From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Sun Feb 15 17:44:07 2004 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i1G1gHG5010338 for <[[email protected]]>; Sun, 15 Feb 2004 17:42:17 -0800 (PST) Received: from rwcrmhc11.comcast.net (rwcrmhc11.comcast.net [204.127.198.35]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i1G1fGCp010288 for <[[email protected]]>; Sun, 15 Feb 2004 17:41:16 -0800 (PST) Received: from 204.127.197.116 ([204.127.197.116]) by comcast.net (rwcrmhc11) with SMTP id <200402160141140130085m5ie>; Mon, 16 Feb 2004 01:41:14 +0000 Received: from [24.6.247.252] by 204.127.197.116; Mon, 16 Feb 2004 01:41:13 +0000 From: [[email protected]] To: [[email protected]] (SBB Chat Group) Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 01:41:13 +0000 Message-Id: <[[email protected]]> X-Mailer: AT&T Message Center Version 1 (Oct 27 2003) X-Authenticated-Sender: YmlyZGVybW9tQGNvbWNhc3QubmV0 Subject: [SBB] 03/14/04 Glaucous Gull and others X-BeenThere: [[email protected]] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5a1 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]] Hi! It's been awhile since the last post - busy but still birding. On February 14, 2004 I birded the Sunnyvale Water Pollution Control Plant. Of the 68 species seen, some of the most interesting observations were as follows: GLAUCOUS GULL seen at 2:30pm near the (hunting?) dock at the NW corner of the West pond (this is how it's labeled on the Sunnyvale Salt Pond Map put out by Stanford). It was pure snow-white underneath, no hint of any grey or black near the wing tips or on tail. It flew almost directly overhead (about 70-100' up and away from the sun) while circling with several other gulls. It was nociceably larger than all of the gulls, which were probably mostly RING-BILLED and possibly a HERRING or two (saw several on my hike). When it veered away from me it was easy to see that it's back and wings had a very light hint of grey coloration, but the tail was snow-white. It's bill was orangish (all I could tell) and I didn't notice leg color (my novice abilities easily brought to the fore by a life bird). I notice in the books that in winter it should have had some coloration around the face, but I didn't notice at the time. After circling twice the gulls took off. About 15 minutes later, it flew straight over me again towards Crittenden Marsh. Other interesting sightings were 2 Bushtits, one which was gathering eucalyptus flower petals (?), which it then rubbed on the tree limb. Couldn't figure out if this was a)an early display of nesting bravado, b)a feeding technique to dislodge bugs, or c)wiping gum from it's beak. Also, a Lincoln's Sparrow flew to a shrubby area right near me and reminded me of the one feeding in my yard lately (Sunnyvale). Great looks of a Peregrine Falcon and N. Harrier, both of which allowed me to walk to the bottom of their power towers for close-up examinations. There were 21 (or more) Common Goldeneye, 20 of which were female (the male had a little harem following his every move) and a close-up of a single American Pipit feeding alongside the water at the back of the West Pond, which caused me some research when I reached home to discover that in winter plumage the darker plumaged birds have a white chest with bold streaks as well as bright white supercillium and malar markings. Great birding, Jean Myers _______________________________________________ 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]]