From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Tue Sep 9 19:53:10 2003 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h8A2oGIE010225 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 9 Sep 2003 19:50:17 -0700 (PDT) Received: from falcon.mail.pas.earthlink.net (falcon.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.74]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h8A2mCZP010168 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 9 Sep 2003 19:48:12 -0700 (PDT) Received: from user-vcauogo.dsl.mindspring.com ([216.175.98.24] helo=pavilion.earthlink.net) by falcon.mail.pas.earthlink.net with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1) id 19wv1c-0006kr-00 for [[email protected]]; Tue, 09 Sep 2003 19:48:08 -0700 Message-Id: <[[email protected]]> X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.2.1 Date: Tue, 09 Sep 2003 19:59:03 -0700 To: [[email protected]] From: Bill Bousman <[[email protected]]> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Subject: [SBB] Am. Golden Plover, Stilt Sandpiper 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]] Folks: This morning, 9/9/2003, I birded New Chicago Marsh and the Sunnyvale WPCP ponds. At New Chicago I started at State and Spreckles, then walked the RR tracks to where they join the main tracks, then the boardwalk at the EEC and ended up at State and Spreckles again. I found an adult AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER, with most of its molt complete. It was in the large pond area to the left (west) of the RR tracks before the tracks join. I had good looks at this bird and although not all golden-plovers are separable as to species I believe that this bird is within the range of Am. Golden-Plover. Black feathers remain on the chest, belly, and undertail coverts, so the bird is clearly an adult. The outermost two primaries on the folded were nearly coincident in length and then there was a constant gap between the 3rd, 4th and 5th outermost primaries (this numeration differs from formal counting which is outboard from the secondaries, which is fine for birds in the hand). The tail appeared to line up with the tip of 3rd outermost primary, while individual tertials lined up with the 4th or between the 4th and 5th. The head of the bird had a pale tan supercilium and the eyeline behind the eye blended in to an auricular spot. Mantle and scapular feathers were notched rather than edged (interrupted edging) and in most cases were a pale tan, but on some feathers these notches were an orange-buff towards the center of the bird. Comparing to drawings in Sibley and Hayman, Marchant and Prater, the primary extention beyond the tertials and the tail length show a reasonable match for Am. Golden-Plover and this is probably the best character. In particular, the tip of the tail was close or slightly inboard of the 3rd outermost primary, where in PAGP it should be relatively longer, halfway between the 2nd and 3rd. In PGPL, the tertials should extend to the 3rd primary (HMP) or halfway between the 3rd and 4th (Sibley), but in this bird they were at the 4th or between the 4th or 5th. However, some characters are suggestive of Pacific Golden-Plover. I considered the coloration to be more buffy than on "typical" Americans and the auricular spot seemed rather prominent. Moreover, the tertials did not line up nicely--one of them protruded further than the others, taking a position that might be seen in PAGP. Nonetheless, the evidence indicates an American. (Mike Mammoser saw this bird mid-afternoon and considers the bird to be a typical American. He did not note the tertial problem I've described, but points out that the general drabness of the plumage and lack of almost any gold speckling really works against PAGP. He may have more comments later on this bird). Returning to State and Spreckles at the end of my trip, I found the STILT SANDPIPER preening on the large island nearest the intersection. The only other uncommon shorebird was a single LESSER YELLOWLEGS. My high count of VAUX'S SWIFTS was 10, seen in the late morning. My visit to the Sunnyvale WPCP ponds was uneventful. I found two LESSER YELLOWLEGS, but no uncommon terns in the Forster's Tern flock. Bill _______________________________________________ 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]]