Good afternoon everybody,

This morning Max Laubstein, Alex Castelein, and I birded the Mentor Drive business park. Overall the entire area was extremely active, with large flocks of warblers in the NE and SW corners.

On the NE side I spotted what looked like a sapsucker hanging onto a tipu, and half jokingly said “is that a Yellow-bellied?!” Upon further inspection it was in fact an adult female Yellow-bellied sapsucker, lacking red in the throat and exhibiting the classic “basket weave” pattern on the back. Given the high rates of winter site fidelity, this could be the same bird seen in the past at this location. Spotted at (34.4349369, -119.8115589)

I also had a Black-and-white Warbler on the south side of the complex around (34.4318757, -119.8133999), which was actively foraging and moving east across the volleyball and basketball courts. 

Happy birding,

Jeremy Cowan
Isla Vista