[SBB] Parasitic Jaeger, COTE still in Alviso

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

All,

This morning 9/20/07, I headed out on my bike to Alviso to look for the 
jaeger seen yesterday. John Luther reported a Long-tailed Jaeger heading 
south over Hayward Regional Shoreline to the Bird Box yesterday, so I 
wanted to check whether that bird might have made it to Santa Clara 
County too.

I caught up to Roland and Pat at the A11/A12 levee, finding my first 
AMERICAN PIPIT of the fall there. A quick scan did not reveal the booby, 
but a few minutes later Pat received a phone call from Bob Reiling, who 
said that Frank had just spotted the JAEGER flying into pond A12 behind 
us. We headed back towards the marina and joined them scoping the bird 
while it sat on the pond near the western dike. It was obviously a 
juvenile small jaeger, but not as rufous as some Parasitics, being 
largely gray about the head and neck, with a warmer buff cast to the 
auriculars. The bill was small, but narrow and with a small black tip 
(like a Parasitic). We could see gray tips to the primaries and buff 
tips to the secondaries and coverts. The mantle was darker with some 
paler markings. When the bird finally flew up and chased a Fortser's 
Tern, it became clear that it was indeed a PARASITIC JAEGER, with rufous 
tones to the uppertail coverts, short projecting central rectrices, and, 
when it landed again closer to us, small cinnamon tips to the mantle 
feathers. Before landing, it was in turn chased by a slightly larger 
CALIFORNIA GULL, providing a nice size comparison.

Continuing my loop out around A10, I failed to find the booby, but did 
see 1 basic COMMON LOON on A11, 1 adult PELAGIC CORMORANT on the A10/A11 
dike, 1 female-plumaged RED-BREASTED MERGANSER on the shore of the 
eastern edge of A10, 19 GREATER SCAUP on A10 (the 18 new birds being 
recently arrived males), and 2 juvenile COMMON TERNS in northwest pond 
A15 with hundreds of FORSTER'S TERNS. The jaeger was still swimming on 
A12 when I left.

Mike Rogers
Sunnyvale

-- 

Opinions expressed are my own and not those of NASA.

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Michael M. Rogers, Ph.D.
Mail Stop T27B-1
NASA Ames Research Center
Moffett Field, CA 94035
650-604-4732

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