[Written by Jean Garrett; Photos by Marie Barnidge-McIntyre, Ray Juncosa & Chris Tosdevin, edited by Chuck Almdale]

The American Snout Butterfly is far less common in the west than in the east (see below). Butterflies and Moths has a nice write-up this medium-small butterfly (1 3/8 – 2″) wingspan, with much the same information on Wikipedia. Most of us have never seen this butterfly before.

It was a cool day that eventually warmed up for our group of nine people.  We were first greeted by several Juncos with one having pink flanks but there were no blackish lores so all hope of a “Pink-sided” Junco was dashed.  The sounds of Acorn Woodpeckers serenaded us throughout the day as they always do at Malibu Creek. 

Looking over to the west of the meadow gave us 3 Western Bluebirds. Then looking back to the Juncos we saw that some House Finches and one Purple Finch had joined them along with a White-throated Sparrow with a strongly outlined throat (it has been seen previously this fall at Malibu Creek).

As you can see from the map below, White-throated Sparrows have a wide breeding range across Canada and New England. As with many other North American passerines, their southward migration is typically east of the Rocky Mountains. Occasionally, especially in southwestern Canada, they fly over the ridges to the west side of the mountains and wind up spending the winter along the American west coast from southern Washington to the Mexican boarder.

For some reason, they seem reluctant to spend the winter south of the border and west of Big Bend, Texas, which may be an artifact of the lack of people noticing their presence; they are easily confused with the far more common White-crowned Sparrows.

Walking along the meadow into the forest gave us a leucistic Red-tail Hawk that was somewhat expected since it has been seen previously on several occasions by some in our group. The White-crowned Sparrows with their distinctive mournful song accompanied us as we saw a Great Blue Heron busy hunting near the river. 

An opening in the forest gave us some Lesser Goldfinches, Mourning Dove, and Ruby-crowned Kinglets.  The Hermit Thrush was on the floor of the forest and 2 American Kestrels were overhead in the trees. 

Walking back towards the meadow, the Downy Woodpecker was seen crawling up trunk of a tree and then 6 Nanday Parakeets flew overhead. Heading into the forest north of the meadow, the Wrentit trilled while we carefully looked at some Kingbirds and determined they were Cassin’s. As we looked behind us, there was the lovely site of a flock of about 60 Rock Pigeons. Spotted Towhees were in the bushes with a White-breasted Nuthatch working a tree and at last a Red-breasted Sapsucker was found. 

In the grass we found a Golden-crowned Sparrow, which we see far less often than the abundant White-crowned Sparrows. This made it a three-Zonotrichia day, an uncommon event.

All in all we did not do badly for a quiet day.  We got 50 species and it was a pleasant sunny day in the fall.

Malibu Creek State Park
Field Trips	11/8/25	6/14/25	5/11/24	11/12/11	11/13/10
American Wigeon	2
Mallard	14	10	5	20	15
Ring-necked Duck					1
Bufflehead				2
California Quail		20
Pied-billed Grebe				1
Band-tailed Pigeon	6	4	6	80	12
Mourning Dove	10	19	5	2	2
Feral Pigeon	60
White-throated Swift		5			20
Black-chinned Hummer		2
Anna’s Hummingbird	1	5	3	1	2
Allen’s Hummingbird		1	2	1
Hummingbird sp.	1
American Coot	1			20	15
Killdeer		1
Double-crested Cormorant		1		1
Snowy Egret		6
Green Heron		2
Great Egret		1
Great Blue Heron	1	2	2	1	1
Turkey Vulture	3	10	10
White-tailed Kite				2	2
Cooper’s Hawk	2		2	1
Northern Harrier	1
Red-shouldered Hawk	2	4	2	3	1
Red-tailed Hawk	4	4	6	4	3
Belted Kingfisher	1				1
Red-naped Sapsucker					1
Red-breasted Sapsucker	1			2	1
Acorn Woodpecker	16	20	15	8	15
Downy Woodpecker	1			1	2
Nuttall’s Woodpecker	5	10	4	4	1
Northern Flicker	3		1	5	2
American Kestrel	2	1	2	4	1
Nanday Parakeet	4	11	8	H
Cassin’s Kingbird	5				2
Western Wood-Pewee		X
Western Flycatcher		3	4
Black Phoebe	2	4	2	6	6
Say’s Phoebe	1			3	2
Ash-throated Flycatcher		9	5
Cassin’s Kingbird		4			2
Hutton’s Vireo			2		1
Loggerhead Shrike				2	1
California Scrub-Jay	10	12	6	2	6
American Crow	30	6	10	30	30
Common Raven	6	6	4	8	10
Oak Titmouse	10	22	10	20	12
Tree Swallow		X
Violet-green Swallow		6	1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow		20	5
Barn Swallow		3
Cliff Swallow		10	20
Bushtit	8	50	10	15	15
Wrentit	4	8	2	3	1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	8			4	3
White-breasted Nuthatch	1	9	3	6	6
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher		7	3
Canyon Wren		3			1
No. House Wren	3	11	12	1	3
Bewick’s Wren		1		2	2
California Thrasher		2
Western Bluebird	5	8	2	20	1
Hermit Thrush	4
American Robin				1
Phainopepla		4	1	2
House Finch	8	10	10	30	4
Purple Finch	2			6	2
Pine Siskin					5
Lesser Goldfinch	6	10	10		1
Lark Sparrow				20
Dark-eyed Junco	8	4	8	30	12
White-crowned Sparrow	24			40	20
Golden-crowned Sparrow	2
White-throated Sparrow	1
Song Sparrow	1	5	6	4	1
California Towhee	8	8	9	12	4
Spotted Towhee	2	6	8	8	4
Yellow-breasted Chat		2	1
Hooded Oriole		2
Bullock’s Oriole		4
Red-winged Blackbird		10	1
Brown-headed Cowbird		4	3
Orange-crowned Warbler	1	8	5
Common Yellowthroat	2	10	6	2	1
Yellow Warbler		8	12
Yellow-rumped Warbler	8	X		40	40
Townsend’s Warbler	1	X
Wilson’s Warbler		X
Western Tanager			2
Black-headed Grosbeak		2
Blue Grosbeak		2
Lazuli Bunting		6	1
Total Species: 94	50	65	47	47	48