Santa Ana NWR, 8/26/18

Six days ago I checked out Santa Ana NWR and expected a bunch of Yellow-breasted Chats and a few Mourning Warblers.  I got skunked on both but saw a lot of Empidonax.  Well today I gave it another try and six days made a difference.  Yellow-breasted Chats were out in force with a count of thirteen.  Here's a brave one that responded to my crude imitation of their song.

Usually they are peering out from undercover.

I also manged to dig out three Mourning Warblers.  This male has a bit of a broken eye ring suggestive of MacGillivray's Warbler but it's not thick enough.  In fact the eye arcs are different on each side.

Young birds have pretty bold broken eye rings but not the short thick eye arcs of MacGillivray's.  The young Mac also has a whitish throat as opposed to this young Mourning Warbler's yellowish throat.

This Hooded Warbler at Willow 1 refused to come out in the open.

I walked between Willow Lakes 1 and 2 hoping to find a Louisiana Waterthrush.  I did but this was the best shot I could get.

Twenty Yellow warblers were a pretty good count.

And a couple of Black-and-white Warblers.

This young Common Yellowthroat had me scratching my head a bit.

I also saw six Alder Flycatchers and another ten Willow/Alder Flycatchers along with three Least Flycatchers.  Here's an Alder.

I usually walk past the Harris's Hawk but it demanded a photo today.

So fall migration of passerines is starting to pick up.  Wish it would rain.