Details of a self-found bird 9 June 2001

The BLUE-WINGED WARBLER is a rare spring & fall vagrant to California; exceptional in winter. It was once among the rarest of the eastern warblers to reach the State (e.g., in my Rare Birds of the West Coast, 1980, it was listed among the rarest of the rare) but as its range expanded in the East, vagrants have become comparatively more numerous here (and, conversely, Golden-winged Warblers comparatively more rare); both species remain, however, super-vagrants (averages 1-2/year and some years there aren't any), and a very few intergrades or hybrids between them have also been recorded.

All of my California records are listed below. Those preceded by H were found or co-found by me personally; those preceded by K receive some partial credit (e.g., I was involved in sorting out i.d. of a previously discovered bird or refound a vagrant that had been thought to have left). These are my personal Blue-winged Warbler records:

5/30/87    Butterbredt Springs KER    probably a female; description in my notes
1/30/93    Ferndale HUM    wintering bird (1st to winter in CA); description in my notes
9/14/93    Big Sur R. mouth MTY    sketch & typed description
9/27/93    Carmel R. mouth MTY    sketch & typed description
H 6/9/01    Big Sur R. mouth MTY    a singing male; sketch & typed description (reproduced above)

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