From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Mon Aug 9 09:59:40 2004 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i79GuQOP029275 for <[[email protected]]>; Mon, 9 Aug 2004 09:56:26 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mailgate02.slac.stanford.edu (mailgate02.slac.stanford.edu [134.79.18.92]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i79GtEMR029233 for <[[email protected]]>; Mon, 9 Aug 2004 09:55:15 -0700 (PDT) Received: from flora01.slac.stanford.edu (flora01.slac.stanford.edu [134.79.16.29]) by mailgate02.slac.stanford.edu (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id i79GtCoY009581; Mon, 9 Aug 2004 09:55:13 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from [[email protected]]) Received: from localhost (eisner@localhost) by flora01.slac.stanford.edu (8.12.10+Sun/8.12.5/Submit-solaris) with ESMTP id i79GtClU006885; Mon, 9 Aug 2004 09:55:12 -0700 (PDT) X-Authentication-Warning: flora01.slac.stanford.edu: eisner owned process doing -bs Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2004 09:55:12 -0700 (PDT) From: Al Eisner <[[email protected]]> To: Dean Manley <[[email protected]]> Subject: Re: [SBB] Ruffs In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <[[email protected]]> References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Cc: [[email protected]] 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]] On Sun, 8 Aug 2004, Dean Manley wrote: > Hi SBBers, > > Today, early afternoon, there was a male and female RUFF on an island in > the northerly end of the Spreckles St. pond (New Chicago Marsh, Alviso). > The male was distinctly large and seemed even bulkier than the nearby > Greater Yellowlegs. He seemed quite devoid of the alternate plumage > characteristics of the previously reported partial alt. male Ruff found by > Al Eisner. Al joined me at Spreckles and he may have a report. The smaller > female's breast/belly was clear of blackish blotches/spots. I couldn't > pick up details well although the female's tertials had blackish and buffy > barring. Presumeably these Ruffs are the continuing birds that have been > seen for awhile but I sure can't tell by looking at this point in time. > > The male was exhibiting a little behavior. The island was crowded with > shorebirds and the male chased two or three birds out of his zone. Then he > would assume a certain stiff posture and prance along for a few feet, stop, > relax and then repeat the routine in the opposite direction. The last > movement was toward the female and he stopped about three feet away from > her. He then assumed a horizontal stance, neck stretched out, with the tip > of his verticle bill touching the ground. He held this stance for about > 15-20 seconds and then the display was I have little to add to Dean's report. I concur that the male looked to be essentially (or very close to) basic plumage. We do know that the male found earlier was rapidly moulting, and were wondering if near-completion of the moult by this time is typical of its moult schedule. The female was really a lot smaller -- I haven't often seen such a direct size comparison. Al _______________________________________________ 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]]