Date of sighting: 12 June 2010

A dapper male Chestnut-sided Warbler sang his way along the southeastern side of the Lee Vining Creek this morning. He was in the vicinity of about 500 – 1000m upstream from where the county road crosses the creek. I saw him at around 8:00 and followed him until around 8:30. Justin Hite saw him again at around 3:30. He put on a show: in plane view he munched on anything he could find from vibrant cottonwood leaves, sang up a storm, and displayed his brilliant plumage for all to see. His song is strikingly similar to that of the Yellow Warbler, and I found their songs quite difficult to distinguish.

Also, likely recovering from the 512 cfs peak of last week, I found a Spotted Sandpiper sneaking away from a new nest with one egg, it was placed among Castilleja and grass stems and debris from the flows, on what little dry(ish) ground is available.

This post was submitted by Sacha Heath.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 12th, 2010 at 5:55 pm and is filed under Birds. You can view No Responses on this post or leave your own response if you log in.