12.3 [SFBirds] Booby sp.
I'm submitting the Booby sp. to the
Field Notes Editors as a "possible"
BLUE-FOOTED BOOBY, along with my write up in support of this
thesis. I have
no doubt it will end up as Booby sp. Please let me know (soon)
if you object
to this.
12.9 [SFBirds] Horned Lark, Burrowing Owl
at Candlestick Point
The 8 HORNED LARKS were still near
the boat launch area as described in
Calvin's message to the BirdBox. The BURROWING OWL was about
20 yards east of the
blue cooler, near the indistinct path which goes near the shore.
Finally, the
ducks have showed up en masse. There are huge rafts of them
at Candlestick Point,
though the bulk appear not to be in the county. I didn't have
anywhere near
enough time to check out the flocks in detail.
12.14 [SFBirds] No one seems to have reported
this...
...but Joost, Diane and I had the
CINAMMON TEAL at Lake Merced this morning.
Fort Funston only turned up a WHITE-WINGED SCOTER.
Where are all the seabirds?
12.19 [SFBirds]
Nothing earth-shattering this morning,
but at least something worthy of sending around.
At the northern windmill was a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK right at dawn. On the ridge between the Tennis Courts and the Lawn Bowling area which abuts Sharon Meadow, there were at least two STELLAR'S JAYS having a confrontation with WESTERN SCRUB-JAYS. It was hardly friendly. As well, there were two ACORN WOODPECKERS (one seen, another heard) feeding at the top of the tall conifers across from the Tennis Courts. Also on the ridge was a RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER.
In Sharon Meadow proper, there was another RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER in the blooming tree along the path at the north end the meadow. This is (one of) the trees where the Summer Tanager was last winter. In Sharon Meadow, VARIED THRUSHES were feeding on the lawn with the numerous AMERICAN ROBINS. Near the pedestrian underpass at the south-eastern edge of the park was a ratty HAIRY WOODPECKER. Another HAIRY WOODPECKER was across from the AIDS Memorial Grove. In the trees just east of the Children's was the BULLOCK'S ORIOLE that Alan found. This means there's a possibility for six (!) woodpecker species in the park alone for this CBC!
The restoration area off of Battery Caufield in the Presidio yielded three RED-TAILED HAWKS and a RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH. There was a TURKEY VULTURE soaring over Sea Cliff.
Windmill
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Tennis Courts
2 Steller's Jay
2 Acorn Woodpecker
2 Red-breasted Sapsucker
2 Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Bullock's Oriole
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Battery Caufield
3 Red-tailed Hawk
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Sea Cliff
Turkey Vulture
24 December,
Thick-billed Kingbird, The Colony, Half Moon Bay, SM
Below is a writeup from memory done
later that morning:
Description:
An obvious, relatively stocky flycatcher with a enormous bill.
When viewed in profile, the upper mandible was straight and strongly
tapered with the basal end of the upper mandible being thicker
that the basal end of the lower mandible. The tip of the upper
mandible had a relatively small (though absolutely relatively
large) hook to it. When viewed from above or below
,
the bill appeared to be even wider than it's the prominent height,
almost giving the appearance of being as wide as the head of
the bird at the basal end. There was no noticeable curvature
either in profile or from below of either mandible and both mandibles
were uniformly dark.
The forehead, crown and nape were dark gray, tapering to uniform medium gray along the nape, back and rump. Upper wing surfaces did not contrast noticeably with the back though the greater and median wing coverts were very thinly edged in pale buff or brown. Tertials very thinly edged in white.
Face and auricular region black, contrasting very slightly with the dark gray forehead and crown to give a very slight impression of a mask. Throat white, surprisingly continuing down a small way onto the upper breast. White throat just barely extending up behind the auricular region. Belly was medium yellow, extending uniformly all the way to the undertail coverts.
Upper tail surfaces also gray, with the rectrices very thinly edged in white. From below, the rectrices appeared grayish-olive with pale veins. Retrices were strongly curved and only slightly pointed at the vein. Tail appeared slightly notched, but I can not be sure of this.
The bird vocalized frequently, giving a loud, quick "kawee-zip" with the "kawee" slurred enough almost to represent two separate syllables. The slurring of the "kawee" syllable resulted in almost a full octave of change in pitch. The bird flycatched from various perches in mature flowering eucalyptus trees and at one point, caught and ate a Monarch Butterfly.
Analysis:
Western and Cassin's Kingbirds can be easily eliminated by the
size of the mandible alone. Both Couch's and Tropical Kingbirds
have larger bills, but still not as large as a TBKI. Also, the
head coloration is decidely lighter than that found on a TBKI.
Vocalizations are quite different as well, with the distinctive
call of the TRKI being a rapid twittering "pip-pip-pip"
or the shrill rolling "breer" of a COKI. Loggerhead
Kingbird has an abrupt transition from head to nape coloration
and belly and undertail coverts washed with pale yellow. Gray
Kingbird has no contrast between crown and nape and pale yellow
wash on belly and undertail coverts.
I have recent previous field experience with this species last summer in southeastern Arizona. If accepted, this would be only the second record for this species in Northern California.
| Technical Details: | |
| Species: | Thick-billed Kingbird Tyrannus crassirostris |
| Date Observed: | 12.24.98 |
| Observer: | Mark Eaton |
| 1524 36th Avenue | |
| San Francisco, CA 94122 | |
| (415) 566-6767 | |
| mweaton@pacbell.net | |
| Other observers: | Hugh Cotter, Calvin Lou, Gary Deghi and M.Ob. |
| Location: | The Colony, a residential community in Half Moon Bay, [SM] |
| Time Observed: | About 9:00 AM |
| Lighting: | Bright sunlight and no clouds. Bird was dominantly front lit in the early morning winter sun. |
| Weather: | Strong north or northwest wind and unseasonably cold |
| Optics: | Primarily Swarovski 10x42SLC binoculars and a Swarovski AT80HD spotting scope |
| Distance: | The bird was perched less than 50 feet from the road in a barren tree for most of the observation. It then flew several hundred yards away for the rest of the observation |
12.24 [SFBirds] Oriole sp. in Sharon Meadow
After discussing this bird with Alan,
there is a possibility that this bird
is in fact a BALTIMORE ORIOLE, albeit one with a white belly.
I won't go into
detail (because I don't have time) but suffice it to say that
there's a
recent article in birding which well discusses separation of
pale-bellied birds in
the NORTHERN ORIOLE complex.
I should get the photos back in a week or so.
12.28 [SFBirds] [SFBirds] Ross's Goose
at Marina Green
The ROSS'S GOOSE was still present
at the Marina Green this morning near the
corner of Fillmore and Marina. Should be a slam dunk tomorrow
if the fog
continues.
12.30 [SFBirds] Re: [SFBirds] Black-necked
Stilt at Candlestick
Back at Double Rock by 2:00 or so.
12.30 [SFBirds] Common Snipe, White-throated
Sparrow, Steller's Jay, Baltimore Oriole, Orchard Oriole, Black-necked
Stilt, Eurasian Wigeon, odd Wigeon
Hugh, Dan and I walked the south end of Lake Merced this morning
and flushed 3 COMMON SNIPE but little else of interest. There
was a RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER in the little pine along the western
edge of the lake, south of the concrete bridge. At the Fuschia
Dell, there was a WHITE-THROATED SPARROW and a STELLER'S JAY.
At North Lake, the BALTIMORE ORIOLE was foraging high in the mature eucalpytus trees right around the albezia on the eastern side of the lake. At the albezia, we had to wait a bit, but finally the ORCHARD ORIOLE flew in and I got a number of good photographs of the bird, some in direct sunlight. Can anyone explain why the bird molted in a new set of tail feathers in December?
At Double Rock, the BLACK-NECKED STILT was easily refound and shorebirds were plentiful. At India Basin, I had a EURASIAN WIGEON right near shore. Is this a count-week bird? But then, I found a duck that I can't identify:
"In most respects, this duck resembles a male AMERICAN WIGEON. However, the head pattern was wrong. A male American Wigeon has a head that's speckled gray with a white pate (rarely yellow) and a green stripe that starts at the eye and runs to the back of the face, curves down the rear of the face and ends about half way down the neck.
This bird had a much larger green patch on the side of it's face which continued all the way down the neck to where the breast feathers started. Also, below the patch on its face was a thin white line and the green patch extended most of the way up onto the nape of the duck. The result is that you have a bird which looks much like an American Wigeon with a face that appears somewhere inbetween an American Wigeon and a GREEN-WINGED TEAL. Unfortunately, after I retrieved my scope from the car (I only had binoculars), the bird had moved off."
Is anyone aware of wigeon hybridizing with teal???
12.30 [SFBirds] [SFBirds] 12.30.98 Greater
Yellowlegs
I also had two GREATER YELLOWLEGS
at India Basin today.
12.30 [SFBirds] [SFBirds] Possible Least
Bittern in SF???
There was one other juicy tidbit I
forgot to mention today. While I was at
India Basin, a gentleman in city (?) truck drove up and asked
if I was from
the newspaper, presumably due to the scope/camera/nocs I was
carrying. This was
right after I noticed the odd wigeon in a previous post (and
probably
explains why the bird was gone by the time I returned).
I explained why I was there and he mentioned
that someone had "released a
bird" there earlier today. Perhaps more significantly,
he indicated that the
person had mentioned that this bird was highly unusual and "should
not be here".
I concluded from this that the now-rehabilitated
LEAST BITTERN that was
found earlier this year was released today, though there is no
suitable habitat
anywhere near there. It'd be interesting to try to confirm this.
12.31 [SFBirds] Re: [SFBirds] Possible
Least Bittern in SF??
No, I'm not sure it was released yesterday.
The person didn't specifically
indicate on which day it was released.
Everyone else fyi...
Mark
EnviroLaw@aol.com wrote:
>
> Hi Mark,
>
> Was the person you met sure it had been released yesterday
(the 30th?).
Just
> wondering, because of my reported green heron from McLaren,
which I caught
> only a brief glimpse of as it dropped into the reeds at
the duck pond. I
> remember at the time thinking "That bird looked like
a Least Bittern", but
> didn't entertain that thought for long. I just assumed
it must have been
a
> green heron. And that little pond might be the best Least
Bittern habitat
for
> miles around (unfortunately).
>
> Anyway, if you find yourself there you might want to check
it out. It was
the
> pond near the playground.
>
> Jennifer
You can contact me via email.