Re: [SBB] something at steven's creek resevoir...

[Chuq Von Rospach <[[email protected]]>]

>
> Well, a mostly white duck with black in the face, a slight crest,  
> and a black line at the side of the chest has to be a Smew, right?
>
> It took me all of 15 minutes to get to Stevens Creek Reservoir, but  
> once there I could only find a first-summer COMMON LOON besides the  
> Mallards and cormorants. I'm still not sure I can make that picture  
> into a loon though...

I went back at lunch. 30 minutes of scoping turned up nothing. I was  
just leaving when I saw movement in the water, and took a quick look...

Of course, there it was. I was able to spend time looking at it with  
the scope, and it's pretty clear it's a younger double-crested  
cormorant, minus the black color - lutino. I got good looks of it  
acting like, well, a cormorant, and it's got a yellowish bill. I  
spent some time trying for photos, but none are really useful (one  
clearly shows the cormorant neck, though).

Not quite a Smew, but still interesting.

The thing seems to be hanging out on the far side of the lake. It  
seems the only way to get a closer look is to take the Tony Look  
trail from the lower day use area up to the area on their maps marked  
"loop trail" across from the boat ramp. Both times I've found it,  
it's been in the area of the lake on the far side (draw a mental line  
from the far end of the spiilway SSW to the point of land where the  
loop trail loops. It's been in on the far side of there.

Man, 400MM and a 1.4 on a tripod, and I still get the loch ness  
monster (thanks for that image, Al!). I need a bigger lens. (my  
scope, by the way, is an Orion 60x, and did well for seeing the bird,  
my 10x binocs helped me find it, but limited detail to see)

I"m just glad it doesn't seem to be a mallard  with a sense of humor...


-- 
Chuq Von Rospach, Architech
[[email protected]] -- http://chuqui.typepad.com/



And lo, though I travel through the valley of the archetypes, I shall  
fear no evil, for I know that the author can't kill me off for at  
least another 150 pages, no matter how stupid or trite I become, or  
he ruins the book.



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