Birds out of place -- Arctic gulls and Mexican parrots

Arctic birds showing up in the California desert? Well, yes.

LA Times: Birders atwitter over sighting at Salton Sea

Scott Terrill got the news about 4 p.m. His son, who was attending a birding conference in the Central Valley, had heard about the sighting and called to tell his father. Minutes later, a co-worker came in to report news of an Internet posting of the bird. And just after that, a birding friend in Southern California gave him a call. The frenzy had begun.

Like many birders, Terrill, an ornithologist with a San Francisco Bay Area environmental consulting firm, keeps lists of the birds he’s seen. Lists are kept by state, by region, by time of year. A Ross’s gull was a great sighting for any list. For a California list, it was a crown jewel. The bird had never before been seen in the state.

Meanwhile, feral parrots squawk proudly in the Inland Empire.

Press-Enterprise: Wild parrots ruffle feathers in Redlands

There are a variety of theories on how they got here, but lots of people in Redlands and surrounding communities have been seeing — and more often hearing — feral parrots for more than 20 years.

Gene Cardiff, of Rialto, a past president of the San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society, says he seriously doubts that the parrots migrated to Redlands. That would amount to at least a 1,500-mile flight for the two most common Redlands species: the red-crowned (Amazona viridigenalis) and lilac-crowned (Amazona finchi), which normally call Central America and central Mexico home.