Date: 5/8/25 12:53 pm From: Tom Edell via groups.io <TEdell...> Subject: [slocobirding] FW: [CALBIRDS] late wave of Gambel's White-crowned Sparrows and other tardies; another plea about over-use of "Merlin"
This email from Paul Lehman is worth posting to the group. I especially think the Merlin discussion is worth reading.
Tom Edell
Cayucos, CA
From: <CALBIRDS...> <CALBIRDS...> On Behalf Of <lehman.paul...> via groups.io
Sent: Thursday, May 8, 2025 12:25 PM
To: <calbirds...>
Subject: [CALBIRDS] late wave of Gambel's White-crowned Sparrows and other tardies; another plea about over-use of "Merlin"
The following I wrote for the San Diego County listserv, but much here is germane to California as a whole. --Paul
Yesterday, May 7th, associated with a good wave of western migrants, there was a total of at least TEN "Gambel's" White-crowned Sparrows at a total of 6 different sites in coastal San Diego County. Normally, we get a couple single birds each year this late in May. So far today, I have heard of zero. Also yesterday were several coastal "Dark-lored" White-crowned Sparrows (probably oriantha), which are rare on the coast but are NOT late (they are a regular migrant east of us into mid-May). Continuing the late theme, I had an immature small-male Sharp-shinned Hawk today on Point Loma, one of the latest in spring; and, best of all, there was a female Mountain Bluebird photo'd yesterday by others on private property near Ramona, setting a new late date for the county by a full two weeks.
But, running contrary to the above, there have now been two early-arriving Willow Flycatchers photo'd in the past three days. The rare locally breeding birds (subspecies extimus) may start arriving right now at their local breeding grounds, but this is still a good week early for the first of the through-migrants at migrant sites (where these two current birds have been seen).
We eBird reviewers have pleaded in the past more than once for observers NOT to overly-rely on the MERLIN app telling us what we may or may not be hearing and what is present in an area. Merlin does a great job at times, sometimes picking up and properly identifying high-pitched calls seemingly in the next time zone, while a few minutes later failing to detect a loudly calling American Crow overhead or a loud Swainson's Thrush in a nearby bush. Merlin also repeatedly misidentifies a number of our common species. Examples are vocalizing Allen's Hummingbirds are misidentified regularly as Rufous, a singing Black-headed Grosbeak is ID'd as a rare Rose-breasted, and regularly misidentifying other species such as Red-breasted Nuthatch, American Goldfinch, Red-winged Blackbird, and more......So, PLEASE, never report rarities that are heard-only via Merlin unless the call/song can be verified in some fashion. And please do not report even regular species like the blackbird or the goldfinch (especially) at sites where you have not actually visually confirmed them either currently or in the recent past. There are regularly reports of these species, and quite a few more, at sites where they do NOT occur. It is pretty clear that the observer solely depended on Merlin for their identification, and possibly even hearing it at all, with no visual confirmation made.
