From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Mon Jul 12 19:17:11 2004 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i6D2EeOP015063 for <[[email protected]]>; Mon, 12 Jul 2004 19:14:41 -0700 (PDT) Received: from la.znet.com (la.znet.com [207.167.96.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i6D2DYMR015022 for <[[email protected]]>; Mon, 12 Jul 2004 19:13:34 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [69.19.246.191] (host-69-19-246-191.rev.o1.com [69.19.246.191]) by la.znet.com (8.12.6/8.12.6/le1-la) with ESMTP id i6D2DTnE010852 for <[[email protected]]>; Mon, 12 Jul 2004 19:13:30 -0700 (PDT) X-Envelope-From: [[email protected]] X-Envelope-To: <[[email protected]]> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 19:15:02 -0700 To: [[email protected]] From: Dean Manley <[[email protected]]> Subject: [SBB] A new Ruff today 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]] Hi SBBers, Feeling the need for another dose of shorebirding I went back to the New Chicago Marsh today, 7/12, and found a RUFF (1pm). This is not the same Ruff described by Al Eisner in his 7/11 posting. It has no white on the head, throat and neck that I could detect. It also lacked any striking rufous/chestnut patches on the "shoulders". Todays Ruff had an all medium browish head with the area between the eyes, down through the lores and lower always looking darker than the rest of the head. It had dense blackish marking begining around the lower foreneck, throught the breast and into the upper belly finishing up in the mid belly area with large blackish blotches. The remaining belly area was pure white. The topside was darkish with a lot of buffy feather fringing. I couldn't get those feather details to well, except tertials being blackish with buffy barring. Skipping some more details, the size (body bulk) looked similar or slightly larger than a large Dowitcher. Definately much bigger than a small Dowitcher. You get a real appreciation for Dowitcher size range when you have hundreds to look at. The standard Greater Yellowlegs size comparison was not available. In one particular view the legs and feet looked pinkish or fleshy colored but maybe that was a orangish yellow. This Ruff showed other standard characteristics including the somewhat unique foraging style compared to the other birds in the marsh. The Ruff location was way out the spur track, in the large pond with many islands begining just past the concrete retaining wall. Thats on the Alviso side of the track. The other least common species seen today was LESSER YELLOWLEGS in alternate plumage. Two were associating with Greater Yellowlegs on an island in the Spreckles St. pond. Nice little study. Dean Manley _______________________________________________ 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]]