[SBB] Alviso, pics

[Tom Grey <[[email protected]]>]

I hung out by the first island in A16 from about 6 to 7.15 last evening. I
saw a birder surveying the far SE end with binoculars, and I now realize
that must have been Dave Weber, and I should have gone up and joined him. I
saw both BLACK SKIMMERS a few yards apart on the SW (near) end of the
island, and got some pictures of one of them flying on a couple of
occasions when the mass of birds on the island flew up. Toward the latter
part of my stay, I found the BLACK TERN perched not far from the Skimmers,
and have posted the least bad of the extremely distant shots I was able to
get; I wasn't able to pick the bird out in any of the mass fly-ups I saw.
My ground shot is not as good as the better of Chuq's flight shots already
posted, but gives a different view.

I should have gone over and said hello to Dave -- not only because I'd like
to meet him, but because he got the nearby flying views of the Black Tern I
was hoping for. My only close photo views of flying terns were of
Forster's. When I did check out that end of the pond, for twenty minutes or
so around 7 o'clock, the Black Tern didn't show up.

The overall scene was indeed spectacular, between the gorgeous clear air
with sweet evening light, and the masses of feeding birds described by
Dave. (His description of the algae mat as looking like a 1970s avocado
shag carpet is perfect, and I should know, as just that carpet greeted us
when we moved into our house in 1979.) The strong winds, with swirling
dust, did made photography a bit difficult, but with those birds and that
light, can't complain -- a great spot to spend an evening hour.
http://www.pbase.com/tgrey/latest

Tom Grey





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