Hi Birders,
Yesterday, Saturday, 9/21, twenty-four birders walked around Lake Kumeyaay and a portion of the adjacent Old Mission Dam Grasslands Crossing Trail. The weather was perfect for the beginning of Fall and we found 47 bird species. The best bird of the day had to be the beautiful and very cooperative male Summer Tanager that we found near the bridge on the Crossing Trail. This bird is a SD County rarity and was a life bird for several in our group. Here’s our list:

Gadwall
Mallard
California Quail
Pied-billed Grebe
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Turkey Vulture
Cooper’s Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Merlin
Virginia Rail
American Coot
Mourning Dove
Vaux’s Swift
Anna’s Hummingbird
Nuttall’s Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pacific-slope Flycatcher
Black Phoebe
Cassin’s Kingbird
Hutton’s Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Western Scrub-Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Bushtit
White-breasted Nuthatch
Bewick’s Wren
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Wrentit
California Thrasher
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Wilson’s Warbler
Summer Tanager
Spotted Towhee
California Towhee
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
House Finch
Lesser Goldfinch

JIM BECKMAN