2.6 Harris's Sparrow,
Grizzly Island Wildlife Refuge, Solano County
I arrived at Grizzly Island shortly after 8:00 AM. I had .jpg)
encountered
quite a bit of fog on the drive in and was pleasantly surprised
to find it burning off on the drive into the refuge. The raptors
had not yet left their roosts and I was treated to fine views
of most of the expected raptors for this habitat on the way in.
After dallying at several locations, I finally managed to refocus
my efforts on finding the HARRIS' SPARROW which had been reported
for several weeks
Folks that have been following the Northern California Bird Box no doubt were following this bird with an odd mixture of enthusiasm and dismay as the directions to the bird varied significantly from report to report. The most recent set of directions that I had indicated that the bird was located on the left fork 1.8 miles at a well-described junction from the refuge headquarters. Unfortunately, there is no such junction anywhere near 1.8 miles from the wildlife refuge. In an incredibly fortuitous event, I managed to have the previous report which indicated the bird as 8.1 miles from the refuge headquarters. As I too am mildly dyslexic, I focused not on the mileage quoted but ultimately very accurate description of landmarks leading me directly to the locked yellow gate which lead to the bird.
After locating the proper yellow gate, I walked the road beyond the gate to the vicinity of the eucalyptus grove and found a large zonotrichia flock on the left side (west?) of the road as you walk in. The birds were quite active and I watched a number of them flit between various different perches without noticing anything of interest. However, I kept with the flock as it seemed to be moving back towards the road.
Upon returning to the road, I found the majority of the flock feeding on the road. With no real reason to be confident, I though that I had a good chance at finding the bird. Sure enough, the HARRIS' SPARROW was the fourth bird I found while scanning through the flock.
Unfortunately, the sun was in front of me and I managed
incomplete looks in poor light of the bird. There was no simple
way to walk around the flock without wading thorugh the wetland,
so I carefully moved back towards the gate along the road, trying
not to flush the birds any more than would be required for my
passage.
Having the sun at my back, I sat down on the road, waiting for the flock to reappear. After a short wait, it became evident that the flock was working away from me, so I slowly followed the flock. The HASP was surprisingly easy to find in the flock, if not due to the prominent buffy regions on the bird then due to the bright orange bare parts that are readily evident in the photos. Both of these photos were taken in the vicinity of the eucalyptus grove, north (?) of where the road crosses the wetland.
My field notes add little to the photos presented herein; the prominent buffy face, all-black throat and bright orange bare parts unambiguously identify the bird to species. Other aspects of this spectacular bird include the remarkable coloration of the tertials and, to a lesser extent, the wing coverts. The webs of the tertials are entirely black, with the outer edges prominently edged in buff turning to white on the distal 1/3 of the feather. Equally impressive is the prominent black streaking on the buffy back, abruptly becoming almost plain for the lower back and rump, irrespective of foreground distortion in the upper photo. The coloration of the bare parts is more accurate in the lower photo, with bill coloration in the upper photo being affected by (amazingly) the bird holding its bill at exactly the right angle to reflect the sun directly into the camera lens.
All of my references indicate that a solid black chin in winter (through April) as being good for an adult bird. Alternative analyses would be most welcome. Curiously, another HASP has been well seen in Monterey County; outstanding photographs of this bird may be found here.
2.15 [SFBirds] Re: [SFBirds] too late I
guess
Jay Withgott wrote:
>
> I'm curious what the best weather conditions are for looking
for
> seabirds from the SF coast. Just after a storm clears? During
a
> storm? Which wind direction? Does it vary by season? Any
info from
> those of you who've been here awhile is most welcome!
>
Gee, I sure wish I knew. Maybe Alan can comment
further, but every
time I head out to the Cliff House after/during a storm, I end
up
feeling rather silly 'cause the birding is rarely even as good
as when
the weather is good. Unless you can bird from your vehicle (possible
only at the south end of Ocean Beach, discussed below), the Cliff
House is far and away the best bet as there is a large overhang
which
allows you to scope without getting wet even at the peak of a
storm.
In general, fall is generally better for seabirds
(an endless stream
of Sooty Shearwaters can be seen often in August), but the shearwater
flock in August tend to be extremely monospecific. More promising
can
be a feeding frenzy around this time of year, particularly if
there
are gulls and other birds present. However, sorting through an
enormous number of birds well offshore is challenging at best.
Fort
Funston is good for Black Vented Shearwaters later in fall if
they're
around (they were absent last year). When the streams of SOSH
reduce
to a thin stream, the BVSH usually start to mix in. Other shearwaters
occasionally start to mix in as well at this point.
For murrelets, I like to head out to Fort
Funston on a clear, still
winter day early in the morning; the wing linings of the murrelets
whirring by show up clearly in good light if you fortunate enough
to
hit them on a day they're moving through. Also, MAMU can often
be
seen both off the Cliff House and Fort Funston, perhaps easier
at the
Cliff House on a incoming tide. Other alcids show up very
infrequently during watches from the Cliff House or from the
observation platform above Sutro Baths.
The Cliff House is also good for jaegers in
fall and I've had good
luck at the overlook at Mile Rock for jaegers as evidenced by
my
(in)famous jaeger grand slam during the '98 Big Year. What was
the
last parking lot at the south end of Ocean Beach (now washed
out) is
also good for terns in early fall. I usually park directly in
front
of the CalTrans sign indicating the washout; this is of dubious
legality.
There's quite a bit of voodoo about where
to bird along the ocean in
San Francisco, and you'll probably get a completely different
answer
from other folks on this list. Maybe after about ten more years
of
seawatching and spending a whole lot more hours out there, I'll
find
something like what Alan and Kevin had this week. :-|
2.18 Eastern Phoebe in San Joaquin
From: "Steve Abbott" <skua@j...>
Date: Fri Feb 18, 2000 10:45 pm
Subject: [CVBirds] San Joaquin Eastern Phoebe
CV Birders,
Today, 2/18, Bruce Webb and I searched for
the Smew on the Old River in
Tracy with no luck. We did, however, happen across an EASTERN
PHOEBE at
11:00am, approximately 100 yards (this is an approximate distance)
past the
RED GATE on the southeast levee (I scratched a large "X"
and a smaller
"EAPH" in the road at the spot). This is approximately
1/2 mile from Tracy
Blvd. We watched it for 10 minutes, or so, at which point it
flew across
the river, perched a few times and disappeared. There is a good
chance
that this bird is still in the area...lots of activity and habitat.
The
phoebe was loosely associating (accent on Loosely) with a group
of juncos.
Mark Eaton also got to see this bird shortly after discovery.
Bruce got a
few shots of the bird (see attachment) for documentation...according
to
David Yee, this is a second record for San Joaquin County.
2.21 [SFBirds] Re: [SFBirds] GGP-Saturday
Nice day, Rick!
FWIW, "McLaren" (not McClaren) is ambiguous in SF Birding circles and more often refers to McLaren Park at the southern edge of San Francisco, inadequately birded but home to a significant number of SF rarities (e.g. THICK-BILLED KINGBIRD). In addition, McLaren Lodge, a.k.a. the home of the elusive BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER this winter, is (as you know) at the extreme eastern end of GG Park, just north of the junction of JFK Drive and Kezar Drive.
I'll let Harry do a full bio, but John McLaren was instrumental in laying out GG Park in the last part of the 19th century, a design which is still essentially intact, notwithstanding the Big One in '06, various extreme windstorms, eccentric gardeners and a whole park full of plantings that all should die around the same time (i.e. right about now). The ground floor of the Beach Chalet has some nice information on McLaren and one need not patronize the pricey brew pub/restaurant above.
Mark (having a hard time remembering what it's like to bird in SF :-)
Rferrick@aol.com wrote:
>
> Spent an hour at McClaren Lodge and the Conservatory of
Flowers (12-1).
Not
> much happening at McClaren, a Townsend's and 2 Yellow Rumps
were all I
> managed to see.
>
> The sparrow flock north of the Conservatory, on the hillside,
has a
> continuing White Throated Sparrow and there was a female
Western Tanager
> loosely associating with the flock as well. The paved area
with the green > benches and chain link fence, at the intersection
of Arguello and Cons.
> Drive, was where I saw these two birds, just below the fence
on the hillside
> (the large cone shaped orange flowering plants seemed to
be a favorite of the
> Sparrows and the Tanager).
>
> Rich
2.22 [SFBirds] Re: [SFBirds] goose calls
I think you get better birds at your
house than most people have in the field. :-)
BTW, goose migration is well underway, at least if the Central Valley is any indication. At Sacramento NWR on Monday at dusk, I'd seen a few vees fly overhead, but suddenly heard distant but unmistakeable sounds of large numbers of geese. Putting my glasses up to the horizon, I saw vees as far as I could see in almost 180 degrees from where I was standing. If anything, there were more White-fronted Geese than Snow Geese, but it's hard to tell with thousands of birds in the air at once. It was kinda fun waiting for the flocks of SNGO to fly over and then waiting to pick out a ROGO in the flock. All we need is a nice offshore breeze and we could get something good flying through SF.
2.27 [SFBirds] Almost a great bird
I lead a GGAS trip for seven hardy birders this morning to Las
Gallinas Sewer Ponds. It was thankfully drier than you might
have
thought, with significant dry intervals in between squalls. While
there was little of note as most of the ducks have already departed,
we did have one extremely interesting bird near the end of the
trip.
A large pale gull flew around and by us near
the end of the trip, but
did not perch. At one point, the bird was only about 30 feet
from me,
unfortunately backlight and above me. The bill was massive with
a
prominent gonydeal angle. The bill was pale all the way to the
gonys
and the tip was cleanly all black. The bird appeared to be in
relatively fresh plumage, i.e. this was not a well-worn
GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL which are some common right now. The (entire)
underparts of the bird were pure white. The mantle and wing coverts
were uniformly very pale gray. The secondaries were also uniformly
pale gray, becoming white at the tips forming a well-defined
white
trailing edge that appeared to be of uniform width.
The primaries were the same shade of gray
as the rest of the upper
wing, with the inner primaries having white tips that uniformly
continued the white trailing edge formed by the secondaries.
However,
starting from about P4 or P5 (US system), the white tips on the
outer
primaries became successively longer, resulting in the white
on the
trailing edge becoming broader on the outer primaries. All of
the
outer primaries seemed fully grown in. There was no hint of contrast
or mirrors on the tips of the outer primaries. The upper tail
was
uniformly white _except_ for a darker subterminal bar.
The bird is probably a third-year bird judging
from the combination of
bill coloration and upper-part coloration. The description sounds
pretty good for a third-winter GLAUCOUS GULL, except that Glaucous
Gull never
shows a contrasting subterminal bar on the upper tail. Also,
the
mantle on Glaucous Gull is probably closer to chalky white than
very pale gray.
The scary thing is that if I had seen the bird perched without
seeing
the tail, I probably would have called it a Glaucous Gull!
GLAUCOUS x HERRING (Nelson's) GULL???
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