Upper San Jose Creek was nice this morning (above and below the Patterson St. bridge, above Cathedral Oaks). I had my first Nashville Warbler, Yellow Warbler, and American Goldfinch of the spring. There have been scads of Western Kingbirds in the exotic trees in the surrounding neighborhood I had 9 in one tree the other day. They seem to be tapering off now, but still a lot around.
Ive been enjoying playing around with the Merlin sound ID app. I consider myself pretty good with local bird sounds, but it is still helpful. I have a hard time with warbler songs this time of year, for example. The app was claiming there were American Goldfinches this morning, but I couldnt hear them at first. Later I finally had one make the potato chip call I recognize, so the app was probably picking up a call I didnt know before that. Maybe I would have found the goldfinch anyway, but being primed to look for it helps. On the other hand, the apps claims should always be taken as just one piece of evidence among many. I also claimed there was a Green-Winged Teal, which was kinda funny. Still, its very helpful as a tool to get better at birding by ear! You can go back and listen to the specific recorded calls that the app is claiming support a species, and learn new things to listen for.

List is here: https://ebird.org/hotspot/L1075498
Tom Turner
Santa Barbara