Unusual Breeding Records at Escondido
Unusual Breeding Records at Escondido
A nest of the golden pileolated warbler (Wilsonia pusilla chryseola) with four fresh eggs was found by me in a willow grove in the San Pasqual Valley--elevation 350 feet above sea level--on June 16, 1901. The grove contained a number of patches of wild rose and the nest was placed at the margin of one of these near the edge of the grove at about a foot from the ground. It is large and uncouth-appearing for a warbler and is made of stems of nettles with their leaves, and willow leaves and blossoms, all green; also old dry nettle leaves. The lining is of dry shreds of grass, loosely laid in. When found it was all slightly covered and obscured by the leaves of the rose and nettles. Its present measurements are about 8 inches by 3-1/2 in depth outside and 1-3/4 by 1 inch inside. When found the depth was much greater. It has flattened since then considerably. Both birds were seen and the male secured. On June 18, 1905, I saw a male of the species in the same grove but did not see his mate who was probably holding down a nest in the vicinity, which I could not find. These are the only times I have ever seen the species here, in nesting time.
On June 18, 1905, I found a nest and eggs of the Bell sparrow (Amphispiza belli) in the same wild rose patch referred to above and not more than ten feet from where the warbler's nest was taken. No bird was secured but both were seen and noticed for half an hour as they fluttered around thru the brush, coming within a few feet of me. This is a fairly common bird around San Diego and might reasonably be expected to be met with here, but I never knew of its breeding here before.
San Pasqual proved attractive to the Traill flycatcher (Empidonax trailli) also last season, and I found it breeding for the first time on June 4. The nest was in a clump of nettles on the edge of a water hole in a grove of willows and was the exact counterpart of the nest of a lazuli bunting. The bird secured was identified for me by Mr. Grinnell.
One would expect that these three species would not be so very rare here as all three breed in this county in localities not so vastly different nor so very far from this neighborhood. But in years of hunting and collecting here these are the only breeding records in my knowledge.
In the Field and Study notes in January CONDOR Mr. Grinnell speaks of a wood duck (Aix sponsa) being taken near Oxnard, Ventura County. In November last Mr. F. X. Holzner of San Diego showed me a beautiful specimen of that species which had been sent to him to mount from Ramona where it had been shot. Ramona is about 15 miles southeast of Escondido and about 25 miles from San Diego. This is likely to prove the most southerly record for the species in the State.
C.S. SHARP
Escondido, Cal.
