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Back to Scorpion

 After my relatively successful visit on September 23, a check of the weather revealed that heavy overcast would continue through the weekend. I was able to get pretty much the last place on the boat to Scorpion on Sunday September 28. After a typically uneventful crossing, other than the mandatory dolphin pods, I arrived on the island around 9:45. I started birding in the kayak storage area on the north side of the creek bed by the beach as I could hear a Yellow Warbler-like chip there. I eventually located the bird and confirmed it as a Yellow Warbler, while also seeing a few sparrows in the area.

In an attempt to miss the crowds, I headed up the north side of the creek bed before cutting over into the campground. As I reached the edge of the campground I noticed a Merlin dashing around over the tops of the eucalyptus trees and also heard an oriole chattering that transpired to be a Bullock’s. I made my way through the campground, seeing very little there. The second fig patch had the usual mass of House Finches but little else other than a Thick-billed Fox Sparrow so I continued up into the small canyon leading towards the group campground. This proved disappointing with the ‘highlight’ being a small group of Yellow-rumped Warblers feeding in some fennel high up on the canyon slopes.

The group campground turned up a White-winged Dove and several Mourning Doves. There had been a noticeable increase in White-crowned Sparrows from my trip of a few days ago and a roving flock held a Brewer’s Sparrow. I ran into Mark Holmgren, another long-time Santa Barbara birder, here who told me he had seen a pair of Lawrence’s Goldfinches by the ranch house as well as a mixed bunting and sparrow flock.

Brewer's Sparrow

Mark decided to head up the canyon beyond the group canyon while I chose to retrace my tracks back through the other campground to the ranch house. I decided to give the fig patch between the campgrounds another check and after a while found a Yellow-green Vireo, a vagrant from NW Mexico, feeding on a fig. A Warbling Vireo was also in the patch too. This was a pretty good bird, although I have seen close to ten in the county over the years, as well as some in Mexico. I obtained a couple of typically poor photographs.


Yellow-green Vireo

Walking back through the campground towards the farmhouse, I heard the Bullock’s Oriole again and found it was now accompanied by a Hooded Oriole and a Black-headed Grosbeak. Reaching the short grass and Australian saltbush by the old ranch house immediately revealed the bunting and Spizella flock, which consisted of multiple Lazuli Buntings and Chipping Sparrows along with 2 Brewer’s Sparrows, a Clay-colored Sparrow and the Indigo Bunting. I then went down to kayak storage area by the beach and confirmed one more each of Brewer’s and Clay-colored. There were also six White-throated Swifts hawking over the canyon here. Possibly the rarest occurrence of the day was me taking a decent shot of a Brewer’s Sparrow!

Chipping Sparrow

Lazuli Bunting

I then worked my way back up to the group campground, seeing a Bald Eagle and a Peregrine en route. A Lark Sparrow had now joined the large White-crowned flock and a Western Wood-Pewee, found earlier by Mark, was a few hundred yards beyond the end of the campground.

It was getting time to head back to the dock. I made one last check of the fig patch and had a bright green and yellow Painted Bunting drop down to feed on the path. This species is really increasing in frequency in the county. I took me eight years to see my first one but now I am finding them annually. Both passerina buntings and spizella sparrows seem to be much commoner on the offshore islands than the mainland, even the large islands where there is no concentrating effect.

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