[SBB] a couple long shots

[Mike Rogers <[[email protected]]>]

All,

A friend here at work who is not a hard-core birder, but does recognize 
most of our local species, informed of me of two recent sightings that 
would be quite significant, although in neither case is the ID certain.

This morning 12/9/05, from his office window, he saw what he believed to 
be a Greater Roadrunner in the fields west of our building at Moffett 
Field. This was in the area that has recently been "built up" with 
imported dirt for future construction and is easily visible from the 
Stevens Creek dike near the end of Crittenden Lane. There have been up 
to 6 Ring-necked Pheasants at a time in this field over the last few 
months, but today's bird was smaller, had a cocked tail, upright head, 
and foraged by making shorts dashes and then stopping to peck at things.

On Wednesday 12/7/05, while on his train commute from Morgan Hill to 
work, he noted a wader in a wet area just east of the train tracks. He 
noted that this bird was roughly the size of a Great Egret, but that 
when it spread its wings the secondaries and wing tips were black. He 
also noted black in the tail and some yellow in the bill. I asked him 
whether an American White Pelican or Snow Goose could have been what he 
saw and he said that it was not one of those short-legged birds. After 
showing him pictures of White Ibis, Sacred Ibis, and Wood Stork, he 
noted that by far the best match was a juvenile Wood Stork, although he 
said he did not notice the droop to the tip of the bill. He wasn't 
completely sure of the exact location, but was pretty sure that it was 
in a rain-filled wet area south of the new gas station at the southeast 
corner of Monterey Highway and Cochrane Road.

Something to look for this weekend...

Mike Rogers
Sunnyvale


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