Santa Ana NWR, 8/15/13

OK, we're back by popular demand.  Well one person said he missed my blog so I'll try to wake it up again.  This morning I ran over to Santa ana NWR to check out the migrants.  Both Pintail and Willow Lakes are dry so I spent my time on the main tour road and on the Pintail Loop.  Turned out to be a great morning for studying Empidonax flycatchers.  Lots of calling birds but still a few went unidentified.  Here's a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.  The emphatic "speet" call is not well described in the field guides.

I had five or six Alder Flycatchers making their softer "berk" call.  It's hard to describe.  They don't have much of an eyering.

Least Flycatchers were everywhere doing their "fwit" call.  I had fifteen of them.

Best warbler was this Yellow-throated Warbler which I see few of in the fall.

Five Black-and-white Warblers seemed like a lot for mid August.

Yellow Warblers will appear in mass pretty soon.  I only saw two of them today.

Here's my list for the morning.

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck  6
Plain Chachalaca  10
Great Blue Heron  3
Great Egret  1
White Ibis  2
Turkey Vulture  2
Harris's Hawk  2
Spotted Sandpiper  2
Upland Sandpiper  1
Least Sandpiper  5
White-winged Dove  80
Mourning Dove  5
Inca Dove  7
Common Ground-Dove  5
White-tipped Dove  5
Yellow-billed Cuckoo  1
Groove-billed Ani  7
Common Nighthawk  1
Common Pauraque  1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  1
Ruby-throated/Black-chinned Hummingbird  1
Buff-bellied Hummingbird  1
Golden-fronted Woodpecker  12
Ladder-backed Woodpecker  6
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher  6
Alder Flycatcher  6
Least Flycatcher  15
Empidonax sp.  5
Brown-crested Flycatcher  4
Great Kiskadee  5
Tropical Kingbird  2
Couch's Kingbird  8
White-eyed Vireo  4
Green Jay  4
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  20
Cave Swallow  1
Black-crested Titmouse  22
Verdin  1
Bewick's Wren  7
Carolina Wren  18
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  7
Clay-colored Thrush  2
Northern Mockingbird  6
Long-billed Thrasher  4
Black-and-white Warbler  5
Common Yellowthroat  2
Yellow Warbler  2
Yellow-throated Warbler  1
Yellow-breasted Chat  1
Olive Sparrow  15
Northern Cardinal  5
Painted Bunting  1
Red-winged Blackbird  15
Orchard Oriole  5
Altamira Oriole  2
Lesser Goldfinch  7