackling Geese at the Miramar Farm Pond were the first I have seen on the ground this year. At Sweetwood, another Black-and-white Warbler was along Frenchman's Ck. Malia DeFelice and Chris Hayward had one here on 10/16, perhaps the same individual.
On Saturday 10/31, for most of the morning I covered neighborhoods and ag fields in southern Half Moon Bay. Yet another session of birding pumpkin patches produced very little of note, although some of them were birdy with good numbers of Lincoln's Sparrows, Gambel's White-crowns, and so on. Giving up on pumpkin patches and checking neighborhood spots in Half Moon Bay, a beautiful female-type American Redstart was along lower Miramontes Ck. Last year I had a redstart on Miramontes Ck on Halloween too! (Though it was on the upper part of the creek by Moonridge.) Two Tennessee Warblers were along Pilarcitos Ck at Oak Ave Pk, right where Logan Kahle and Caitlin Chock had two winterers last year, but at least one of the birds I saw appeared to be HY and thus a new bird; the other may well have been a returnee.
On Thursday 10/29, I birded Pacifica with Cédric Duhalde for most of the morning. A leucistic Chestnut-backed Chickadee was in neighborhoods near Pedro Pt. Cédric's continuing Black-throated Green Warbler in lower Vallemar put on a great show, and a Northern Mockingbird (rare on the coast, although less so in Pacifica) was at the upper end of the neighborhoods in Rockaway Valley, along with a Nuttall's Woodpecker, continuing these species' expansions on the north coast. Another Nashville Warbler was on San Pablo Terrace. We had few Orange-crowned Warblers all morning and only one gray-headed, but in the afternoon we birded San Francisco (where we had a Yellow-green Vireo, sadly in the wrong county!) and saw many Orange-crowns, including a reasonable number of gray-headeds.
On Wednesday 10/28 I covered the central coast from Pescadero to Half Moon Bay. At Pescadero SB, there was a great spectacle of northbound Black-vented Shearwater movement at dawn and a single female Black Scoter was southbound with Surfs. The marsh trails are largely flooded but the water is shallow and the back of the marsh can be accessed with boots. The habitat is very cool and in the early morning you are flushing many snipe, Marsh Wrens, etc., walking toward the riparian and dead Eucalyptus on lower Pescadero Ck. Two Palm Warblers and a Tropical Kingbird were in this area. Along Stage Rd, a Hermit Warbler was with a flock in eucs near Shaw Gulch and a very late Warbling Vireo was at the bridge over San Gregorio Ck. The vireo was in exactly the location where I had a Philadelphia Vireo a few years ago, but this one was very much not a Philadelphia, unfortunately! I thought a Thalasseus tern foraging offshore from the mouth of Tunitas Ck was probably Royal, but views were too distant to be sure. At the end of Bloom Ln in Half Moon Bay, there was a Nashville Warbler. The Nashville repeatedly attempted to use a hummingbird feeder, I think unsuccessfully.
On Tuesday 10/27, I birded the south coast from Weed Farms to Pescadero. My first Bufflehead of the season was at Lake Lucerne and five more were at Pescadero Marsh later in the morning. The southern portion of Pescadero Marsh has very high water and excellent numbers of marsh ducks, better than in recent years. Continuing from last week was a White-winged Dove on the wires along eastern Pigeon Point Rd. Doves use these wires mainly around sunrise and the White-winged Dove was flushed off the wires by a group of Wild Turkeys departing their roost high in a pine tree just after dawn. A Tennessee Warbler was on Whitehouse Creek at Costanoa. I checked all the fennel patches along Hwy 1 between Pigeon Point and Gazos and was surprised to have only one Orange-crowned Warbler across eight stops. Reaching Pescadero, I checked the end of Water Ln and was astonished to find a Grace's Warbler in the riparian!!! It moved to the pines shortly afterward and was still being reported from those pines as of 11/2. This bird appears to be a male, and in fact other observers heard it sing later in the day, but I am unsure of its age; it is certainly attempting to winter, and hopefully it will succeed and maybe even return in following years, like the SF Grace's did.
Before this week, my guesses at the next five firsts for San Mateo were Great Crested Flycatcher, Pine Warbler, Neotropic Cormorant, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, and either stint, with Grace's as a runner-up along with Blue-winged Warbler, White-rumped Sandpiper, Wood Thrush, etc. It will be exciting to see which shows up next!
