From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Wed Apr 21 17:00:00 2004 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i3LNvUH1009707 for <[[email protected]]>; Wed, 21 Apr 2004 16:57:31 -0700 (PDT) Received: from imo-m28.mx.aol.com (imo-m28.mx.aol.com [64.12.137.9]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i3LNu6Ag009642 for <[[email protected]]>; Wed, 21 Apr 2004 16:56:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [[email protected]] by imo-m28.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v37_r1.3.) id t.7a.556f89fb (3924) for <[[email protected]]>; Wed, 21 Apr 2004 19:56:01 -0400 (EDT) From: [[email protected]] Message-ID: <[[email protected]]> Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 19:56:01 EDT To: [[email protected]] MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: 9.0 for Windows sub 5007 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5b1 Subject: [SBB] County goodies X-BeenThere: [[email protected]] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5b1 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, This morning after an abortive attempt to refind the Blue Grosbeak at the Coyote Creek Field Station (hundreds of breeding plumaged WESTERN SANDPIPERS coming through) Frank Vanslager and I decided to check out Sierra and Felter Rds for the goodies recently seen there. We spent some time at the corral near the summit picking up three GRASSHOPPER SPARROWS (all up and calling at one time), a few HORNED LARKS, WESTERN BLUEBIRD, nice pale SAVANNAH SPARROWS with bright yellow supercillium (much more than just lores), WESTERN MEADOWLARK, GOLDEN EAGLE, a KILLDEER and a GREAT BLUE HERON. We then drove slowly over to 5000 Sierra Rd, picking little of nothing on the way but being rewarded with an adult male breeding plumaged LAWRENCE'S GOLDFINCH and it's LESSER first cousin. As we were later walking the road east we met Summer Brasuel and we discussed some of our sightings and in some cases the lack of. Summer drove on west as Frank and I tried, unsuccessfully to locate other goodies following which we decided to head back to the corral as we had seen our Felter Rd. target bird (Lawrence's Goldfinch). Shortly after we returned to the corral (Summer had also stopped there to bird), at about 11:15, Frank spotted the breeding plumaged male LAPLAND LONGSPUR on the top of the wire fence, at the crest of the hill directly north of the corral. After 6-7 minutes a Horned Lark landed on the fence a few yards further on, The LALO then flew over and landed near the HOLA. A couple minutes later the LALO flew to the grass almost directly below the fence. The HOLA flew off shortly thereafter. Frank and I then drove to Grant Ranch where a PRAIRIE FALCON flew over the lake parking lot. Unfortunately we were unable to locate any of those pesky Ringed Turtle-Doves, not even remains (we were hoping we might be able to morph them into Eurasian Collared Doves ;-). Several sightings of COOPER'S HAWKS! Identification of the breeding plumaged male Lapland Longspur was easy (compared to identifying one in basic plumage, crawling around in the grass) with it's black crown, lower face, throat, upper chest and a black heavy line running horizontally from the bottom of the black on the chest towards and somewhat down the flanks (like an upside down "T"). The belly and undertail coverts were essentially all bright white (perhaps some very fine minor streaking but looking much more like Sibley's illustration in his Guide to Birds than the illustration in National Geographic's Birds of North America). The bird had a bright yellow bill and a yellowish supercillium. A large, rufous colored triangular shaped patch on the nape of the neck was separated from the black on the front of the bird by a broad white stripe running diagonally from the rear of the crown to the upper chest and down. Because of the distance to the bird (perhaps 80 to 90 yards), the lighting (light behind us but midday and cloudy) and the limited duration of the sighting I was unable to determine wing, tail or mantle markings other than to say that overall, from the rear, it was a rather dark, reddish-brown bird (especially when seen next to the buffy-gray of the Horned Lark). Take care, Bob Reiling _______________________________________________ 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]]