From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Sat Oct 25 19:13:08 2003 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h9Q2AQ6U016224 for <[[email protected]]>; Sat, 25 Oct 2003 19:10:27 -0700 (PDT) Received: from snipe.mail.pas.earthlink.net (snipe.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.62]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h9Q29eMU016176 for <[[email protected]]>; Sat, 25 Oct 2003 19:09:40 -0700 (PDT) Received: from user-2ivfi65.dialup.mindspring.com ([165.247.200.197] helo=birdnutz.com) by snipe.mail.pas.earthlink.net with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1) id 1ADaLa-0001MI-00; Sat, 25 Oct 2003 19:09:39 -0700 Date: Sat, 25 Oct 2003 19:13:11 -0700 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v552) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed From: Les Chibana <[[email protected]]> To: South Bay Birders <[[email protected]]>, San Mateo birds list <[[email protected]]> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <[[email protected]]> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.552) Cc: Subject: [SBB] Bayside birding 10/25/03 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]] Today, I took my Santa Clara Valley Audubon Soc. Beginning Shorebirds class on a field trip to find shorebirds on the Bay edge from Coyote Point (CP), to Foster City (FC), to the PA Baylands (PAB), to the MV Shoreline (MVS), to New Chicago Marsh in Alviso (A). We had quite a day, and despite the heat, most of us made it through the whole trip. We studied a total of 22 species of shorebirds. Best sightings were BLACK OYSTERCATCHER (CP), RUDDY TURNSTONE (FC), BLACK TURNSTONE (CP, FC), SURFBIRD (CP, FC), RED KNOT (FC), and very short-billed SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS (FC). We finished the day with the STILT SANDPIPER (A) in the first pond on the east side of the tracks going north from the Alviso EEC entry road into New Chicago Marsh. We got to compare GREATER and LESSER YELLOW- LEGS, WHIMBREL and LONG-BILLED CURLEW, Ruddy and Black turnstone, Surfbird with Red Knot and Short-billed Dowitcher, DUNLIN and WESTERN and LEAST SANDPIPERS, and the Stilt Sandpiper with dowitcher sp. Other nice sightings: 200+ very vocal ELEGANT TERNS (CP), BLUE- WINGED TEAL (PA Flood Control Basin), BURROWING OWL (A); and a COMMON YELLOWTHROAT (CP) and WESTERN MEADOWLARK (CP) added some timely color to the otherwise gray-brown birds we studied. BTW, I am very aware of the problem of IDing non-vocal dowitchers, and I do teach my students to be conservative with these species. I am fairly sure that the very short-billed dowitchers at the shell beach at Foster City are Short-billed Dowitchers at the short end of the bill length scale. When I photographed these birds a few years ago, I did hear them emit the proper flight calls. Go see for yourself, you should find them very interesting. Les Chibana, Palo Alto _______________________________________________ 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]]