Birding this morning at The Scrubs produced the interesting sight of a Carrion Crow with white wingbars. When I first saw the bird it was heading low towards me above the grassland. The white on the wing initially startled me. It was only as it flew past me that I suddenly realised that I had a camera – so I started snapping.

In truth, over the years there have been a fair proportion of the crows at The Scrubs that displayed varying degrees of white in their plumage. There was even a ginger individual that frequented the area around the prison for a couple of years.

This was the first bird I had seen with a complete white wingbar and of course, this is no new species but a Carrion Crow with a plumage mutation. But why do crows develop this? And why do I only see these birds in dense urban populations and not in rural districts?

I’m back in LA after a couple of mostly cold weeks on the east coast. I haven’t been well since leaving Tucson and it’s now abundantly clear that I need to see a doctor fairly urgently for a prescription of antibiotitics to fight the pain in my throat, hacking cough and general lethargy that I am feeling. This is all a residue of the flu that I had three weeks ago.

I’ve felt too lousy to bird at all recently, but I did manage a few minutes this morning on the doorstep of the East Hollywood apartment that I am staying in. I saw Ravens, a Red-tailed Hawk, Anna’s Hummingbirds, House Finches and Northern Mockingbirds. I also watched a Black Phoebe singing from the top of a tree right outside the front door.

I also saw this raptor drift over whilst I was coughing.

It flew and appeared to look like an Accipiter but my feeling was that it may have been a Red-shouldered Hawk.

Tomorrow, I will be visiting Ballona Wetlands, my ‘LA local patch’. That should be interesting.