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From yesterday, forgot to post. My lifer Golden Eagle!!! I was not at all expecting this, there hasn’t been a report from this part of the county this year, and this is an immature. There hasn’t been a report from this part of the county of an immature in 2 years!! It’s quite a great bird anywhere in my county, as well as the rest of coastal SoCal. Not flagged as rare, but it’s “rare to see”. It’s likely a migrant but still, wow. 
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I finally have enough proof to claim a King Rail Lifer.  I'm reasonably sure that I actually saw a King Rail on 12/31/2022, however, I have no photos, and I've been wrong about stronger assumptions.  I'm also more than reasonably certain that I've heard the calls on at least two other checklists at this hotspot, but Merlin never picked it up, and I wasn't able to extract any recognizable audio.  Merlin is prone to false positives, but I'm surprised that it never picks up these known calls:

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/568013041

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Too late to edit the last post, but I wanted to add this:

I wasn't more than 15 feet away from the bird in the clip, but I would have had to walk in an area with unknown footing, and unknown water levels, and risk running into an Alligator, so I had to pass on the photo op.  The bird responded to a call but wouldn't come out to play. 

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Posted (edited)

Chipping Sparrow from back in April of 2017 in Upstate New York.  Thanks to @Aidan B for picking out the call from my audio.  WOW, I also LOVE my iPhone for the recording and storage capabilities, and I'm glad I keep so much stuff.  I also reported the Ruby-crowned Kinglet that Aidan B picked out, so I now know I got that lifer five years earlier than I thought.

My lifer standards are very high, but so is the quality of my hearing, and I'm 100% confident the call made it to my ears on that spring morning in Upstate New York.  There may also have been another Chipping Sparrow call in a different old audio clip I recently uploaded here from the same Upstate N.Y. area, but it wasn't as clear, so I didn't report the observation:

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/568893631

Edited by dragon49
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5 hours ago, floraphile said:

Bachman's Sparrow.  Half-dozen or more singing birds, but none would show himself, with the exception of one brave fellow who briefly appeared before disappearing in the grass & forbs. 

 

If above doesn't play, here is link to checklist:

https://ebird.org/checklist/S136661414

 

 

Soon after I posted this here, I noted my recordings were flagged for review, and not sure why.  Did someone here on Whatbird flag or is Bachman's is a species for automatic review?  Would you know, @DLecy?

 

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23 minutes ago, floraphile said:

Soon after I posted this here, I noted my recordings were flagged for review, and not sure why.  Did someone here on Whatbird flag or is Bachman's is a species for automatic review?  Would you know, @DLecy?

 

The filter for your region for Bachman's Sparrow is set to 5 birds from Apr. 1 - Sep. 1. Your report of 6 birds means you have exceeded the filter limit. So, while the ID may be correct, it's not a bad idea to indicate in your checklist comments on how you determined six individual/distinct birds. Not a big deal, the filter is set to 5, so your checklist only exceeds it by a single bird, but to help in the review process it's always a good idea to include additional details.

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5 minutes ago, DLecy said:

The filter for your region for Bachman's Sparrow is set to 5 birds from Apr. 1 - Sep. 1. Your report of 6 birds means you have exceeded the filter limit. So, while the ID may be correct, it's not a bad idea to indicate in your checklist comments on how you determined six individual/distinct birds. Not a big deal, the filter is set to 5, so your checklist only exceeds it by a single bird, but to help in the review process it's always a good idea to include additional details.

Thank you for the explanation! 🙂 .  

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Kind of hoped county bird #250 would be better looks, but it was a lifer Wilson's Phalarope.  Not sure I've ever left my house as quickly after hearing about a possible new bird for me.  

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