SBBers,
Yesterday (09-19-06) I biked out to the ponds at the SWPCP just before 11 AM. Outside the gate there were 10 domestic geese honking and quite agitated. I didn't think that they were greeting me so I continued toward the central channel. I immediately noticed the FRANKLIN'S GULL in the channel. It was smaller than the other gulls and had an all dark bill and eye crescents. Comparing the illustrations in Sibley, I thought that it was an almost 1st winter because it retained some brown feathers and the hindneck was smudgy gray.
First I looked with my bins and then unloaded my scope. I had it in the scope for a minute when the gulls exploded from the channel. I looked to see if there was a raptor present but didn't see any. A car pulled up in front of the gate. A woman came out of the car and dumped a bag of feed where the geese were and and then left. So that's what there were complaining about. Where's the food! The gulls joined in. Some eventually came back to the channel but not the FRGU. I called Bob Reiling to report the gull. He indicated to me that he would wait until the next day to see it. Hmmm!
I continued down the east dike searching for the FRGU when I noticed a PEREGRINE FALCON sitting across the channel with its back to me. Perhaps it caused the gulls to leave. The gulls in the channel, however, seemed oblivious to it. Somehow they didn't find the PEFA threatening. Was because it wasn't facing the channel or not airborne? Then I noticed a gull coming toward me that was pecking at the surface and moving very much like a Bonaparte's Gull. When I saw its brownish back and neck I knew that it was a juvenile SABINE'S GULL. Wow! What a beautiful gull! I feigned forlornness when I called Bob a second time that I had not located the FRGU yet (pause!) but I had a SAGU!. This time he was more responsive. "You're kidding. Now I'll have to come down!"
The SAGU worked the area just below the PEFA. At some point the PEFA left but the gulls did not indicate alarm. The SAGU flew once and I saw the M pattern. I returned in the afternoon and the SAGU was flying over the "west" pond along the dike. What a nice picture that would have made! I did not see the FRGU.
Today around 11:15 AM I refound the FRGU in the channel that is south of the west pond. While looking for it, I hoped that I wouldn't throw up from the stench the channel exuded. I didn't look there yesterday because of the stench. It was more difficult to see in this channel because of the higher vegetation along the dike. A couple of times it spooked and I had to refind it. Then all of the gulls flushed and again the FRGU did not return with the other gulls.
Another bird of note is my FOF FOX SPARROW which I saw while biking at the Sunnyvale Baylands Monday September 18th.
Good birding,
Peggy Don