From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Sun Nov 30 22:34:01 2003 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id hB16VQou014100 for <[[email protected]]>; Sun, 30 Nov 2003 22:31:27 -0800 (PST) Received: from mtaw6.prodigy.net (mtaw6.prodigy.net [64.164.98.56]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id hB16UWg8014055 for <[[email protected]]>; Sun, 30 Nov 2003 22:30:33 -0800 (PST) Received: from KrisDesktop (adsl-64-169-18-243.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net [64.169.18.243]) by mtaw6.prodigy.net (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id hB16Tspe027703 for <[[email protected]]>; Sun, 30 Nov 2003 22:29:54 -0800 (PST) From: "Kris Olson" <[[email protected]]> To: "'South Bay Birders'" <[[email protected]]> Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2003 22:32:33 -0800 Message-ID: <049701c3b7d4$e70a0850$6501a8c0@KrisDesktop> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.4510 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165 Importance: Normal Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by plaidworks.com id hB16UWg8014055 Subject: [SBB] Palo Alto Baylands birds X-BeenThere: [[email protected]] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2+ 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]] Hi all, I escaped to the Baylands around 3pm today. I was curious to see if I could find the Franklin's gull amid the Bonaparte's. [No] I watched the Bonapartes until 4:45pm. They came and went from the mudflats across from the old sailing shack at the Baylands. First 10 or so would come in and land. The group got up to 100 birds. Whoosh! They all took off, flying up and down in huge swoops, turning backwards and forwards (belly to back) in flight-- reminding me of how blackbirds fly in these huge synchronized flock. It took them awhile to successfully get into 1 large flock; at first little groups of 10 or so gulls kept colliding with each other, until they were able to merge. Then they all suddenly disappeared behind the sewage treatment plant. About 15 minutes they swooped back over the Baylands; some landed, but the bulk vanished over the Bay. I think when I finally gave up due to low light at 4:45, there was 1 Bonaparte's gull left! The only times I have watched large groups of these gulls is when they were feeding over a river/bay; then they hovered over the water dipping up and down, taking action more as indivuals. I would be curious about this behavior if anyone knows about these gulls. Geng Rd golf pond: I finally did see the HOODED MERGANSERS there; 2 adult males, 1 immature male with lines on his back, and 4 females. Kris Olson Menlo Park, CA _______________________________________________ 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]]