[All photographs copyright, Gary Nunn 2012] – Not satisfied with my previous flight views and sun blinded looks on the overhead wire, I dropped by the Oceanside Fresh & Easy supermarket parking lot again today to see if the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Tyrannus forficatus was around. My luck changed and I found it working along the tops of drought stricken fennel plants on the open waste land just north of the parking lot. Views were brief though before it bolted again, like a small pink and grey missile, heading for the hillside! This is one nervous bird and very mobile.

I managed to get a few level flight shots as it went by me on the way to the hillside but discovered later I had only captured images of the wing beats down! This bird is an adult at least one year in age because it has advanced through prealternate molt, sometime earlier this year in the spring, of the outer primary (P10). Prebasic molt in this species does not include outer primary replacement so this cannot be a hatch year bird because the retained juvenile P10 tip would be a rounded type without a notch. In flight the image below captures the shape of this adult plumage outer primary on the right wing which has a female type, smaller length, notched tip (thinner tip). Given the shorter tail and not very extensive reddish pink axillary coloration most likely this is an adult female Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.

This Scissor-tailed Flycatcher was originally found by Oceanside birder Michael Martin on 05 Oct 2012. The species is considered a Category B rarity by San Diego Field Ornithologists which means we get about one record annually in the county. In fact the most recent report came some time ago in November 2009 when a long-staying individual frequented the Model Plane Airfield at Mission Bay. Perhaps this handsome looking much sought after flycatcher from the east now visits us less often than before.

[All photographs copyright, Gary Nunn 2012] – A lot of discussion was generated recently about a flycatcher found in the southeast corner of Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. I initially ran into this bird while it was in a stationary mode sitting around on a grave marker. It seemed a bit odd looking, sort of “legless” and inanimate perched on its belly on the grave marker, and was quite gentle looking and round headed. It almost looked like a big martin – perhaps a giveaway right there! As soon as it took flight however there was no mistaking the barrel-roll aerial acrobatics and large cloak like wings of a Wood-Pewee. This bird flew like a martin but in tight circles and with such swift turns you could not keep up with it visually. Later on I deleted all the photographs that I took not realizing they might be useful! Luckily I was back there the next day and took a few more photographs of it sitting on a grave marker which are shown below.

Even viewed from the back, foreshortened in perspective, this bird has a very long primary projection extending a good one-third of the way down the tail. It is a big tail too, wide all the way down its length and quite well notched. Perhaps a bit difficult to discern it does actually have three wing bars. The lesser secondary coverts, mostly hidden by the fluffy scapular feathers, are pale-tipped in addition to the more noticeable other two large wing bars on the median and greater secondary coverts.

One of the nice things about watching many different bird species sitting on grave markers at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery is that you have available a standard size marker to compare against the bird! The Standard Government Upright Headstone is 42 inches long, 13 inches wide, and 4 inches in thickness. So if you can get a bird close to it then you kind of have a ruler sitting right there on the photograph!

The flight shot below of the Wood-Pewee captures the bird leaving the Upright Headstone, the headstone it flew from is below the bird. The bird is literally right on the headstone in flight since it is in the narrow depth of focus of the effective 640 mm focal length of my lens. Note the enormous cloak like wings that are just really long when outstretched.

The photograph below is darkened to show better the thickness of the Headstone Marker. To compare the bird versus the 4 inch thick Headstone Marker I simply measured a V from the middle of the bird’s back to each wing tip and scaled that total measurement against the thickness of the Headstone Marker below that it flew from. My estimate came out about a 10 inch or bit larger wingspan of this bird. Try it – it works!

The following wingspans come from Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology online species accounts; Western Wood-Pewee 10.2 inches, Eastern Wood-Pewee 9.1-10.2 inches, Least Flycatcher 7.9 inches, and Hammond’s Flycatcher 8.7 inches. It would seem to fit best in the Wood-Pewee range.

The mostly dark lower mandible indicates this is very likely a juvenile Western Wood-Pewee and not an Eastern Wood-Pewee which ought to show more light coloration. I think a bit of yellow-orange color can be seen also at the bill gape, it looks a bit swollen like a juvenile bird. Juvenile Western Wood-Pewees complete their first prebasic molt on the wintering grounds so we ought to see a few coming through the area at this date. I never heard it vocalize but think it is reasonable to assume it is the more common of the two possible species here in Southern California.

[All photographs copyright, Gary Nunn 2012] – The weekend of 09 September 2012 turned out to be a hot one and my destination at Borrego Springs, San Diego County was cooking. I tracked around a few locations but ended up at the Roadrunner Club where at least there were some shade trees to hide under. I soon found out that the mesquite trees, particularly larger ones, were where all the bird action was happening. Migrants were about including small numbers of Warbling Vireo and Yellow Warbler but I also had success here finding several of the northwestern form of Willow Flycatcher Empidonax traillii brewsteri.

I found several Willow Flycatchers in the resort, they are usually quite easy to approach, but the silhouettes in late morning sunlight were tough to draw conclusions about how dark or pale individuals looked. Reading the literature it seems evident that most, if not all, Willow Flycatchers you might run in to on fall migration here in southern California are probably the more abundant and darker colored northwestern form brewsteri and not the Federal and California listed Endangered paler colored form extimus known as “Southwestern Willow Flycatcher”. Each individual I saw here appeared to be the darker brown brewsteri. The bright buffy wingbars on the greater and median secondary coverts indicated these were juveniles.

You might be forgiven thinking this bird resembles a Western Wood-Pewee Contopus sordidulus at first glance but several visible features are diagnostic for Willow Flycatcher. The primary extension is short. In the first photograph the closed wingtips meet above the upper tail coverts (rump) unlike the much longer wingtips of the pewee. That silhouette view from below gets you a look at the very wide, almost spade-shaped, bill profile unlike the finer tapered profile of the pewee bill. In my GISS (General Impression of Size and Shape) birding mind the Willow Flycatcher often looks as if it has “solid square shoulders” and a tapered body profile to the rear which accentuates the quite large long dark tail. The Willow Flycatcher has a smoother looking rounded head profile and concolorous breast, all features unlike the pewee. Finally behavior is different, although no strict rules apply! Willow Flycatcher is generally quite retiring, for example under mesquite canopies or along shady hedgerows (oleanders here in the desert) like these photographed individuals, while the pewee can be found perched prominently on fence-lines or exposed snags sallying out to catch flying insects. The audible bill snapping of both species is a good clue to search around for their nearby presence.

The temperature topped out at about 105F by 11:30 AM and my resolve to keep looking for birds collapsed so I headed out toward the cooler coastal mountains. Thunderheads were brewing on the horizon, away to the south coming up from Mexico, and the locals told me they were feeling earthquakes!