Other fun landbird sightings today: a Common Raven over the golf course, the Tropical Kingbird (whose daily rhythm seems to be an early morning appearance before departing for parts unknown for the rest of the day), 4 Red Crossbills (flyovers, type 2), and a good Merlin show. We even had a very dark Merlin that Kai's photos have revealed to be a good candidate for a "black" Merlin, which hails from the Pacific Northwest.

Other fun landbird sightings today: a Common Raven over the golf course, the Tropical Kingbird (whose daily rhythm seems to be an early morning appearance before departing for parts unknown for the rest of the day), 4 Red Crossbills (flyovers, type 2), and a good Merlin show. We even had a very dark Merlin that Kai's photos have revealed to be a good candidate for a "black" Merlin, which hails from the Pacific Northwest.

Around 6:45 am., I had my scope trained on the buoy and was clicking Black-vented Shearwaters flying out. Two distant, mostly white birds the size of large terns entered the spotting scope, flying into the bay from the west. They were a little less than halfway from the buoy to the horizon, at a range where they could be detected with binoculars as birds that warranted a look in the spotting scope. Though the birds entered my field of view at the same time, they were not trav