From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Sun Apr 6 19:18:06 2003 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.8/8.12.2) with ESMTP id h372F2is004127 for <[[email protected]]>; Sun, 6 Apr 2003 19:15:02 -0700 (PDT) Received: from gull.mail.pas.earthlink.net (gull.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.84]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.8/8.12.2) with ESMTP id h372EGZQ004079 for <[[email protected]]>; Sun, 6 Apr 2003 19:14:17 -0700 (PDT) Received: from sdn-ar-002casfrmp207.dialsprint.net ([158.252.209.209] helo=earthlink.net) by gull.mail.pas.earthlink.net with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1) id 192M9H-0005tz-00 for [[email protected]]; Sun, 06 Apr 2003 19:14:16 -0700 Message-ID: <[[email protected]]> Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2003 19:13:25 -0800 From: Matthew Dodder <[[email protected]]> X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 (Macintosh; I; PPC) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: SBB <[[email protected]]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854"; x-mac-creator="4D4F5353" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: [SBB] Byxbee Park, Palo Alto X-BeenThere: [[email protected]] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1+ Precedence: list List-Id: South Bay Birding List-Unsubscribe: , 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]] All, I led my Palo Alto Adult School Birding class to Byxbee Park yesterday for a great morning of birding. On this beautiful sunny day, several species of of Dabbling and Diving Ducks were logged, most notable was the HOODED MERGANSER pair we observed near the dam. Others included some lingering GREATER SCAUP and CANVASBACK. The four most expected Herons were located, including brief looks at a fly-by BALCK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON. Shorebirds were relatively hard to locate, but some resident species were encountered such as LONG-BILLED CURLEW, AMERICAN AVOCET and BLACK-NECKED STILT Raptors were conspicuous and exciting, especially a pair of NORTHERN HARRIER exhibiting obvious nesting behavior. The curious thing about these birds however, was the female-type plumage of both birds. My suspicion is that the smaller "female" was actually an immature male that has not yet acquired his gray coloration. A few people noted small patches of gray on his back but it was very subtle. Our PEREGRINE FALCON encounter was underwhelming because the bird was mostly hidden by the crossbars of the tower and the second bird never appeared, oh well... Passerines were numerous and cooperative and we had many opportunities to compare SONG and SAVANNAH SPARROWS who were both in full voice. AMERICAN GOLDFINCH and the brilliant BULLOCK'S ORIOLE provided colorful accents to the day. A full list is below. Matthew Dodder http://www.birdguy.net Pied-billed Grebe American White Pelican Double-crested Cormorant Great-white Heron Great Egret Snowy Egret Black-crowned NIght Heron (in flight) Canada Goose Green-winged Teal Mallard Cinnamon Teal Northern Shoveler Gadwall American Wigeon Canvasback Greater Scaup Hooded Merganser Ruddy Duck Turkey Vulture Northern Harrier Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel Peregrine Falcon Ring-necked Pheasant Clapper Rail (seen by one) American Coot Killdeer Black-necked Stilt American Avocet Willet Long-billed Curlew Marbled Godwit Bonaparte's Gull Ring-billed Gull California Gull Herring Gull Western Gull (imm) Claucous-winged Gull (imm) Forster's Tern Rock Dove Mourning Dove Anna's Hummingbird Black Phoebe Cliff Swallow Barn Swallow American Crow Common Raven Marsh Wren (heard only) Northern Mockingbird European Starling Common Yellowthroat (heard only) Savannah Sparrow Song Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Red-winged Blackbird Western Meadowlark Brewer's Blackbird Brown-headed Cowbird Bullock's Oriole House Finch American Goldfinch _______________________________________________ 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]]