'Extremely rare' bird mysteriously migrates to Marin (Cal)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/rare-willow-warbler-bird-Marin-17542693.phpThe Eurasian bird — known as the willow warbler — was spotted at the Rodeo Lagoon in the Marin Headlands on Oct. 18 by William Legge of Mill Valley, the Marin Independent Journal reported. It’s thought to be the first-ever sighting on the North American mainland of the warbler, which has since brought excited members of the birdwatching community from across the United States to Northern California.
Willow warblers are delicate gray-green birds that typically breed in Europe and migrate to southern Africa for the wintertime, according to the Wildlife Trusts. They’re considered unusual for molting their feathers twice a year — but it’s even more unusual that one suddenly appeared in Northern California.
“For reasons that we're not quite sure yet, this one decided to fly west,” said Chris Overington, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory. “It's an extremely rare bird for the West Coast.”
Once word got out, the birdwatching community immediately took action. “Several hundred birders have continued some surveillance of this vagrant songbird since Tuesday,” the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy website said Oct. 21.
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For many species, once in a while we see a species that is normally from someplace far away from it's normal path. I wonder what the story is for that little guy.
Among the fantastic migratory behaviors I get to see are the Sandhill cranes and the Trumpeter Swans gather and leave in a flock. But yesterday, I have not seen these since I moved to lower elevations, Snow geese!
Yesterday morning, around 3am, I stepped out on the porch and heard them in the snowy clouds in the dark, flying pretty low at that point. It was around noon that I was outside doing something and I heard a chopper coming over the pass so I looked up. It was then, after spotting the aircraft that I saw them, a faint wisp of white in the cold, sunny, sapphire sky... three groups of them riding the high altitude winds driving the winter storm that will arrive in 48 hours.
