White-winged Scoters, Tropical Kingbird

Laurin Richey reported seeing the American Tree Sparrow in his Sunsites/Pearce yard briefly at first light this morning, but it didn’t reappear for any of the birders present until at least 1:15 p.m. when I was the last to leave. Laurin will let me know if he sees it again. Many thanks to Laurin for opening up his yard and for his warm hospitality. It was great to see lots of familiar faces, despite the sparrow no-show.

As reported, the two first-winter WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS were showing well at Lake Cochise, Willcox, this afternoon, along with two ROSS’S GEESE, WESTERN GREBE, three RING-BILLED GULLS, a decent assortment of ducks, several small flocks of CHESTNUT-COLLARED LONGSPURS, and the exceptionally late TROPICAL KINGBIRD (first November record? And how often do Tropical Kingbird and White-winged Scoter meet?) A rather spiffy male MERLIN was perched up by the golf course pond late afternoon. Many thanks to Chris Benesh for finding the scoters and kingbird, and Gary Rosenberg for getting the news out.