Rare Bird Alert
Jon Fisher
Rare Bird Alert - February 27, 2025

White-winged Dove | Sandhill Crane | Pacific Loon | Lesser Black-backed Gull | Cocos Booby | Zone-tailed Hawk | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | Tropical Kingbird | THICK-BILLED KINGBIRD | Clay-colored Sparrow | Sagebrush Sparrow | Dark-eyed “Pink-sided” Junco | Green-tailed Towhee | Baltimore Oriole | Black-and-white Warbler | Tennessee Warbler | Cape May Warbler | Palm Warbler | Black-throated Green Warbler | Painted Redstart

Rare Bird Alert
Jon Fisher
Rare Bird Alert - February 20, 2025

White-winged Dove | Sandhill Crane | Pacific Golden-Plover | Solitary Sandpiper | Lesser Black-backed Gull | Pacific Loon | Zone-tailed Hawk | Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | Ash-throated Flycatcher | Tropical Kingbird | THICK-BILLED KINGBIRD | Least Flycatcher | Lapland Longspur | Thick-billed Longspur | Clay-colored Sparrow | Sagebrush Sparrow | Dark-eyed “Pink-sided” Junco | Green-tailed Towhee | Baltimore Oriole | Black-and-white Warbler | Pine Warbler | Cape May Warbler | Black-throated Green Warbler | Painted Redstart | Hepatic Tanager | Rose-breasted Grosbeak

BIRDS OF THE SEASON
Jon Fisher
Birds of the Season—January 2025

Though we enjoyed two drought-busting winters in 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, the current rainy season has been anything but.  In December and January, most of Los Angeles County was suffering from record dry conditions and extreme drought.  Vegetation, having increased significantly over two wet years, had not received any measurable rain for over eight months. 

Birds of the Season—January 2025
Rare Bird Alert
Jon Fisher
Rare Bird Alert - January 15, 2025

Sandhill Crane | Pacific Golden-Plover | Solitary Sandpiper | Vega Gull | Lesser Black-backed Gull | Pacific Loon | Swainson’s Hawk | Zone-tailed Hawk | Short-eared Owl | Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | Ash-throated Flycatcher | Tropical Kingbird | THICK-BILLED KINGBIRD | Least Flycatcher | Eastern Phoebe | Bell’s Vireo | Lapland Longspur | Thick-billed Longspur | Clay-colored Sparrow | Sagebrush Sparrow | Dark-eyed “Pink-sided” Junco | Green-tailed Towhee | Tennessee Warbler | Lucy’s Warbler | Cape May Warbler | Pine Warbler | Black-throated Green Warbler | Painted Redstart

Rare Bird Alert
Jon Fisher
Rare Bird Alert - December 31, 2024

Common Ground Dove | Sandhill Crane | Pacific Golden-Plover | Solitary Sandpiper | Lesser Black-backed Gull | Vega Gull | Least Bittern | Swainson’s Hawk | Zone-tailed Hawk | Short-eared Owl | Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | THICK-BILLED KINGBIRD | Hammond’s Flycatcher | Dusky Flycatcher | Western Flycatcher | Eastern Phoebe | Bell’s Vireo | SIBERIAN PIPIT | Lapland Longspur | Thick-billed Longspur | Sagebrush Sparrow | Swamp Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Hooded Oriole | Virgina’s Warbler | Cape May Warbler | Pine Warbler | Painted Redstart | Rose-breasted Grosbeak

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Western Tanager, Vol. 88 No. 1, Sep–Oct 2021

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Western Tanager, Vol. 88 No. 1, Sep–Oct 2021

INSIDE THIS ISSUE, Vol. 88 No. 1 Sep–Oct 2021

Island Hopping: Birding the U.S. Virgin Islands, By Lisa Freeman; The Baldwin Hills Greenhouse Program Research Projects, 2020-2021 school year: What If We Had A Field Trip and Nobody Could Attend?, By Cindy Hardin; Birds of the Season - August 2021, By Jon Fisher; Grand Appreciation For All Things Natural, By Rose White; Long Live The Queen, By Michael H. Lester; The Circus Is In Town, By Michael H. Lester; The Velocity Master, By Richard Knight; We Have a Birdbath, By Susan Lapham; The Los Angeles Cardinal, By Rachelle A. Arslan;

The Western Tanager is the chapter newsletter of the Los Angeles Audubon Society and has been published continuously since 1934. Originally published in print and mailed to each member, beginning with the January/February 2006 issue (Vol. 72 No. 3), the Western Tanager has been published online as PDF issues. For older issues, please visit the archives at: https://thewesterntanager.org/

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Birds of the Season — August 2021

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Birds of the Season — August 2021

While heat baked the Los Angeles County deserts, summer on the coastal slope was more mild than intense. Fire season- at least in Los Angeles County- has been subdued this summer. Experience tells us that neither of those conditions are likely to persist, but good fortune may smile upon us.

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Grand Appreciation for all Things Natural

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Grand Appreciation for all Things Natural

I’ve always loved flowers, possibly because of my name….but also because of the many hours as a child that I spent exploring my grandmother’s lush and varied gardens---expanses that covered both her entire front and back yards.

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What If We Had a Field Trip & Nobody Could Attend?

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What If We Had a Field Trip & Nobody Could Attend?

As we know all too well, the pandemic events of the last year and a half have caused myriad activities to be curtailed or cancelled altogether. Our formerly robust field trip programs actually saw mass cancellations even before the schools closed in March, 2020.

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Island Hopping: Birding the U.S. Virgin Islands, Part 1: St. Croix

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Island Hopping: Birding the U.S. Virgin Islands, Part 1: St. Croix

T he U.S. Virgin Islands – St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. John, and dozens of minor islands – serve as a fuel and rest stop for hundreds of thousands of birds traveling north and south over the Caribbean Sea during spring and winter migration. In all, more than 140 species of birds have been recorded in the coastal wetlands, mangrove forests and salt ponds, dry and moist forests, and along the rocky cliffs and coves, making the USVI worthy of a birding adventure. I headed there recently to learn about the challenges facing birds on these remote islands and to discover exciting new birds for my life list.

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