2.3 [NBB ] Sandplover sp.
The Sandplover sp. continues at Bolians Lagoon today. It moved
around a
bit, but the best looks were across from the houses with the
numbers in the
170s today, i.e. slightly farther away from the guard shack then
in previous
days. Access was granted shortly after 9:00 AM to the waiting
cars and
everyone made efforts to carpool to minimize the amount of traffic
inside
the community.
As well, there were reports of the CAPE MAY
WARBLER and a PALM WARBLER near
the boat launch area, a TUFTED DUCK in the same general area
as the
sandplover, though closer to Hwy 1. than the community and also
reports of
EURASIAN WIDGEON as well.
2.4 [SFBirds] Tennessee Warbler, Tropical
Kingbird, Greater White-fronted Goose
Thought I'd checkin on our wintering
rarities in hopes of getting a few
shots now that I am camera-reenabled. The TENNESSEE WARBLER
put in it's
usual two second appearance high in the albezia on the south
side of the
entrance road to the Harding Park Boat House. The GREATER WHITE-FRONTED
GOOSE continues to pretend it's a mutant mallard and the TROPICAL
KINGBIRD
continues at the northwest end of the buffalo paddock.
2.5 [SFBirds] [Fwd: Tropical Kingbird]
As of 2.5, the TROPICAL KINGBIRD at
Fort Mason is certainly alive and
apparently well. Elsa's image is a bit small, but it's certainly
the bird.
Let me (or her!) know if you'd like a copy.
2.7 [SFBirds] Re: [SFBirds] Snowy
We didn't have much difficulty finding
one on our Big Day. We parked
near Lincoln, i.e. at the south end of the Richmond parking area
and
walked around the dune towards the south. There was one pretending
to
be a sanderling. Of course, we didn't take time to do a count.
:-|
Mark
harryfuller@techtvcorp.com wrote:
>
> Anybody seen the Sbowy Plovers recently on Ocean Beach???
2.10 Lesser Black-backed
Gull, Lake Cunningham, San Jose [SCL]
This morning, despite threatening
weather and snow low on the hills in the South Bay, Hugh Cotter
and I headed down to Lake Cunningham to see the now apparent
adult LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. Our initial foray at the island
netted only CALIFORNIA GULLS, but there was another population
of gulls nearer the Raging Waters amusement area. As we drove
over to this area, the gulls took flight, joined by other gulls
flying in from outside the area. Eventually, they all settled
near the island, and we walked back over to where they were roosting
in the lake. We scoped the much-larger flock whereupon Hugh got
on the bird. Just as he finished commenting that he had the bird
I too found the bird. We then spent a good 15 or 20 minutes getting
good close looks in reasonable light of the bird. Unfortunately,
the bird never took flight nor flapped its wings, thus preventing
a detailed study of the underwing or pattern of the flight feathers.
An obvious gull, noticeably larger than the nearby California Gulls. The mantle, scapulars and wing coverts were all uninformly colored dark gray, easily two shades of gray darker than the mantle of a CAGU. The head was white, noticeably streaked in the following manner. The streaking on the back on the head continued all the way down the nape almost to the back. There was very little if any streaking on the the throat. The streaking on th side of the face covered most of the face and was noticeably denser in the vicinity of the eye.
The iris was pale. The bill was quite remarkable. The distal portion beyond the gonys was yellowish-orange. There was a very large oblong red spot at the gonys, quite a bit larger than any found in regularly occurring species on the west coast. The gonydeal angle was not particularly pronounced. The basal portion of the bill from the gonys was yellow with no hint of orange, and noticeably streaked in an unusual manner. There was dark streaking in the vicinity of the culmen, near the nostril, near the gape and on the lower mandible.
What was visible of the underparts appeared to be unmarked gleaming white. The legs were hard to see, but were markedly yellow in color when visible. The primaries appeared to be relatively fresh and fully grown in, with white tips to all of the outer primaries including P10 [sic. After looking at the photos, what I thought was P10 in the field is clearly P9]. The primaries extended well beyond the end of the tail which appeared to be entirely white.
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Hmmm; where to start? Mike Rogers has some far superior photos of this bird taken last year. Mke points out the mantle color and the dark on the bill. Now presumably a fifth year bird, this bird still has quite a bit of dark smudging in the bill, clearly visible in the Seurat-like blowup above. Also, P10 is not visible in the upper picture (nor is it in any of the slides under high magnification); is it still not grown in? Perhaps some larophile can clear this up.
2.10 Long-eared
Owl, Ed Levin Park, SCL
LONG-EARED OWL is probably rare in
most of the Bay Area, unfortunately, so getting a good look at
one is noteworthy. Getting a passable picture, though it's not
tack sharp, in the cold and rain is worth posting. Isn't in incredible
how the coloration of the facial disk, the feet and the buffy
portions at the base of the primaries are exactly the
same color as the cones in the conifer?
2.10 [SFBirds] South End of Ocean Beach
Hugh Cotter and I stopped for "five
minutes" at the south end of Ocean Beach
around 2:00 this afternoon. 45 minutes later, we left having
counted 116
NORTHERN FULMARS, many just beyond the breakers and a few even
inside the
breakers. Several of these were pale morphs; more so that I
seem to recall
on the average pelagic trip. Farther out near the buoys, there
were
tantalizing hints by unidentified birds including one apparent
Jaeger sp.
chasing something that was much smaller than it and two large
unidentified
birds with slow wingbeats.
2.28 [SFBirds] February parrot sightings
1-Feb-01 0 No parrots!
2-Feb-01 25+ Flock flushed as a I walked below
5-Feb-01 5+ Heard only at lunch, conservative estimate
6-Feb-01 15+ Hard to see individual birds in the roost; could
be very
conservative
7-Feb-01 0 Not heard
8-Feb-01 0 Not heard
9-Feb-01 10+ Very conservative; in roost at lunch
12-Feb-01 3+ Snowing in La Honda, just barely audible at 3:30pm
13-Feb-01 0 Not heard
14-Feb-01 23+ Flew over the building when I returned from lunch
15-Feb-01 3+ Visible on roost; many others could be present
20-Feb-01 25 (est.) The "entire flock" flew by while
sitting in a
meeting
21-Feb-01 13+ Hard to see
22-Feb-01 20+ Smaller flock joined larger flock in tree
23-Feb-01 0 None heard at 1:00 PM
26-Feb-01 15+ In roost high on Telegraph Hill
27-Feb-01 0 Not heard
28-Feb-01 17+ Two different flocks flew over in different locations;
hard to determine distinct birds
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