1.3 [SFBirds] Back on topic: TRKI remains
at Buffalo Paddock...
...as reported by Ron Thorne on the
BirdBox today.
1.4 [NBB] King Eider present again today
The KING EIDER was refound this morning by Stephen Davies and
observed for
well over ten minutes. It was initially east of the pier, but
swam towards
the 'Ma Cherie' during course of the observation. Also present
were two if
not three LONG-TAILED DUCKS, the male HARLEQUIN DUCK was quite
close to
shore and we had the loon and scoter trifectas.
1.4 [NBB ] King EiderFish
Docks, Point Reyes National Seashore, MRN
This morning, Stephen Davies, Eric
Preston and I headed out to see to the KING EIDER Somateria spectabilis
which had been reported regularly from the Fish Docks for some
time. The bird had been reported near the fishing boat Ma Cherie,
but was not present near the boat when we arrived shortly after
7:30. However, Stephen refound the bird east of the pier after
five or ten minutes of looking and we continued to observe the
bird for easily ten minutes in light shade and early morning,
high contrast light.
Description:
An obvious duck which was noticeably different from any of the other scoters or sea ducks in the area. The bill was relatively short, showing little or no curvature on the culmen. The visible area of the upper mandible between the head and the nostril was flesh or orange colored, contrasting when in the shade slightly with the area in front of the nostril and more so with the pale bluish-gray of the tip of the bill. This contrast between orange/fleshy areas was less noticeable in bright sun light.
The nostril appeared to be roughly 1/2 of the way between the tip of the bill and the most distal bare portion of the bill. The feathering on the bill was quite remarkable. The feathering extended in a thin strip from the forehead down the culmen to the vicinity of the nostril. As well, the feathering on either side of the head extended onto the bill in the area of the gape, terminating on the bill in a broadly rounded area noticeably short of the nostril.
The head shape was also quite remarkable. The forehead extended up from the bill in an angle noticeable steeper than the angle formed by the culmen. Rather abruptly, the forehead transition into the top of the head which was essentially flat. Equally abruptly, the top of the head transitioned into a steep line descending to the top of the head most of the way to the neck. Only near the base of the neck did the head shape show any significant curvature joining to the neck of the bird.
The head color was medium dark brown, reminiscent of slightly lighter female Common Goldeneye. The orbital showed some pale feathering. As well, there was a thin ridge in the feathering just discernible on the head, which started from the rear of the eye, went downward and then curved towards the neck.
The breast of the bird was pale gray, mottled with darker gray. As well, there were a single white breast feather on the starboard side of the bird where the neck, breast and flank meet and several fluffy white feathers on the port side of the bird where the neck, breast and flank meet. The scapulars back and what little of the flanks that were visible were medium brown, mottled slightly darker brown. When the scapulars were disturbed by the little wind present this morning, the exposed feathering was quite white. The rump appeared to be the same medium brown, however there was no mottling on the rump. The tail feathers were the same darker brown, coming to a sharp point.
The bird neither flew nor flapped its wings during the course of the observation, preventing a detailed observation of the flight feathers either from above or below. The lower flanks and belly similarly were not observed. The bird was seen drinking sea water several times during the observation and dove a few times apparently in search of food. The bird was too distant to be heard vocalizing if indeed it did so.
Discussion:
Of all of the North American seagoing ducks, only the eiders and scoters have any significant amount of feathering which extends onto the bill. However, no scoter has the combination of feathering extending along the culmen and feathering extending onto the gape area with a prominent gap in between.
This leaves us with the eiders. STELLER'S EIDER can be eliminated because it has no significant feathering on the bill in any plumage. The structure of the feathering on the bill eliminates SPECTACLED EIDER, which has feathering uniformly covering the culmen and gape with no gap in between.
This leaves us with KING EIDER and COMMON EIDER, which merits some discussion. Neither female of either species has any significant contrast between the breast and the flanks, which suggests that this is a male bird. Furthermore, only the first winter male birds of either species show marked contrast between the breast and flanks, aging the bird as a first winter male
The absence of any white on the back with unruffled feathers is better for KIEI that COEI. Both first winter male KIEI and COEI v-nigra can show yellow or orange on the bill, so bill color doesn't help. However, the structure of the feathering on the bill does. The feathering on the gape of COEI extends almost to the nostril, while the feathering on the gape of KIEI falls well short of the nostril. This field mark favors KIEI. The feathering on the culmen extends roughly to the nostril which is better for KIEI than for COEI, mostly due to the distal location of the nostril on COEI relative to KIEI.
The angle between the culmen and the forehead is better for KIEI than for COEI; COEI tends to have a very shallow forehead which shows little angle with respect to the culmen. The noticeably pale orbital again favors KIEI over COEI. In short, all useful field marks favor the identification of the bird as a first winter male KING EIDER.
There are 33 accepted records as of January 1997 for KIEI in California. I have no previous field experience with this species.
1.7 [SFBirds] Spring is here...
...ALLEN'S HUMMINGBIRD at the west
end of Lake Merced. Did we have one on
the CBC?
Also the GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE continues
north of the Harding Park
Boat House.
1.7 [SFBirds] White-crowned sparrow plumage
Most birders are aware that the crown
stripes of an adult white-crowned
sparrow form a cross on the rear of it's head. My question is
whether this
is true both for first winter as for adult plumages, or does
this cross
develop as the bird molts into full adult plumage.
More simply, what does the back of the
head of a first-winter white-crowned
sparrow look like?
1.8 [SFBirds] Re: [SFBirds] B2K
Gasstation@aol.com wrote:
>
> [T]he numbers on the B2K page don't
> add up. I had 239 on my count, you page shows 238 and the
monthly totals add
> up to 240, um huh?
>
I can explain the 238/239 discrepancy. I
only count birds that have been
"accepted" on the B2k and '98 Year List; I believe
this is as specified both
in the '98 and B2k rules. Accepted means peer-reviewed for non-CBRC
birds
and CBRC-reviewed for CBRC birds. So, officially, your total
is only 238
until the DCFL is accepted by the CBRC. If you add your year
list plus the
birds under "pending acceptance", you get 239 which
is, in fact, the number
of species you saw in 2000. Similarly, Alan's '98 total is 242
until the
CBRC rules on his YTVI and my '98 total is 240 until the CBRC
rules on the
YGVI. Does this remind anyone of hanging chad? :-)
The monthly discrepancy is surely a clerical
error in the autogeneration of
totals in the spreadsheet; I'll try to find it today if I have
time.
1.14 Painted Bunting
(escapee), Dan M.'s back yard
Nice bird. Unfortunately, it's rather
unlikely that the poor thing is actually wild. At least we can
take solace in the fact that it's no longer in a cage.
1.22 [SFBirds] Highlights of first SFFO
Big Day
Two enthusiastic teams thought better
of participating in inaugural
activities in favor of spending a day chasing birds in SF in
absolutely
splendid weather. The early predictions from our team were that
110 would
be good and 115 would be very good. As a tribute to the birding
skill of
both teams, both teams beat 115 and neither team had any birds
removed due
to being over the dirty bird limit! Results were:
- Hugh Cotter, Mark Eaton, Dan Murphy (CEM)
123 (5 dirty)
- David Armstrong, Paul Saraceni, Jay Withgott (ASW) 118 (a
remarkable 3
dirty)
Sighting highlights included:
- A Pacific-type loon showing quite a bit
of white on the flanks at the
Cliff House (ASW)
- The continuing GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE at Harding Park
(both)
- EURASIAN WIDGEON, viewed from Heron's Head (both)
- WOOD DUCK, at South Lake Merced (both, 3 by CEM)
- A pair of putative COMMON/BARROW'S GOLDENEYE hybirds at the
wooded pier
at Candlestick (ASW)
- NORTHERN HARRIER, high above Candlestick (CEM)
- GREAT HORNED OWL, in the woods behind Kobbe and Upton (both)
- The putative hybrid SAPSUCKER in the trees above the Fuschia
Dell (CEM)
- TENNESSEE WARBLER in the albezia at Harding Park (CEM)
- WHITE-THROATED SPARROW in the fucshia dell (CEM)
- BULLOCK'S ORIOLE, in the eucs along Herbst Road next to the
zoo (west of
the bus stop) (CEM)
Notable misses include:
- WANDERING TATTLER
- WESTERN SANDPIPER (!)
- Both Dowitchers
- GREATER ROADRUNNER
- Both Goldfinches (!)
Both teams commented on how hard it was to
find common land bird species,
particularly on a near-windless, mild day.
1.22 [SFBirds] Tropical Kingbird at Middle
Lake
Steve Glover reported a TROPICAL KINGBIRD
at Middle Lake today. Most
likely, this is the same bird that was at the Buffalo Paddock,
which is
probably why no one can find it at the Buffalo Paddock any more...
:-)
1.23 [SFBirds] Parrots
Now that I'm working immediately below
Coit Tower, I've seen the Coit
Tower parrot flock both yesterday and today. Today I saw seven;
maybe
I'll try to keep an informal count going forward.
1.27 [SFBirds] Red-breasted Nuthatch in
my yard this morning...
...any chance we're getting a southward
push from the recent storm?
1.31 [SFBirds] Coit Tower Parrot Flock
Sightings for January
Date Number Observed Comments
22-Jan-01 3 Heard Only
23-Jan-01 6
24-Jan-01 17 Possibly more unseen
25-Jan-01 0 Poor weather; later than usual
26-Jan-01 13 Conservative estimate
29-Jan-01 0 Nice day; slightly later than usual
30-Jan-01 0 Nice day; slightly earlier than usual
31-Jan-01 0 Third day in a row without any parrots
1-Feb-01 0 No parrots!
2-Jan-01 25+ Flock flushed as a I walked below
You can contact me via email.