From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Sat Nov 30 17:19:44 2002 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.2/8.12.2) with ESMTP id gB11HN7t013215 for <[[email protected]]>; Sat, 30 Nov 2002 17:17:23 -0800 (PST) Received: from mta5.snfc21.pbi.net (mta5.snfc21.pbi.net [206.13.28.241]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.2/8.12.2) with ESMTP id gB11GxZS013179 for <[[email protected]]>; Sat, 30 Nov 2002 17:16:59 -0800 (PST) Received: from rahul ([64.169.18.242]) by mta5.snfc21.pbi.net (iPlanet Messaging Server 5.1 HotFix 1.6 (built Oct 18 2002)) with SMTP id <[[email protected]]> for [[email protected]]; Sat, 30 Nov 2002 17:16:20 -0800 (PST) Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 15:06:12 -0800 From: Kris Olson <[[email protected]]> To: South Bay Birders <[[email protected]]> Message-id: <[[email protected]]> MIME-version: 1.0 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2615.200 X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Importance: Normal X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-priority: Normal Subject: [SBB] Long-tailed Duck Refound: Salt Pond A1 X-BeenThere: [[email protected]] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1b4+ Precedence: list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Id: South Bay Birding List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Errors-To: south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Hello Birders: After receiving the two messages today about the female Long-tailed Duck near Shoreline, I thought it would be fun to see if I could find her, too. I was unsure which trail from Casey Forebay to talk, since the map on the South Bay Birders site shows 2: the left one toward Palo Alto (putting Charleston Slough on your right) or the right one paralleling Shoreline Lake, putting Salt Pond A1 on your left (which I thought might be the trail that Andy Gibb had followed as he was birding Shoreline Park. Andy reported the duck this AM.) Luckily I ran into two separate birders coming out from the first trail: Donna Hine (sp) and Bob H (sorry I forget your names precisely.) Donna had walked out quite far toward Palo Alto and not seen the duck, nor had Bob. So I walked to the very end of the trail by A1 until just before the barbed wire gate saying "Cargill"on it. (There was a LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE on the fence.) In the midsts of a big raft of Ruddy Ducks (with some Earred Grebes and Scaup) I saw a smaller duck with a lighter face -- quite a ways out. She eventually got close enough for me to see that she was indeed the female LONG-TAILED DUCK in basic plumage (aka "winter"). Her face is white with a dark stripe up the back of her neck and on her crown, which is darker. The dark cheek patch shown in the bird guides was there, about even with her very small bill, but the white on her face below the dark patch rarely showed. Once or twice I could see white below with a nice clean line separating her face and neck. Her back was dark, as depicted, but her sides only showed white part of the time, and then varying amounts. Other times her sides looked entirely dark. Her chest is light brown. She raised her wings once while preening and I saw no line in the wings; they looked dark. Her belly is very white when she rolls over to preen. After I watched her for 15 minutes, she slept for a few minutes -- and then she is hard to tell from a Ruddy Duck, but the dark up her neck is lighter and she rides lower on the water. Then she started to dive -- and she definitely stays down longer. She was near but not really with the Ruddy Ducks. She was probably the further duck back toward the levee. She was north (toward Palo Alto, away from the trail I was on) of the little island in A1. As I finished watching the duck, I noticed Pat Kenny and Roland Kenner (through my binoculars) on the "wrong" trail by Charleston Slough. Eventually I caught up with them to tell them where the duck was, and as I left at 4:15pm or so, they were headed out to the far end of A1. Good birding! -- Kris Olson, Menlo Park [[email protected]] Below are the two posts that came in today about this duck. I think it's neat that the duck has been there since Nov. 15! Maybe she will stay for the winter. [1] From Andy Gibb today 11/30/02: ---------------------------------- Two-and-a-half hours around Shoreline Park turned up 60 species -- pretty decent. Even more decent was a female Long-tailed Duck in the channel to the north-west of the levee as you walk away from Casey Forebay to the Bay. The bird was about half a mile along here. I can take no credit for finding it. A couple wanted some help with a strange looking duck and at first I thought it must be a Wigeon with aberrant white colouring. It was only on an afterthought that I considered Long-tailed Duck. And sure enough everything fitted. (And if the couple are reading this, the length in National Geographic does include the male's tail. Sibley sensibly quotes two lengths.) Andy ([[email protected]]) [2] From Brooke Miller later today: ----------------------------------- On Nov. 15th, around mid-afternoon I saw the female long-tailed duck in salt pond A1 close to the two boats at the end of the pond closest to coast casey forebay. It was swimming and diving in that area along with two female buffleheads. So, it has been around that area since at least that date. Brooke Miller _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. south-bay-birds mailing list ([[email protected]]) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://www.plaidworks.com/mailman/options/south-bay-birds/south-bay-birds-archive%40plaidworks.com This email sent to [[email protected]]