From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Wed Mar 17 15:39:07 2004 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i2HNaOAp025291 for <[[email protected]]>; Wed, 17 Mar 2004 15:36:24 -0800 (PST) Received: from mail07b.vwh1.net (mail07b.vwh1.net [207.201.152.67]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with SMTP id i2HNZUpJ025242 for <[[email protected]]>; Wed, 17 Mar 2004 15:35:30 -0800 (PST) Received: from www.hiddenvilla.org (209.238.180.140) by mail07b.vwh1.net (RS ver 1.0.91vs) with SMTP id 0-0409886525; Wed, 17 Mar 2004 18:35:26 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <000c01c40c78$52f1be80$[[email protected]]> From: "Garth Harwood" <[[email protected]]> To: "SBB" <[[email protected]]> Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 15:33:58 -0800 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2615.200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2615.200 X-Loop-Detect: 1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5b1 Cc: [[email protected]] Subject: [SBB] Warbling Vireo, interesting sapsucker, etc. 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]] Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by plaidworks.com id i2HNaOAp025291 All, A Warbling Vireo sang from the Adobe Creek riparian strip at Hidden Villa this morning (3/17/04) about 9AM, in a spot where they have nested in past seasons. Violet-green Swallows also made their first HV appearance of the year this morning. On 3/15, a female Varied Thrush was still hanging around in the understory along the Creek Trail here, which seemed surprising on a hot, bright afternoon. My colleague Josh Bennett reported that Common Ravens began carrying nest material (big sticks) to last year's nest site near the Visitor's Center on the 15th. Yesterday 3/16, I got a good look at a female Red-breasted Sapsucker of the southern race in the olive trees in front of the HV hostel. Back in mid-February someone reported a "Red-naped" Sapsucker from these trees, then retracted it; after seeing this one at 20 feet I could see why there might be some confusion. This individual has 2 fairly continuous horizontal whitish stripes across the side of its face to its nape instead of the single one seen on most RBSA plumages, but there is only a hint of dark feathering between them, and none above the upper stripe. Also, the breast is red to the extent typical of RBSA, but has an odd dark shadow beneath it, in the shape of the black crescent underlying red throats of Yellow-bellied or Red-naped Sapsuckers. The black underpatch ends well before the lowest extent of red feathering, however, so that there is a pale red look below the dark patch. This plumage variation is well represented in the Sibley guide, but if one only had the Nat. Geo guide to work with, it would be tempting to classify this bird as a hybrid of some type. (By contrast, a "Red-naped" Sapsucker I reported here in January 2003 had well-defined field marks for that species in most respects, but ultimately had to be removed from the county year list because I was unable to convincingly rule out any degree of hybridization with the other sapsucker species.) A mile east at Byrne Preserve, two Sharp-shinned Hawks winged over southward 5 seconds apart at 5:30pm on March 15. At least 5 Western Bluebirds were there as well. --Garth Harwood _______________________________________________ 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]]