From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Mon Aug 9 11:32:20 2004 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i79ITMOP000873 for <[[email protected]]>; Mon, 9 Aug 2004 11:29:23 -0700 (PDT) Received: from smtp2.Stanford.EDU (smtp2.stanford.edu [171.67.16.125]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i79ISKMR000831 for <[[email protected]]>; Mon, 9 Aug 2004 11:28:21 -0700 (PDT) Received: from lawmail1.stanford.edu (lawmail1.Stanford.EDU [171.64.212.80]) by smtp2.Stanford.EDU (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id i79ISJau006129 for <[[email protected]]>; Mon, 9 Aug 2004 11:28:20 -0700 To: [[email protected]] X-Mailer: Lotus Notes Release 6.0 September 26, 2002 Message-ID: <[[email protected]]> From: "Tom Grey" <[[email protected]]> Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2004 11:28:17 -0700 X-MIMETrack: Serialize by Router on lawmail1/stanford(Release 5.0.12 |February 13, 2003) at 08/09/2004 11:28:20 AM MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Subject: [SBB] puzzlement #2 - Wilson's Yellowlegs 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]] Sibley says Lesser Yellowlegs is "superficially" similar to Wilson's Phalarope. That adverb can really hurt a guy! Anyway, here's a Wilson's Phalarope I photoed a week ago in the channel next to the road into the Alviso EEC: http://www.geocities.com/tgrey41/WilsonsPhalarope3.jpg And here's a Lesser Yellowlegs I photoed yesterday in that channel: http://www.geocities.com/tgrey41/LesserYellowlegs2.jpg Now here's another bird I photoed yesterday, also in that channel: http://www.geocities.com/tgrey41/WilsonsYellowlegs.jpg At the time I took the picture, I thought of it as surely a Wilson's Phalarope, remembering the bird from a week ago. When I got home and looked at the picture, the bill didn't look right. Wilson's has a really needle-sharp bill, doesn't it? Doesn't this bill shape mark this bird as a winter-plumage Lesser Yellowlegs? You might think that a yellowlegs wouldn't show that much white, at least not yet at this time of year -- look how dark the other Lesser is. Well not necessarily -- here's a picture of a very wintery Greater Yellowlegs, also seen in that same channel yesterday: http://www.geocities.com/tgrey41/GreaterYellowlegs9.jpg So is my problematic bird a winter-plumage Lesser Yellowlegs, as I think? Or can the Wilson's Phalarope bill have that rounded point? Maybe when I saw the bird as a Wilson's yesterday, I was actually doing so not just on the basis of that "superficial" similarity to the Wilson's I'd seen the week before in the same place, but also because it was behaving like a phalarope, crouching, darting here and there, and picking items off the water surface. Thing is, I can't remember... By the way, that channel sure is a great spot! I did see the Baird's Sandpiper briefly in it yesterday, but it flew off before I could get a picture. Haven't seen a Ruff there yet. Tom Grey http://www.geocities.com/tgrey41 _______________________________________________ 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]]