WPBO Sightings

Highlights: Common Ground-Dove (photo above) & Western Kingbird

     Although we have experienced some slow days this month, we have also had some good flights and some good birds. A Common Ground-Dove, the third Point record, appears to have been a one day wonder on the 11th. Also seen  on the 11th were the season's 4th Western Kingbird  and 1st Short-eared Owl. Other recent notable sightings include Le Conte's Sparrow, Harris's Sparrow and Dickcissel.

      At this time of the season we naturally start looking forward to some of the northern finches to begin showing up. The first Common Redpolls of the season were seen on the 11th. Pine Siskins have been present for a couple of weeks, but we saw the first real push on the 12th when over 2,000 were counted. Purple Finch  numbers have also picked up over the last few days and they have become regular at the feeders. I think it has been mentioned in every post that we have been hearing Red Crossbills flying over on a nearly daily basis. We finally had a couple very cooperative Crossbills feeding in a Jack Pine very close to the waterbird shack over the weekend. Hopefully more winter finches will begin to show up soon.

Part of one of Monday's Pine Siskin flocks

Red Crossbill

      We continue to see good numbers of Dark-eyed Juncos, White-throated & White-crowned Sparrows and American Tree Sparrow numbers are increasing . There are also usually a few Lincoln's, Swamp, Song and Savannah Sparrows around and Fox Sparrows have joined the regulars at the feeders. There are often nice flocks of Golden-crowned & Ruby-crowned Kinglets around. Brown Creepers and Winter Wren have also been present in decent numbers, including 15 Winter Wrens today. Warbler numbers and diversity continue to decrease, but  Orange-crowned, Yellow-rumped, Palm continue to be seen daily and Nashville, and Black-throated Green have made recent appearances. 

Winter Wren

    Other recent sightings around the Point include; Ruffed Grouse, Barn Swallow, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Hermit Thrush, Brown Thrasher, American Pipit, Horned Lark, Lapland Longspur & Vesper Sparrow.

American Pipit with a meal

Horned Lark

   As always, a lot of the activity is out at the waterbird count and Eric Ripma continues to produce some of the season's best sightings. Recent highlights at the waterbird count include Pacific Loon, Pomarine Jaeger & Arctic Tern. Most of the shorebirds have already moved through, but American Golden-Plover, Killdeer, Dunlin and White-rumped Sandpipers have been seen recently. Check out Eric's waterbird blog posts for more details http://wpbo.org/blog/5

American Golden-Plover

White-rumped Sandpiper

Chris Neri