From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Tue May 4 16:56:45 2004 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i44Nt3Gw011604 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 4 May 2004 16:55:03 -0700 (PDT) Received: from smtp3.Stanford.EDU (smtp3.stanford.edu [171.67.16.138]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i44NrhAg011549 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 4 May 2004 16:53:43 -0700 (PDT) Received: from lawmail1.stanford.edu (lawmail1.Stanford.EDU [171.64.212.80]) by smtp3.Stanford.EDU (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id i44NrZd1000463 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 4 May 2004 16:53:35 -0700 To: [[email protected]] X-Mailer: Lotus Notes Release 6.0 September 26, 2002 Message-ID: <[[email protected]]> From: "Tom Grey" <[[email protected]]> Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 16:53:06 -0700 X-MIMETrack: Serialize by Router on lawmail1/stanford(Release 5.0.12 |February 13, 2003) at 05/04/2004 04:53:09 PM MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Subject: [SBB] Re: that "Merlin" 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]] Oops -- it ain't a Merlin at all, but an accipiter, as several charitable souls pointed out privately to me. I never saw the bird fly, but fixed on Merlin before I started taking pictures, on the basis of the look and underpart plumage. But as my advisors point out, the look isn't really right -- bird is too small-headed and fullbodied to be a falcon -- the tail is too long compared to wings -- the eye is orange rather than dark -- I'd even add a point no one else did, that there's a white undertail patch. One charitable soul was even so charitable as to say on second thought there was doubt about it because of the underpart plumage, which was what led me astray -- I do think of adult accipters as having red barring, the immatures as having brown streaking and/or spotting, and the irregular reddish plumage threw me off, when I did contemplate the accipiter possibility. And this nice soul even added that if it WERE a Merlin, it would indeed probably be a richardsonii. Ah well, live and learn. Or maybe just live? Tom Grey http://www.geocities.com/tgrey41 "Tom Grey" <[[email protected]]> Sent by: To: [[email protected]] south-bay-birds-bounces+tgrey=law.stanford.edu@pla cc: idworks.com Subject: [SBB] Stanford merlin -- subspecies? 05/04/2004 03:09 PM Susan Stout and I saw a late Merlin this a.m. in the Stanford Law School parking lot and I took a couple of pix -- when I looked at the pictures and checked a book or two it struck me it has a couple of characters of the subspecies richardsonii -- no or very faint mustache mark, broad pale tail stripes. I gather this bird is rare here but not unheard of, and I post the pictures for what they are worth -- last two birds in this gallery (pictures are cropped but not otherwise edited): http://www.pbase.com/tgrey/miscellany Tom Grey http://www.geocities.com/tgrey41 _______________________________________________ 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/tgrey%40law.stanford.edu This email sent to [[email protected]] Thomas C. Grey Sweitzer Professor of Law Stanford Law School [[email protected]] _______________________________________________ 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]]