Amazingly, the first county record was in an adjacent yard on 21 Apr 1998. Eastern warbler vagrants were noticeable down. A dozen Blackpolls were below the average of 17, and Palms were dramatically down. The highlight of this autumn was an exceptional four Painted Buntings Passerina ciris on the Big Sur coast , three of them banded at the Big Sur Ornithology Lab. I knew it was the bird banded six days before because of the bright shiny metal band on the right leg.
Western birds migrate two months before eastern birds to the deserts of s. Arizona and nw.
Mexico and begin flight feather molt there before continuing on to wintering locales from s. Texas to Central America. Eastern populations complete flight-feather molt before migrating to s. Florida and the Caribbean. California vagrants, including the MTY birds, are all likely from the western population and some are likely in supplemental plumage when they stray this far west. In the first week of July, John and Ricky Warriner determined that the nest had 3 eggs .