From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Thu Sep 25 15:49:16 2003 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h8PMjrIB017194 for <[[email protected]]>; Thu, 25 Sep 2003 15:45:54 -0700 (PDT) Received: from rtjones.nas.nasa.gov (rtjones.nas.nasa.gov [129.99.19.30]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h8PMipZP017147 for <[[email protected]]>; Thu, 25 Sep 2003 15:44:51 -0700 (PDT) Received: from rtjones.nas.nasa.gov (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by rtjones.nas.nasa.gov (SGI-8.12.5/8.12.5/NAS-6n) with ESMTP id h8PMiohv066330 for <[[email protected]]>; Thu, 25 Sep 2003 15:44:50 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from mrogers@localhost) by rtjones.nas.nasa.gov (SGI-8.12.5/8.12.5/Submit) id h8PMiogm065967 for [[email protected]]; Thu, 25 Sep 2003 15:44:50 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 15:44:50 -0700 (PDT) From: "Dr. Michael M. Rogers" <[[email protected]]> Message-Id: <[[email protected]]> To: [[email protected]] Subject: [SBB] Alviso shorebirds 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]] All, I headed out to Alviso over lunch today 9/25/03, hoping to find the new Ruff and the controversial golden-plover. Ended up with both of these birds and more! I started by checking the pond on the right just after the entrance gate on the road to the EEC. The juvenile male RUFF was obvious and gave great views. Dave Weber, and later Bob Reiling and Frank Vanslager, joined me in studying this bird. It was still present when I left after hiking all the way to the track junction and back and seems to really like this pond. I headed out the railroad tracks, hoping to refind the golden-plover that Bob and Frank told me they had seen until shortly after 11:30am. By the time I got out there it was not in the last pond, but once again, by heading along the tracks towards the Marina I was able to locate the molting adult GOLDEN-PLOVER SP. Initially it was pretty close to the dike, but it flew further into the marsh almost immediately. Also, it spent almost all of its time showing me its left side (working its way north) so I never could assess the primary projection on the right side. However, I did see the bird in flight several times and that was instructive. It is indeed in primary molt, with 2 or 3 inner primaries missing from both wings (symmetric molt). As Al Jaramillo has noted, this molt timing is more consistent with Pacific Golden-Plover rather than American. On the other hand, the bird's feet did not noticeably protrude past the tail, something that is usually apparent on the longer-legged Pacific Golden-Plover. The good news is that this bird is likely to hang around for more viewing given the condition of its wings. While heading back to my car, I located a juvenile PACIFIC GOLDEN-PLOVER at the southern edge of the first pond north of the entrance road east of the railroad tracks (later I discovered two notes on my car indicating that Dave, Bob, and Frank had already seen this bird). This bird was very cooperative, allowing scope-filling views as it foraged on the near bank of the pond. The wing tip on this bird extended just past the tail tip and only three of the fresh black primaries were visible past the tertials (which were all present and accounted for). The entire face was imbued with warm golden buff tones, as were the upperparts. The bird flew across the tracks to the State and Spreckles pond just before I left, with feet poking out past the tail tip, as expected. Mike Rogers _______________________________________________ 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]]