[SBB] Western Tanagers and flycatcher 8-26-06

[Janna Pauser <[[email protected]]>]

After the Wild Bird Center group left the Alamitos Creek trail this morning I continued to bird with Paul Langevin and his friend Elaine. We crossed the Mazzone bridge and found a dozen f. Western Tanagers feeding in the Valley Oaks on the south west side of the bridge. This is the same area where I've seen a concentration of WETA in the spring. Earlier the group saw a Spotted Sandpiper and Common Moorhen at Almaden Lake. Yellow Warblers were seen and heard in the willows near the lake. Megan, the youngest in the group, was delighted to find her first Wilson's Warbler. Nutmeg Mannikins and W. Tanagers were also seen by the group. 

I returned to the west side of the Mazzone bridge at 5:30 this evening and found a small flycatcher, flycatching from dead weeds beside a patch of Arunda behind the Valley Oaks. This is where the Guadalupe Creek flows into the Alamitos Creek. I was going to report it as a Willow Flycatcher, but there are a few differences. Maybe it was the light, but it seemed darker with a nearly charcoal gray head, and back. The wing bars and wing edges were a light color, not tan. It had a pale short vest and pale yellow wash on the belly and flanks. Other field marks matched the Willow, slight crest, light or whitish chin and throat, straight, not notched tail, and it was perched low. It's lower mandible was not completely orange. Nearby Nutmeg Mannikins looked just a bit smaller than the flycatcher. The flycatcher did not call but responded to pishing. 

Janna Pauser  Almaden Valley



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