[SBB] Half Moon Bay - Fall Challenge Report. Lucy's Warbler!

Folks

For today’s half day field trip for the SFBBO California Fall Challenge, we did pretty well. Our team was called the Coffee Brewer’s Blackbirds, and fortunately we did see the blackbirds. My preliminary count was 74 species for a morning’s birding. All were seen between Half Moon Bay and Moss Beach. The bird list was rounded out by some superb highlights, of which Lucy’s Warbler was certainly number 1 by a long shot. The Lucy’s Warbler was foraging in fennel with an Orange-crowned Warbler at the Etheldore Fields in Moss Beach. The spot was basically the shrubbery and fennel at the edge of the field, and above the small irrigation pond which is there. On the opposite end of the field, that is the NE end, there was a Palm Warbler in with the Yellow-rumped Warblers. A fly-over Osprey was a surprise there as well. We did not find the Dickcissel or Brewer’s Sparrow which were there yesterday.

The hawk show in Half Moon Bay continues to impress, we saw approximately 30 White-tailed Kites in the Wavecrest area of Half Moon Bay, several Northern Harriers, and between HMB and Moss Beach at least 30 Red-tailed Hawks. A couple of Barn Owls at a roost site were also nice to see.

It was a great day, the weather warmed up a tad quickly and that made bird activity a little lower than I would have liked. But with Lucy’s Warbler, and Palm Warbler we were more than happy to have enjoyed this gorgeous morning on the coast.

Cheers

Alvaro Jaramillo

[[email protected]]

Half Moon Bay, California

Field Guides - Birding Tours Worldwide

www.fieldguides.com

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