From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Tue Jul 27 15:06:22 2004 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i6RM3iOR012404 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 27 Jul 2004 15:03:44 -0700 (PDT) Received: from imo-m26.mx.aol.com (imo-m26.mx.aol.com [64.12.137.7]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i6RM2wMR012364 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 27 Jul 2004 15:02:58 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [[email protected]] by imo-m26.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v37_r2.6.) id t.82.11a4daa8 (3940) for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 27 Jul 2004 18:02:50 -0400 (EDT) From: [[email protected]] Message-ID: <[[email protected]]> Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 18:02:50 EDT To: [[email protected]] MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: 9.0 for Windows sub 5113 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5b1 Subject: [SBB] County birding 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, About 9:30 this morning Frank Vanslager and I saw the adult male RUFF in New Chicago Marsh. He was about 100 yds out into the marsh (east of the railroad tracks) and about 100 yds past the first pond on the right as you head out the tracks from the EEC entrance road. As noted by Dave Weber the birds markings have drastically changed over the last week or so. A black spot on each side of the breast is all that remains of the extensive black breeding plumage previously seen. At least two of the tertials have been replaced showing a nice contrast between the new solid dark centered feathers and the old reddish and black barred feathers. It could be a lighting effect but it seemed to me that the medium gray head and neck feathers have taken on a slightly warmer tone. Although the Ruff was sleeping when we left it was out in the open and the black spot on the whitish breast made it an easy find. Earlier we had 80 plus SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS and at least two LESSER YELLOWLEGS (with the GREATER YELLOWLEGS) in the pond at State and Spreckles. Later as we headed out the east side of Stevens Creek near Salt Pond A2E we had a rare birder sighting when Steve Rottenborn drove up behind us with a couple people he's now working with in the area. Nice to have him back! During our conversation he mentioned that today they had a high count of 287 LEAST TERNS in Salt Pond A2E. Later as Frank and I waited for the tide to drop we had several close-in sightings of adult Least Terns that were calling as they fed near the mouth of Stevens Creek (at one point we had a group of three LETE flying nearby). A couple WESTERN SANDPIPERS were with the LEAST SANDPIPERS in this area, one already in basic plumage (it had a nice straight short bill and tended to look a tad smaller than the larger Least Sandpipers but..). Other species in this area included alternate plumaged BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS, Semipalmated Plovers, WILLETS, and LONG-BILLED CURLEWS. A pair of BLACK SKIMMERS were on the small island in the northwest corner of Salt Pond B1. Steve said that they are sitting on a couple eggs (we were unable to verify but one of the Skimmers spent most of it's time in a depressed area near the center of the island). _______________________________________________ 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]]