From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 01 06:33:52 1999 Subject: [SBB] YSFL Records Folks: I record reports of YELLOW-SHAFTED FLICKERS in the county notebooks, but most of the records include the words "undescribed" which means that the observer did not state what characters were examined and which ones were missed. Without a description it is not possible to determine whether the bird is a pure bird or the more expected intergrade. Hybridization in these birds is very interesting and well worth a study. My limited experience suggests that on the hybrid gradient between YSFL and RSFL, that the yellow wing and tail feathers occur quite early, that is, many intergrades have pure yellow, but show whisker, nape, or crown coloration of RSFL. Thanks to Steve, Mike Mammoser, and others for their useful reports on both intergrade and pure birds. Bill ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 01 07:17:33 1999 Subject: Re: [SBB] Yellow-shafted Flicker (invasion?) John-- In early Janauary I'd reported seeing a yellow-shafted at La Rinconada Park in Los Gatos, just off Quito - might have been this poor guy...Gloria LeBlanc At 11:51 PM 1/31/99 -0800, you wrote: >Howdy South-bay-birders, > >I'm passing on a message I got from Edward Rooks. A male Yellow-shafted >Flicker was found dead (of causes unknown) in the yard of a friend of >his who lives in Los Gatos off Quito. It was found on Tuesday, 26th >January, and Edward has had the specimen in his freezer since the 30th. >The carcass was outdoors for about 4 or 5 days, so it may not make the >best skin. > I wonder if there might not be some small-scale invasion of >Yellow-shafted Flickers into our area this winter. Ann Verdi reported >one from near the Coleman Road ponds in early December, and I saw >females at 2 locations along Alamitos Creek in January. Are these >numbers of Yellow-shafted Flickers unusual for Santa Clara County in >winter? > >John Mariani >[[email protected]] > >========================================================================== >This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list >server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the >message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] > > http://www.lgsia.com http://www.wallstreetgifts.com ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 01 07:24:47 1999 Subject: Re: [SBB] Yellow-shafted Flicker (invasion?) Steve-- I'm certainly not the birder that you are...the one I saw at La Rinconada I noticed first when it was flying into a tree near where I was standing due to the yellow in its wings...but once it landed near me I took out my Peterson book to verify field markings...the one I was looking at had red at the very back of the nape and its moutachial stripe was black, not red....I was within 20 feet of it for quite awhile....Gloria LeBlanc > >If all the birds reported as Yellow-shafted Flickers in the South >Bay this winter are pure YSFL, then this does seem like a lot. >Are all of these birds being scrutinized closely to look for >evidence of hybridization? In my experience, hybrids are much >more common in the South Bay than pure Yellow-shafted Flickers. >The head and face color, presence/amount of red on the nape, color >of moustachial stripe as seen from close range (the red and black are >often mixed on hybrids) should all be looked at carefully on such birds >before they are called pure Yellow-shafted Flickers. I've seen a number >of hybrids in the South Bay that showed all-yellow undersides to the flight >feathers but that, upon closer inspection, showed hybrid characters around >the head. I hope that other observers are taking this into account when >reporting Yellow-shafteds. > >Steve Rottenborn >========================================================================== >This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list >server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the >message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] > > http://www.lgsia.com http://www.wallstreetgifts.com ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 01 08:00:01 1999 Subject: [SBB] Almaden Birds/Jan 31 Here are some birds seen in the Almaden area on Sunday, Jan 31: Calero Reservoir: At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the adult BALD EAGLE and one COMMON LOON were still present at the west end of the reservoir. At the eastern upper end an adult female OSPREY was seen perched on a snag on the mudflats. Almaden Lake: The three small geese, ROSS' GOOSE, imm SNOW GOOSE, and minima CANADA GOOSE, were still around. This trio was associating with the coot flock rather than their larger cousins, the resident Canada Goose flock. Also seen on the reservoir were a pair of HOODED MERGANSERS and 29 COMMON MERGANSERS with six more seen upstream. I did not see the Red-necked Grebe this time. SCVWD Pond (nr Almaden Expy & Coleman Rd): An AMERICAN BITTERN flushed from the cattails on the pond and flew over the levee to land in the cattails on Guadalupe River. The GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL was still present. Almaden Reservoir: 54 WOOD DUCKS seen this time. And that's about it for now - Ann Ann Verdi AMD/CA Central Svc Scheduling 408-749-2199 or x42199 [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 01 09:44:01 1999 Subject: Re: [SBB] Yellow-shafted Flicker (invasion?) John, I got a good look at a Yellow-Shafted Flicker out at the Wild Life Center on January 22. The flicker had initially been brought into the center on Dec. 9. It did not get better, so they had to euthanize it. As a result, we were able to get a REALLY close look. It had the red bar on the back of its head, and a black stripe on the side of its head under the eye. It also had the yellow coloring on the underside of its wings. We are pretty sure it was a male. I think it was originally found in Santa Clara. Pat Curtis -----Original Message----- From: John Mariani <[[email protected]]> To: South Bay Birds <[[email protected]]>; Edward Rooks <[[email protected]]> Date: Sunday, January 31, 1999 11:54 PM Subject: [SBB] Yellow-shafted Flicker (invasion?) >Howdy South-bay-birders, > >I'm passing on a message I got from Edward Rooks. A male Yellow-shafted >Flicker was found dead (of causes unknown) in the yard of a friend of >his who lives in Los Gatos off Quito. It was found on Tuesday, 26th >January, and Edward has had the specimen in his freezer since the 30th. >The carcass was outdoors for about 4 or 5 days, so it may not make the >best skin. > I wonder if there might not be some small-scale invasion of >Yellow-shafted Flickers into our area this winter. Ann Verdi reported >one from near the Coleman Road ponds in early December, and I saw >females at 2 locations along Alamitos Creek in January. Are these >numbers of Yellow-shafted Flickers unusual for Santa Clara County in >winter? > >John Mariani >[[email protected]] > >========================================================================== >This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list >server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the >message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] > ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 01 10:52:13 1999 Subject: [SBB] Saturday birds Hi Everyone-- On Saturday, 1/30/99, I visited a number of continuing rarities. At Almaden Lake Park, I saw the RED-NECKED GREBE, the SNOW GOOSE, the ROSS'S GOOSE, the minima CANADA GOOSE, a RED-BREASTED MERGANSER, 10 or so COMMON MERGANSERS, and a CALIFORNIA THRASHER (a second one was singing, but not visible). At Shady Oaks Park, the EASTERN PHOEBE showed well (long scope views) in the orchard about 100 yards south of the blue jungle-gym (a set of muddy wheel ruts marks the area). At Lake Cunningham, the third-year LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL was paddling around by itself between the marina pier and the island. It has developed a yellow tip to the bill, nearly adult wing coverts (just a few dark brown feathers among the dark gray), pale yellow eyes, and a lighter version of the ear smudge that it had last year. I did not see it fly. Mark Miller ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 01 10:52:59 1999 Subject: [SBB] FWD: Re[2]: Dead Banded Falcon This may be of interest to Peninsula and South Bay Birders. It was a response from the US Banding Lab about the carcass of the banded Peregrine Falcon reported by Francis Toldi on the Peninsula Bird list. Les Chibana Palo Alto, CA [[email protected]] -------------------------------------- Date: 2/1/99 7:35 AM From: Mary_Gustafson Hi All This report was phoned in to our toll free band report line already, thanks! This PEREGRINE FALCON was banded as a flighted young-of-the year in Nov 1996 in the same area where it was found dead. A certificate with the exact banding data is being sent to the person who reported the bird to our hotline, 1-800-327-BAND. Please let me know if any additional information is needed. Mary Gustafson BBL Biologist ______________________________ Reply Separator ___________________________ ______ Subject: RE: Dead Banded Falcon Author: Les Chibana <[[email protected]]> at NBS-Internet-Gateway Date: 1/28/99 5:52 PM REPLY RE: Dead Banded Falcon Francis, I am forwarding this to the Mary Gustafson at the US Bandling Lab. Undoubtedly, she will receive many copies of this as I noticed that you also posted this to Calbird. Les Chibana [[email protected]] Palo Alto, CA Francis Toldi wrote: >An alert staffer at the San Francisco Water Department just called me to >say that a maintenance worker brought in a dead falcon with bands on its >legs. The verbal description sounded like it is probably a Merlin. The >bird was found near Ravenswood, East Palo Alto, CA. > >The right leg has a silver band that says "AV[obscured letters] band >#220613272 Washington DC USA" > >The left leg has a larger black band with "6666" and below that "4444". > >Please e-mail--or better, call me--if you know who might be interested >in this information and/or examining the bird. > >Thanks. > >Francis Toldi ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 01 11:24:51 1999 Subject: [SBB] ...Even more on Yel-shafted Flickers Howdy South-bay-birders, Thanks to all who responded to my initial question about the number of Yellow-shafted Flickers this winter. From the descriptions given by Ann Verdi, Gloria LeBlanc, and Edward Rooks it sounds like they had typical male Yellow-shafts. The bird(s?) that I saw along Alamitos Creek were females. Neither showed any moustachial stripe or red on the nape. They had plain grayish heads and I didn't notice a crown patch. If the female Yellow-shafted is supposed to have a red nape patch (I am not sure about this) then my sightings may have been of hybrid(s), since that feature was definitely missing. John Mariani [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 01 13:00:10 1999 Subject: [SBB] birds On Sunday, 31 Jan 99, I went birding along the bay, starting at Shoreline Lake. I only had 4 HORNED GREBES, down significantly from last weekend. Seven BLACK SKIMMERS were on the island in Charleston Slough. As I came along Terminal Blvd back towards my car, I noticed a pair of CALIFORNIA TOWHEES along the fence. One was carrying a large cricket-like insect in its bill. It disappeared with this item into the heavy vegetation inside the fence, reappearing about 30 seconds later and wiping its empty bill on the fence. I don't know if this constitutes the earliest breeding record for this species, but it seemed significant. I watched them continue to forage, but someone walked by and flushed them into the vegetation before I could see any more food carrying. Just after this, I noticed an AMERICAN BITTERN rise up quite high from the forebay and fly to the other side of the cattails before dropping down. At the end of Matadero riparian I watched a pair of WHITE-TAILED KITES engage in a food exchange. The male (presumably) was carrying a small rodent (likely a vole) and the female flew up from behind and below, flipping over on her back and taking the item from his talons. This is a courtship ritual and at least some of this species should begin laying eggs within a few weeks. I went to the Baylands for the high tide, and spent my time looking for unusual sparrows along the levees. I didn't have any luck with these, but had 2 CLAPPER RAILS along the boardwalk and both VIRGINIA RAIL and SORA back along the levees. A PEREGRINE FALCON was on one of the power towers. I got back to the parking lot right at the peak of high tide and, up to that point, no one had seen any Black Rails to my knowledge. Mike Mammoser ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 01 13:47:22 1999 Subject: [SBB] County birds All, Today Frank Vanslager and I saw the ad Ross's Goose, im Snow goose and the minima Canada Goose with a flock of transient CAGO (not the resident GAGO) in Almaden Lake Park. (These birds were seen at around 12:30 PM and were not there in the morning.) The 1st winter Red-necked Grebe was at the park both times. Things were fairly slow at Ogier Ponds but we did get three different sightings of at least two American Bitterns. One AMBI was seen in a marshy area about 100 yds short of a bridge which crosses Coyote Creek about 1.5 miles north of the entrance road to Ogier Ponds. Another was seen on the edge of one of the middle ponds east of the road to the Model Airplane Field and possibly the same bird was seen later in the pond immediately north of the airfield (the second bird flew in that direction). We had a probable House Wren in the creek and a pair of male Wood Ducks flew north up (down?) the creek. An ad male Osprey was in the large bare tree south of the entrance to Ogier Ponds and a Greater White-fronted Goose was in the pond north of the entrance road. No Tundra Swans were seen :-( Most of the usual gull and duck species were seen but in small numbers. Take care, Bob Reiling, 1:44 PM, 2/1/99 ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 01 14:33:03 1999 Subject: [SBB] RE: Birding teacher REPLY RE: Birding teacher If anyone is interested in doing this and has questions about what's involved, feel free to get in touch with me. = Les Chibana [[email protected]] day phone: 650-966-8000 night phone: 650-949-4335 Deborah_BARTENS wrote: >To all, >I just received a call from the Palo Alto Adult Education >department and they are looking for someone in this area >who might be interested in teaching BEGINNING Birdwatching. >They have quite a demand from people just starting out in >this hobby and don't feel like they are quite ready for the >extremely popular classes offered by Les Chibana. > >If you or anyone you know might be interested, please >call Alison, with the Adult Ed. department - 650-306-0332. > >Deborah Bartens >Palo Alto Baylands ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 01 15:15:06 1999 Subject: [SBB] RED JUNGLEFOWL in Almaden On Saturday 1/30, I saw a male RED JUNGLEFOWL (_Gallus gallus_) by the roadside near the dam at Almaden Reservoir. Has anyone seen this bird there before? Is it a recent escapee and is there only one individual ? Just over a month ago, I saw several of these in the wild in Jim Corbett NP in northern India. That's part of their native range. Vivek Tiwari [[email protected]] PS: Also saw a pair of very vocal RED-SHOULDERED HAWKS. They were very aggressive towards a dark-phase RED-TAILED HAWK. A few WHITE-THROATED SWIFTS flying above the ridge. Guadalupe Reservoir had 25 RING-NECKED DUCKS. Today I saw the BLACK-THROATED BLUE warbler. Thanks to Trudi Burney for her kind hospitality towards all us birders - showing up at her doors in the mornings! ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 01 17:06:33 1999 Subject: [SBB] McClellan Park Red-shouldered Hawks etc. All, No fewer than five Red-shouldered Hawks have been sparring around McClellan Ranch Park today (typically only one is noticeable). There seen to be two distinct pairs and an outlier that remains far away from the others. I suspect territorial boundary-setting is in progress, but who knows? The birds in one of the pairs were sitting inches from one another in the top of one sycamore tree after another, between bouts of brief, aggressive interactions with the second, more consistently airborne pair. Chestnut-backed Chickadees were poking into nestboxes here today, a couple of days after the Oak Titmice started in on that. --Garth Harwood ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Tue Feb 02 13:24:20 1999 Subject: [SBB] Cedar Waxwings I apologize for not saving the email from whoever it was that wanted to find some Cedar Waxwings....I have a large flock of them in my yard at this moment....Gloria LeBlanc http://www.lgsia.com http://www.wallstreetgifts.com ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Tue Feb 02 15:20:35 1999 Subject: [SBB] Weekend birds During the late afternoon on Friday, 1/29/99, I stopped at Almaden Lake to photograph the nice selection of geese. John Mariani was right; when I returned to the geese with my camera gear, a couple of kids were throwing rocks at them! Curiously, the SNOW, ROSS'S, and CACKLING GEESE had separated from the rest of the large CANADA GEESE and were swimming together in the lake. Also present were the RED-NECKED GREBE, a female RING-NECKED DUCK, and a group of beautiful COMMON MERGANSERS. On Saturday and Sunday, 1/30/99 and 1/31/99, I led two class field trips around the Los Banos area. Both days featured some great raptor and geese experiences. A dark and a light morph FERRUGINOUS HAWK were found foraging and interacting with each other (often in the same binocular view) near the end of Combs Rd. which runs south from Sandy Mush Rd. about 2 miles west of Hwy 59. The geese flock at the east end of Merced NWR along Sandy Mush Rd. was comprised primarily of ROSS'S GEESE. No blue morphs were found. One or two of the CANADA GEESE present were of the ALEUTIAN (leucopareia) race. Most of the other CAGO were of the CACKLING (minima) race. Several of these small CAGO had thin, white, partial collars in the front of the neck with darker bellies than the Aleutian; I assume that these were more likely minima(?). SANDHILL CRANES milled about next to the geese. In the Refuge on Saturday, Mich Ninokata spotted a BALD EAGLE carrying what appeared to be a duck out in the middle of the auto tour route. Later, this eagle spooked up the geese flock with a flyover, just as we came around to the flock on the tour route. The eagle wreaked havoc with the geese on Sunday also. A pair of GREAT HORNED OWLS on a nest in a lone tree in the eastern part of the tour. A sizeable blackbird flock in this area contained mostly TRICOLORED BLACKBIRDS with at least 10 female and 1st winter male YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRDS. One ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER was seen near the observation platform at the entrance. RED-TAILED HAWKS were nest-building in two locations near the observation deck. The Merced Refuge is in the middle of an upgrade with the tour slightly re-routed on the second half. It appears that a trail is being installed on the east side. A work crew seemed to be putting in culverts, many of which were lying about the refuge. A BURROWING OWL was spotted by a sharp-eyed Caroline Nabeta along Sandy Mush Rd. west of the Merced Refuge. WHITE-FACED IBIS were seen only in groups of three or less in scattered areas on both days. TREE SWALLOWS were soaring about in small numbers in several spots. RING-NECKED DUCKS were present in large numbers at San Luis NWR from the observation platform on the Tule Elk loop. Two FORSTER'S TERNS were seen along the loop. RED-TAILED HAWKS (RTHA) were seen in dark, rufous and several "standard" color morphs on both days. On Saturday at San Luis NWR, while looking for the recently reported Swainson's Hawks, we saw a very light buteo near the restrooms at the entrance. This individual had a light supercillium, a white chin, and a faint belly streaking. The light undertail appeared faintly banded without a terminal band. It didn't fall into any ID cleanly. When we got into a better position on the auto loop, we found the bird. This time it flew several times, revealing the underwing pattern of an immature RTHA complete with patagial marks. Les ========================================== Les Chibana, Palo Alto [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Tue Feb 02 15:27:49 1999 Subject: [SBB] Band-Tailed Pigeon On the grid that Bill Bousman did Band-tailed Pigeons are constant in our valley. However, for my backyard that is not true. For many months I have about 30 of them eating the safflower seeds. I did not see one in either December or January. Today I have one. And it is a sad guy. He can't close his beak, it's open a good half an inch. It appears as if he eats using his tongue although he's tried every feeder I have, so he may not be succeeding too well...Gloria Your PFO (Personal Financial Officer) http://www.lgsia.com http://www.wallstreetgifts.com ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Tue Feb 02 15:45:21 1999 Subject: [SBB] More Yellow-shafted flickers Hi South-Bay Birders With all the interest in yellow-shafted flickers in the So. Bay, I am sending this VERY late report. On Jan 1st, David and I had a yellow-shafted flicker at Shoreline Lake. The bird was in the trees to the east of the boat house. It was yellow on underside of wing and tail with no red. There was a red cresent on the nape and no moustache. Sorry for not reporting it earlier. Merry ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 03 00:45:51 1999 Subject: [SBB] New Coe records This is a belated report (I have been in Japan for the past week). On 1/= 23/99, Amy and I spent a wet day at Henry Coe State Park. A couple of = birds were of particular interest. At Coit Lake, the first park record = Marsh Wren we found last March has be joined by at least one other bird. = Both were chattering in the reeds at the north end of the lake. Also seen at Coit was a first park record Sora. James Yurchenco ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 03 11:04:43 1999 Subject: [SBB] Great Backyard Bird Count Hey, Don't forget! The 2nd Annual Great Backyard Bird Count will be taking place February 19-22. A joint project of the Cornell Lab or Ornithology and National Audubon (with sponsorship from Wild Birds Unlimited and Ford), the GBBC is asking everyone in North America to count the birds they see at their feeders, parks, and other areas. You then log onto the BirdSource web site at and report your sightings. Lots of other great info their, too, including last year's findings from every state state and province. Reports will be mapped at the web site within hours of your sending them to us. This data will be used to make year-by-year comparisons of bird distributions and population fluctuations. Combined with data from Project FeederWatch, Christmas Bird Counts, Breeding Bird Survey and other studies, BirdSource is already proving very useful, thanks to all of you who participate in our projects. If any of you are reporters (or have such connections), I can email you our press release upon request. Also, if you wouldn't mind 15 minutes of fame, I'm looking for birders across the continent who are participating and wouldn't mind being contacted by the press for interviews. I'd need your name, town and state, phone number, and proximity to nearest large city. Please count for the birds -- for fun and conservation. Join us for the Great Backyard Bird Count! (Please forward this note to any appropriate listservs, etc.) Allison Wells Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Rd. Ithaca, NY 14850 (607) 254-2475 [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 03 11:13:03 1999 Subject: [SBB] Barn Owl box All: I was contacted by Bill Schreeder, a manager at the BFI Newby Island Landfill. He has a Barn Owl in one of his buildings and had purchased some owl boxes to put up. He was wondering whether it was best to put the box outside or inside the building. He has concerns about dust if the box is inside the building. If any of you have experience with Barn Owlnest boxes, I can forward your advice to Bill. Nick ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 03 17:09:16 1999 Subject: [SBB] HOME at Stevens Cr. Res. Hi all, I observed two male and two female HOODED MERGANSERS at Stevens Creek Reservoir yesterday evening (2/2/99). They were at the west end near the dead trees, viewable from the picnic area. Tom Ryan ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Thu Feb 04 01:42:29 1999 Subject: [SBB]Ring-necked Pheasant Yesterday, Feb. 3, a RING-NECKED PHEASANT landed on the back fence of my very suburban back yard in Sunnyvale. I have never seen this species in this neighborhood before. I don't live in one of the areas with semi-tame pheasants. Still, it could be an escapee from someone's yard. If not, this bird had reached a most unusual habitat. He flew off after only a few minutes. Rosalie Strait ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Thu Feb 04 10:02:30 1999 Subject: [SBB] Black-throated Blue Warbler Dori Rhodes and I finally got up to see the Black-throated Blue Warbler in Trudi Burney's yard this morning. He showed up as soon as we arrived. As we were leaving, a very large flock of American Robins came through. Pat Curtis ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Thu Feb 04 15:11:15 1999 Subject: [SBB] White-throated Sparrow All, At noon today Frank Vanslager and I saw the WTSP which has been on the Stanford campus since the Christmas Bird Count. The bird was with a small flock Golden-crowned Sparrows near heavy cover behind the Mausoleum across the path north of the Cactus Garden. The bird was last seen in the Cactus Garden. The bird still has fine streaking on the lower breast and belly. The yellow in the lores was not obvious to me (at 22x) but was seen by Frank with his superior scope (at 50x). There were several good birds in this area but there was not much elsewhere. Earlier we had gone to Lake Cunningham Park (I guess that the Lesser Black- backed Gull is never seen in the morning?), Alviso (almost no birds at all!) and the Sunnyvale Water Treatment Facility (almost no ducks on either pond!). Salt Pond A4 had some Ruddy Ducks, Western & Clark's Grebes, a Red-breasted Merganser and a very dark Surf Scoter (it had no white wing bar and had some white behind the eye and on the base of the bill). Take care, Bob Reiling, 3:07 PM, 2/4/99 ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Thu Feb 04 18:18:30 1999 Subject: [SBB] Calero Reservoir & Almaden Lake --------------25DE7FF4B7CC78B1C14F7AE9 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Howdy South-bay-birders, I visited Calero Reservoir on my lunch break today. I had just set up my scope when out of nowhere an adult GOLDEN EAGLE swooped right past me in pursuit of some nearby coots. It was unsuccessful with the coots, and I later saw it soaring over the hills with a second adult bird. An OSPREY was sitting on the reservoir's east shore. There was a COMMON LOON on the water near the boat ramp. On the reservoir I also saw 60+ EARED GREBES, about 20 COMMON GOLDENEYES, and several BONAPARTE'S GULLS. On my way home this evening I stopped by Almaden Lake. The RED-NECKED GREBE, ROSS'S GOOSE, SNOW GOOSE, and minima CANADA GOOSE were still there, and at dusk a flock of COMMON MERGANSERS gathered for a feeding frenzy at the inflow to the lake--I counted 24. John Mariani [[email protected]] --------------25DE7FF4B7CC78B1C14F7AE9 Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Howdy South-bay-birders,

    I visited Calero Reservoir on my lunch break today. I had just set up my scope when out of nowhere an adult GOLDEN EAGLE swooped right past me in pursuit of  some nearby coots. It was unsuccessful with the coots, and I later saw it soaring over the hills with a second adult bird. An OSPREY was sitting on the reservoir's east shore.
    There was a COMMON LOON on the water near the boat ramp. On the reservoir I also saw 60+ EARED GREBES, about 20 COMMON GOLDENEYES, and several BONAPARTE'S GULLS.
    On my way home this evening I stopped by Almaden Lake. The RED-NECKED GREBE, ROSS'S GOOSE, SNOW GOOSE, and minima CANADA GOOSE were still there, and at dusk a flock of COMMON MERGANSERS gathered for a feeding frenzy at the inflow to the lake--I counted 24.

John Mariani
[[email protected]] --------------25DE7FF4B7CC78B1C14F7AE9-- ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Thu Feb 04 21:15:22 1999 Subject: [SBB] Ross's Goose Birders, The Ross's Goose was back at the CCRS waterbird pond today. As far as I can tell, this is the first Ross's Goose to be seen in the CCRS 'birding area'. There are two White-tailed Kites displaying outside the trailers daily. Hope they nest! Alvaro Alvaro Jaramillo "It was almost a pity, to see the sun Half Moon Bay, shining constantly over so useless a country" California Darwin, regarding the Atacama desert. [[email protected]] Helm guide to the New World Blackbirds, Birding in Chile and more, at: http://www.sirius.com/~alvaro ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sun Feb 07 14:24:53 1999 Subject: [SBB] Bald Eagles Explored south county a little bit yesterday going to 3 places I've never been to before. At Anderson Lake could not find the 3 special geese. At Anderson had lots of Wood Ducks. At Caleros had a Green-winged Teal and 2 Bald Eagles. One was an immature, other an adult. They were cavorting together in the air some, also sitting in a tree. How beautiful! added a new bird to my backyard list when I saw a Coopers Hawk sitting on the wire eyeing the feeding frenzy that is occuring - i'm guessing due to the weather - at by backyard feeders. Gloria LeBlanc Los Gatos near Quito Your PFO (Personal Financial Officer) http://www.lgsia.com http://www.wallstreetgifts.com ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sun Feb 07 15:17:15 1999 Subject: [SBB] PANOCHE highlights It was a great BIG-day in Panoche Valley today! Jesse Conklin and I set out early from Palo Alto so we could begin our day in San Luis and Merced. There we conducted a whirl-wind survey. Many good species, but no real suprises. We arrived at Little Panoche Road around 10. I'm not clear on the exact location unfortunately, but at the large dry wash area on the north side of the road we saw the winter LARK BUNTING for several minutes as it sat on the fence or perched near the road. It was clearly marked, and very easy to pick out among the dozens of smaller White-crowned, Golden-crowned, VESPER, Savannah and Song Sparrows. In the same location, in a large hole in the dried mud wall opposite the road, we got a great look at a sleeping BARN OWL. We heard, although did not see, ROCK WREN below the level of the road. Elsewhere along the road, as expected, LARK SPARROWS were in abundance. Turning onto Panoche Road and driving north we found one of the four FERRUGINOUS HAWKS of the day. It was sitting in a large field just north of the intersection with Little Panoche. Continuing north to milepost 20.85 we found RUFOUS-CROWNED SPARROW and PHAINOPEPLA. By this time is was beginning to rain and we didn't expect much else, but at milepost 19 the LEWIS' WOODPECKER cooperated nicely and we got wonderful views of it for several minutes as it posed for photographs. Another nice species for our "big day" was CASSIN'S KINGBIRD which was in downtown Hollister! We actually passed the bird the first time, deciding it was probably nothing... We were tired, it was drizzling and we were lost. Upon thinking better about what we had done, we turned around and went back. Heading south out of town, just before the corner of HWY 25 and Union St was the bird, sitting exactly where we had left it several minutes earlier! As with all of our best birds of the day, it allowed us to approach closely and admire it from front, side and back. We ended our day in Moss Landing and Elkhorn Slough. It was getting pretty dark, so not much luck. Still, a wonderful day, with two lifers for us! Matthew Dodder [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sun Feb 07 15:31:37 1999 Subject: [SBB] MERLIN in Menlo Park I neglected to mention this yesterday. On my dayly lunch-hour walk I go birding near my office in Menlo Park. San Francisquito Creek has often produced good species. This week I had SNOWY EGRET in the creek at the corner of Univeristy Drive and Creek Drive. Since August that is only the first Snowy I've seen in "Graphic LAB Checklist" area. There was also a very dark, nearly "black" MERLIN atop a dead snag on the Menlo Park side of the creek. The area abounds with TOWNSEND'S WARBLERS and GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS. There are also RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKERS, and once recently a YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER. If anyone is curious about what you can see during a lunch hour in Menlo Park, this is not a bad place to start. These are only of local interest, I know. But I thought the Merlin worth mentioning. Matthew Dodder ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sun Feb 07 17:16:48 1999 Subject: [SBB] LOONs, EAGLEs at Calreo Res. Sunday 2/7 at Calero Reservoir, 12-2PM: There were 6 COMMON LOONs near the boat ramp. Five were in a tight group while the 6th was further off. Later a couple of jet skiiers disturbed the eastern half of the lake and the birds moved towards the western shore. Also near the boat ramp, a flock of about 25 AMERICAN PIPITs. Several BUFFLEHEADs near the boat ramp. Later I walked towards the west end over the spillway. A lone adult BALD EAGLE was perched on a tree on the northern shore. As it got windier the bird flew across the lake to a tree on the other side. As rain picked up, 2 GOLDEN EAGLEs took off from the south shore. One went into a dive, crossed the lake, flew in front of me at eye-level, spooked a WHITE-TAILED KITE off a tree, and then scattered a group of C. GOLDENEYEs and CANVASBACKs. Then it flew back to the south shore to join the other bird. I was thoroughly drenched by now, so did not go any further. There was a SAY's PHOEBE near the spillway. Vivek Tiwari [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 08 07:58:52 1999 Subject: [SBB] Menlo birds At times yesterday AM in the rain, there were more than 100 birds visible on the bare branches near our feeders. At different times, one or another species would dominate the feeders. The biggest flock was Pine Siskins, numbering at least 70 and up from just 3 or 4 a few weeks ago. House Finches, about 45, Lesser Goldfinches, 18, and American Goldfinches, just 2. We also had the usual run of chickadees, titmice, and MODOs, but they don't show up with the big flocks. On an afternoon walk, the Sharon Park Golf Course pond had 4 Bufflehead, 2 Gadwall, and a lone Common Merganser, in addition to the usual Mallards and Coots. Along the shallower pond in the park, a busy tree large flock of Robins and Cedar Waxwings attracted our attention. The surprise bird of the walk, in the same tree, was a Red Breasted Sapsucker. A Great Horned Owl has been calling every evening for the past month or so. If there's a nest, we're pretty sure which clump of trees it must be in. We spent some time searching and found a candidate nest, but we couldn't verify that it is occupied. We'll keep checking. ---------------- George Oetzel <[[email protected]]> ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 08 08:48:25 1999 Subject: [SBB] Weekend Birds Here are a few more birds of local interest seen on this soggy weekend. On Saturday, Feb 6, Caralisa Hughes and I saw a ROSS' GOOSE in the New Chicago Marsh at the Alviso EEC. On Sunday, Feb 7, the LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL was in the northwest parking lot at Lake Cunningham. Also on Sunday, Feb 7, in addition to birds already reported from Almaden/Calero - the RED-NECKED GREBE was still present at Lake Almaden; however, the three little geese (ROSS', imm SNOW, and minima CANADA) were seen in a different location. This time they were found with the flock of larger local Canada Geese in an open field off Almaden Expwy between Hwy 85 and Chynoweth. And finally, thirty WOOD DUCKS were at Almaden Reservoir. Ann Ann Verdi AMD/CA Central Svc Scheduling 408-749-2199 or x42199 [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 08 13:39:02 1999 Subject: [SBB] Weekend birding All, Saturday morning, 2/6/99, I helped with a zonotrichia study at the CCRS. We captured a WHITE-THROATED SPARROW among the numerous WHITE- and GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWS. On Sunday, 2/7/99, I scouted Panoche Valley area with Caroline Nabeta, Mich Ninokata, Harriet Gerson, and Maria and John Meyer for an upcoming series of fieldtrips. At Paicines Res. we saw two adult BALD EAGLES (BAEA) and a third bird that appeared to be an immature BAEA. Its whole head was lighter that its dark brown back rather than just the nape as an a Golden Eagle. But it's belly was the same color as the lighter head... basic I? These birds were in the trees at the northwest end of the res. Also of note, dozens of COMMON MERGANSERS (possibly the most numerous duck present), over a dozen each of RING-NECKED DUCKS, REDHEAD, and CANVASBACK. A distant BLACK-NECKED STILT near the eagle trees appeared to have juvenal plumage, but it was rainy and far, so I don't think it was a juvenile. A check of Cienega Rd. at the south end of the reservoir did not produce any CASSIN'S KINGBIRD (CAKI), but a last check along Hwy 25 did find 1-2 CAKI on and near the flagpole at the black gated residence which is near the reservoir viewing turnout. It was/they were calling during flycatching forays. Two groups of WILD TURKEYS, consisting of 9 and 6 males, were seen between 10 and 15 miles from Paicines foraging on grassy slopes in open oak woodlands. Near MP 19.0, we dipped on Lewis' Woodpecker. PHAINOPEPLA popped out of the oak-woodwork wherever the mistletoe was thick in the deciduous oaks. A GOLDEN EAGLE soared along the ridgetop to the north. In the broad valley area, we had about 8-9 FERRUGINOUS HAWK sightings, 2-3 of those were probably repeat views. All were light morphs. Beauties! One MERLIN was seen on a utility pole between Little Panoche Rd. and the New Idria Rd. along Panoche Rd. 18+ MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS were actively working a dirt field north of Panoche Rd. at New Idria Rd. Another CAKI was seen (probably the bird previously reported on the Monterey list) and several VESPER SPARROWS allowed long scope study at this location. As we were running low on time, we passed on looking for the Lark Buntings at the Silver Creek Ranch. We made cursory checks along Little Panoche Rd. for Mtn. Plover, but nothing was obvious as it darkened and began to rain. We drove slowly through Shotgun Pass but didn't stop, so we saw few birds. Nothing was seen at the corral near the Fresno County line, but then, we had owls on the brain. We stopped at Mercy Hot Springs and, after a bit of searching, Harriet noticed an owl staring back at her through the tamarisk needles. We think we saw two different LONG-EARED OWLS (LEOW) here. (I heard a report that 3 LEOW were seen during the previous week.) We did not see any of the Barn Owls. Alas, by this time, it was near dark with more ominous clouds overhead, so we decided against checking the BLM road and headed home. Les ========================================== Les Chibana, Palo Alto [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 08 15:35:12 1999 Subject: [SBB] HOME On my walk along Coyote Creek south of Hellyer at lunch time today, 8 Feb 99, I had a pair of HOODED MERGANSERS on the creek. Mike Mammoser ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 08 16:27:35 1999 Subject: [SBB] past few weeks' birds All: A few belated reports: 15 Jan. -- 2 OSPREYS at Parkway Lakes (with Dan Singer). 20 Jan. -- 1 male SELASPHORUS Hummingbird at Stanford Arboretum; wing-whir heard repeatedly high in eucalyptus but bird not seen. 21 Jan. -- 1 SPOTTED SANDPIPER along San Francisquito Creek just upstream from Hwy. 101 (in both counties); surveys along S.F. Creek (in Santa Clara Co.) upstream from El Camino Real in Palo Alto produced 3 PINE SISKINS and 1 TOWNSEND'S WARBLER. The medium-small dark CANADA GOOSE and the ROSS'S GOOSE were at Arzino Ranch. 22 Jan. -- 1 female/imm. MERLIN at Spreckles and Grand in Alviso, medium-small dark CAGO still at Arzino Ranch. Two FERRUGINOUS HAWKS (1 imm. seen with Scott Terrill plus 1 ad.) near Bailey and Santa Teresa in south San Jose. One OSPREY and 1 fem. COMMON MERGANSER at Ogier Ponds. 28 Jan. -- 1 male COMMON MERGANSER at Ogier Ponds, 2 OSPREYS at Parkway Lakes. At Almaden Lake, I saw the ROSS'S GOOSE and 2 SNOW GEESE (1 ad., 1 imm.). 30 Jan. -- 1 first/second-winter (distant) GLAUCOUS GULL in Alviso (spotted by Mike Mammoser); 2 female/imm. MERLINS in Alviso; 1 ROSS'S GOOSE and 1 medium-small CANADA GOOSE still at Arzino Ranch; 1 lg. female MERLIN and 1 ad. PEREGRINE FALCON at Hidden Lake Park in Milpitas. 1 Feb. -- San Francisquito Creek upstream from El Camino Real (Santa Clara Co. side): 1 WHITE-THROATED SPARROW, 2 GOLDEN- CROWNED KINGLETS, 14 TOWNSEND'S WARBLERS. Ad. "KAMCHATKA"- like MEW GULL at Palo Alto Baylands duck pond. 2 Feb. -- 1 LAPLAND LONGSPUR on private property in northeast San Jose (alfalfa field on valley floor) with 60 AMERICAN PIPITS; no Horned Larks at all in this flock. 4 Feb. -- 1 female/imm. (very drab) CHESTNUT-COLLARED LONGSPUR, 1 LAPLAND LONGSPUR in the field mentioned on 2 Feb. with 100+ AMERICAN PIPITS. Unfortunately, this area is not open to the public, and the birds are not visible from the surrounding roads except in flight. If something changes that would allow others to see these birds, I'll put the word out. One ad. GOLDEN EAGLE at Arzino Ranch, 2 OSPREYS at Parkway Lakes. Cheers, Steve Rottenborn ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Tue Feb 09 11:42:55 1999 Subject: [SBB] South-bay-bird archive updated South-Bay-Birders, I have updated the archive of South-bay-birds messages to include the January 1999 messages. Other updates this month include new images of the Gray Silky-flycatcher in the mountains of Southern California. Curious readers may see for themselves the extent of cage-wear on the tail. :) I also added a description and speculation on the Salton Sea mystery gull, photos by Mike Rogers with details on the Greater Pewee at Brock Ranch, and descriptions of Yellow-throated Vireo and Worm-eating Warbler in Orange County and Pine Warbler and Dusky-capped Flycatcher in Long Beach. Other additions this month include "answers" and new sapsucker photos for the January mystery page. The February mystery page offers a hummingbird and a warbler. What do you think they are? In cooperation with the Trumpeter Swan Society, we have put up a new page which tracks all Trumpeter Swan sightings in California. This entry includes much useful identification material contributed by Rod Hug. Ruth Sullivan has contributed outstanding new photos of the Sky Lark and Rustic Bunting in Washington State. The racial identification of the Sky Larks remains an intriguing question. And Don Roberson has updated most of the birding statistics on the county web pages. The site is at: http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~jmorlan/ Also the California Bird Records Committee site has been updated this month to reflect new membership and bylaw changes enacted at the January meeting. The CBRC photo gallery has new images of White Wagtails and Swallow-tailed Gull. The CBRC site is at: http://www.wfo-cbrc.org/cbrc/ Enjoy! -- Joseph Morlan, Pacifica, CA 94044: [[email protected]] SF Spring Birding Classes - Feb 9: http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~jmorlan/ California Bird Records Committee: http://www.wfo-cbrc.org/cbrc/ ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Tue Feb 09 12:26:15 1999 Subject: [SBB] Stanford local I checked Lagunita during a break in the rain this morning. Water entering via the inflow channel, as well as by run-off from the hill, and the water is at Big Puddle or Lagunita-ita level. Notable were 8 WOOD DUCKS (along with a couple hundred Mallards and a few Bufflehead) and 2 MEW GULLS (in amidst ~50 Californias and a few Ring-bills). -- Tom Grey Stanford CA [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Tue Feb 09 12:54:02 1999 Subject: [SBB] Peregrine Falcon All, This morning at about 10:00, a PEREGRINE FALCON was on the utility tower where the Common Ravens have nested in the past few years, 1/8 mi. from Mtn. View Forebay, at the north end of San Antonio Rd. Could probably be the individual, or one of the individuals, that has been seen on the Elwell Ct. tower (only two towers away). A week ago, a pair of COMMON RAVENS were visiting the nest site, doing a lot of vocalization. Les ========================================== Les Chibana, Palo Alto [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Tue Feb 09 15:18:34 1999 Subject: [SBB] Re: Peregrine Falcon Les wrote: > This morning at about 10:00, a PEREGRINE FALCON was on the utility tower > where the Common Ravens have nested in the past few years, 1/8 mi. from > Mtn. View Forebay, at the north end of San Antonio Rd. Could probably be the > individual, or one of the individuals, that has been seen on the Elwell > Ct. tower (only two towers away). > > A week ago, a pair of COMMON RAVENS were visiting the nest site, doing a > lot of vocalization. Two years ago, a pair of Peregrines built a nest on a tower at Bair Island (San Mateo Co.), but the nest was taken over by Ravens. A Peregrine was seen at least investigating again the following year, but again the actual nesting was done by Ravens. It will be interesting to see what happens at your site. Al ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 10 08:45:26 1999 Subject: [SBB] Stanford (cont.) I checked mini-Lagunita this morning, and it turns out to be just a big rain puddle - Stanford isn't pumping in any water yet. There were 18 WOOD DUCKS, 12 RING-NECKED DUCKS, and 2 MEW GULLS. A small flock of AMERICAN PIPITS continues on the dry part of the lakebed. -- Tom Grey Stanford CA [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 10 18:51:45 1999 Subject: [SBB] Calero Reservoir birds Howdy South-bay-birders, While commuting this morning I saw a pair of COMMON RAVENS along Santa Teresa Blvd. near Bailey--the first ravens I've ever seen in this area. Later, on my lunch break I visited Calero Reservoir. There I saw an adult GOLDEN EAGLE soaring in the distance, and another birder, John Arnold, pointed out the adult BALD EAGLE, which was in an oak up the west side of the reservoir. Other birds seen there included 1 COMMON LOON, lots of COMMON GOLDENEYES, and AMERICAN PIPITS. On another recent visit I saw a partially albino EARED GREBE at Calero--it was mostly white on the body. John Mariani [[email protected]] http://home.pacbell.net/redknot/index.htm ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Thu Feb 11 07:57:02 1999 Subject: [SBB] Eastern Phoebe and Coyote Creek All, Yesterday morning (2/10/99) during the SCVAS field trip to Shady Oaks Park (and Coyote Creek) the Eastern Phoebe was well seen by all. The bird was in the northeastern most tree in the orchard (the orchard tree closest to the bridge over Coyote Creek). Emily Curtis immediately found the bird as we crossed over the bridge as I was preparing to initiate a search for it. The EAPH was a life bird for 2-3 of the birders and helped to made up for a general lack of birds in the area. An abundance of Red-shoulderd Hawks with excellent views of them perched and interacting with a Red-tailed Hawk as well as a bright warm sun also helped to make the trip a success. Other notable birds included a Lincoln's Sparrow, seen by one, a Hermit Thrush and a Fox Sparrow, seen by a few, a Red-breasted Sapsucker, seen by most, Nuttall's and Downy Woodpeckers, seen by all, and three Golden Eagles seen at a great distance (but without total agreement as to the ID). At the end of the trip we quickly went upstream from the parking area where the best birds were Wood Ducks and where we also found out that the first dam had either been removed or destroyed. The level controls and the fish ladder are still there but the dam is gone. Someone said that they thought that the dam had been removed because it prevented or inhibited upstream migration of fish. I can't help but wonder what effect the lower water level in this part of the creek will have on breeding water birds? Take care, Bob Reiling, 7:56 AM, 2/11/99 ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Thu Feb 11 11:33:58 1999 Subject: [SBB] Re: Peregrine Falcon On Tue, 9 Feb 1999 [[email protected]] wrote: > Les wrote: > > This morning at about 10:00, a PEREGRINE FALCON was on the utility tower > > where the Common Ravens have nested in the past few years, 1/8 mi. from > > Mtn. View Forebay, at the north end of San Antonio Rd. Could probably be the > > individual, or one of the individuals, that has been seen on the Elwell > > Ct. tower (only two towers away). > > Yesterday (2/10), at approximately 4:40 p.m., three of us spotted a PEREGRINE FALCON consuming a meal at the top of a utility pole. The pole was the third one in from the northernmost corner of NASA's fence, just south of Crittenden Marsh. -Jennifer Jennifer Dungan | MS 242-4 CSU - Monterey Bay | NASA Ames Research Center Tel: 650-604-3618 FAX: 650-604-4680 | Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 email: [[email protected]] | USA URL: http://geo.arc.nasa.gov | ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Thu Feb 11 20:23:23 1999 Subject: [SBB] Kites I have discovered a pair of White Tailed Kites on my almost daily morning walk to the top of St. Joseph's Hill above Novitiate Park, in Los Gatos. I first spotted them about ten days ago when I saw one, successfully, fighting off a Common Raven -- the first Raven I have seen there in the two-plus years I have been walking there. During the "attack", the other Kite was sitting in a tree top, below. I have seen one Kite in the same tree every time I have walked there. This morning I discovered the other one when I walked to see behind the grove of Oak and Manzanita where it perches. It's mate was lower down, back into the grove. This morning, the one on the higher perch was eating something it held down on the branch with its feet, and calling between bites! Sylvia White Los Gatos ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Thu Feb 11 22:34:47 1999 Subject: [SBB] Almaden Lake Park, odd pale gull --------------14B4E2C320857AD4359CA5DE Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Howdy South-bay-birders, Today I visited Almaden Lake Park at lunchtime. The SNOW GOOSE and ROSS'S GOOSE were still there, but I didn't see the minima CANADA GOOSE with them. There was also a HORNED GREBE. The early afternoon seems to be the best time for large numbers of gulls there. As usual there were HERRING and THAYERS, but one first winter bird struck me as unusual. It was about the size of a nearby California Gull or Thayer's, very pale in plumage, with light gray mottling, entirely black bill, black eyes, dark pink legs, but what was really different were the primaries, which were distinctly whitish (at least whiter than the rest of the wing). Possible Iceland Gull? I am not good enough at gulls to feel secure in making any ID, but it was an interesting bird-- John Mariani [[email protected]] --------------14B4E2C320857AD4359CA5DE Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Howdy South-bay-birders,

Today I visited Almaden Lake Park at lunchtime. The SNOW GOOSE and ROSS'S GOOSE were still there, but I didn't see the minima CANADA GOOSE with them. There was also a HORNED GREBE. The early afternoon seems to be the best time for large numbers of gulls there. As usual there were HERRING and THAYERS, but one first winter bird struck me as unusual. It was about the size of a nearby California Gull or Thayer's, very pale in plumage, with light gray mottling, entirely black bill, black eyes, dark pink legs, but what was really different were the primaries, which were distinctly whitish (at least whiter than the rest of the wing). Possible Iceland Gull? I am not good enough at gulls to feel secure in making any ID, but it was an interesting bird--

John Mariani
[[email protected]] --------------14B4E2C320857AD4359CA5DE-- ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Fri Feb 12 07:16:27 1999 Subject: [SBB] BWTE and stuff Folks: This morning, 2/12/1999, on my bike commute I saw a pair of BLUE-WINGED TEAL in the North Pond of the Palo Alto FCB. Five BLACK SKIMMERS were in Charleston Slough, which I guess is the typical number since early January. A female RED-BREASTED MERGANSER was in Shoreline Lake. Lots of American Robins moving though and I started counting them as I cycled along the levee on Stevens Creek above Crittenden. My tally was moving past 30 when a marvelous adult male _suckleyi_ MERLIN came whizzing through--no breakfast for him though. Some of the willows on Stevens Creek are leafing out and the catkins are in flower. The primary herbivore this morning was Golden-crowned Sparrow, a dozen maybe. Bill ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Fri Feb 12 09:42:33 1999 Subject: [SBB] Stanford (2/11) Yesterday morning (Feb. 11) I checked the area near the Stanford Mausoleum. I was unable to turn up any sparrow flock at all; just hordes of Robins acting like sparrows. I did see a California Thrasher, and, most interesting, heard a Winter Wren calling extensively from the ground cover adjacent to the Mausoleum. Al ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Fri Feb 12 10:58:01 1999 Subject: [SBB] Bird song starting The Pine Siskins, Lesser Goldfinches, and Dark-eyed Juncos have been singing wonderful choruses in the mornings at home (Skyline Blvd.). Not necessarily a harbinger of spring, but perhaps the lengthening days and few days of sun are pushing some hormones. Bill mentioned lots of robins this morning, which reminded me that yesterday morning, there were about a dozen robins near one of the entryways to my office (Mtn. View near the Forebay). Les ========================================== Les Chibana, Palo Alto [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Fri Feb 12 11:48:24 1999 Subject: [SBB] American Goldfinches South Bay Birders: We are beginning to see good numbers of AMERICAN GOLDFINCHES and LESSER GOLDFINCHES at niger thistle feeders. I've heard from two people in Saratoga who suddenly report action at their feeders, one in Willow Glen, one in Campbell, one in San Jose, and YES, at my feeder too! The AMERICAN GOLDFINCHES still have their winter plummage but look as though their starting to turn a little brighter. Pat Curtis ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Fri Feb 12 14:46:15 1999 Subject: [SBB] Lesser Black-backed Gull All, Shortly before noon today Frank Vanslager, two other birders and I saw the 3rd winter LBBG at Lake Cunningham Park. The bird was first found in the lake while it was trying to swallow some large, inorganic looking object. It did finally swallow the object showing large, painful looking lumps in it's throat for several minutes. The gull finally flew to the grassy area just north of the lake and east of the parking lot. At this point the swallowed object was no longer in it's throat. (Was it in it's crop?) The crop had seemed quite large before the object was swallowed! The mantle and wings of the LBBG are much darker (and browner) than that of adjacent adult California Gulls. Most of the time it also looked larger than the CAGUs. When in the water the front of the LBBG seemed to sit lower and the tail higher. The primaries were black with medium to dark gray tips (no windows). The tips of the secondaries and scapulars were white forming a white trailing edge to the wing from the body to the black primaries. The rest of the body was white with dark streaking on the head and neck and with a good sized dark area around and behind the eye. There was also some dark streaking (or smudging) on the upper breast. The under part of the tail was a light gray. The upper tail was white with black spots, of increasing size toward the edge of the tail, on the outer three feathers on each side of the tail. The eye was a light yellow (even lighter than on Herring Gulls?). The bill is black with a pale yellow tip. The proximal portion of the bill has ivory spots with the base of the lower mandible having a good sized ivory spot. Lighter (brownish black) areas are also apparent along the top of the bill especially around the nostril. The legs are a light grayish pink. All in all a very interesting bird to see at such close proximity. Take care, Bob Reiling, 2:27 PM, 2/12/99 ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Fri Feb 12 18:32:43 1999 Subject: [SBB] Where Aleutian Canada Geese? A couple of weeks ago, somebody gave detailed directions near Los Banos, regarding the presence of Aleutian Canada Geese. Would you (or anyone else) please repeat those directions, or forward me the original email. Sharon and I want to see them over the weekend, on our way down to (or back from) visiting relatives about an hour south of Fresno, near Porterville. I'll be able to pick up email away from home. Thanks for your help. Bob Lutman ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Fri Feb 12 22:02:41 1999 Subject: [SBB] Iceland Gull. Birders, Today there was a first winter bird we believe to be an Iceland Gull in the pond directly opposite the CCRS trailers. It later flew closer to hwy 237 to the second pond in from the gate. This bird was very pale, showing no tail band, no noticeable secondary bar, largely whitish primaries, small size, small bill etc. Beware that later on in the day Mike Mammoser found another potential Iceland Gull, of the same age, but this bird had primaries slightly darker than the tertials and a darker tail. To be conservative, this second bird may be best considered an extremely pale Thayer's Gull, but in reality it could very well be within what is acceptable for Iceland Gull. Earlier on there was a second winter Glaucous Gull at CCRS. Other birds seen around include a Ross's Goose at the Waterbird Pond, and that bird was there two days ago as well. In addition, the waterbird pond held a Long-billed Dowitcher in full alternate (breeding) plumage. This is highly unusual and may be the same bird that Steve Rottenborn saw in November. Finally, I will warn that access to CCRS will be temporarily discontinued. I will send the list a more detailed message later on regarding the state and changes which will be ocurring soon at CCRS. At this point access is still possible, this may change in the near future but I do not know exactly when. Once I have all the details, I will post a message. For now, enjoy and good luck with the birds. Regards, Al Alvaro Jaramillo "It was almost a pity, to see the sun Half Moon Bay, shining constantly over so useless a country" California Darwin, regarding the Atacama desert. [[email protected]] Helm guide to the New World Blackbirds, Birding in Chile and more, at: http://www.sirius.com/~alvaro ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sat Feb 13 10:04:00 1999 Subject: [SBB] VATH @ Stevens Creek near Hwy 101 This morning (2/13/99, 7:30-8:00 am), there was a female VARIED THRUSH along Stevens Creek trail just south of Hwy 101 near the pedestrian gate (the one closed when there's flooding). Several Hermit thrushes and lots of American Robins as well. Also seen in the same vicinity was a TOWNSEND'S WARBLER -- these have been pretty regular along here in the eucalyptus and pine trees the last several weeks. -- Bill Cabot ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sat Feb 13 22:18:46 1999 Subject: [SBB] Iceland Gull. Birders, As there is noone banding or working at CCRS this weekend, the gate is closed. I apologize, particularly for those that attempted to visit today and found that they could not enter. Unless someone shows up to do some work tomorrow and opens the gate, assume that the gate will be closed. Apologies, Al Alvaro Jaramillo Wildlife Biologist Half Moon Bay, Coyote Creek Riparian Station California P.O. Box 1027 Alviso, CA 95002 [[email protected]] Birds of Chile, New World Blackbirds at : http://www.sirius.com/~alvaro ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sun Feb 14 14:38:03 1999 Subject: [SBB] Ruddy Shelduck The previous week and last week I saw a very tame RUDDY SHELDUCK at Cupertino Memorial Park (across from De Anza College), who let me walk around it observing its charactertics very closely (it seemed to be waiting for a handout). I am a new birder and could not identify it until I dropped by the SVAS office, where a volunteer (whose name I have forgotten) helped me find the bird in the National Geographic Society "Field Guide to Birds of North America" Second Edition (page 90). Evidently this is a Afro-Eurasian species and probably has escaped from a zoo or a private collection. Are they at all common? -Jonathan Hays ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 15 12:13:51 1999 Subject: [SBB] Weekend birding On Saturday, 2/13/99, I led a class field trip to Ed Levin County Park in the Milpitas foothills and Coyote Hills Regional Park, bayside in Fremont. Ed Levin highlights: - Male Ring-necked Duck at Sandy Wool Lake. - Male Selasphorus hummingbird (prob. Allen's) at Spring Valley group picnic area parking lot. This individual showed a mostly green back with no rufous flecking. However, we were viewing it on a perch about 30 ft. up in a eucalyptus and we didn't have a full view of the back. - 1 clearly Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker at the Elm picnic area. This was a male with a bold red chevron on the nape, brown face, gray crown, black moustache, very yellow underwing, undertail, and upper flight feather shafts. - 2 male intergrade Northern Flicker. These had red nape chevrons, gray faces, brown crowns, one had a black moustache the other red, orange-red underwings and undertail. - 3 Yellow-billed Magpie nests under construction around the Spring Valley area. Coyote Hills highlights: - One Sora, heard only, in the marsh. - One female Merlin on a snag north of the visitor's center, later flying over the marsh with mouse-sized prey in talons. (Two years ago, we found a female Merlin in the same location. Possible returnee?). - Winter Wren in Hoot Hollow. - 2 Varied Thrush in Hoot Hollow. Tree Swallows were present in small numbers in both locations. American Robins: There were about 100 at the Elm picnic area at Ed Levin; around 30-40 at Coyote Hills in the Hoot Hollow area. Northern Flickers: approx. 8-10 sightings at the south part of Ed Levin, another 8-10 in the Elm picnic area; and 8-10 at Coyote Hills. Also, we had some Western Bluebirds at the Palo Alto High School parking lot. Also, if anyone is considering a new scope in the higher price range, two of our participants had a new 82mm Kowa scope with fluorite coated lenses and the 20-60X eyepiece. I have to say that this setup is incredible! The zoom retained most of the image resolution up to 60X! We enjoyed many sharp, frame-filling views of the birds through this combination at full zoom. (I wish that Kowa was providing me with promotional consideration for including this note!) Les ========================================== Les Chibana, Palo Alto [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 15 12:53:16 1999 Subject: [SBB] Almaden Birds/seen/not seen Here are some birds seen in the Almaden area on Saturday, Feb 13. At Calero Reservoir, three COMMON LOONS were seen. Two were near the boat launching dock and the third was farther out in the reservoir. Two TREE SWALLOWS were seen over the reservoir. Although the waterfowl is beginning to disperse, there was still a good variety of duck species seen, including Green-winged Teal, Mallard, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Ring-necked Duck, Lesser Scaup, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Common Merganser, and lots of Ruddy Ducks. I did not see the Bald Eagle this time. At Almaden Lake, the RED-NECKED GREBE was still present, and a CLARK'S GREBE was seen as well. The two small geese (ROSS'S and imm SNOW GOOSE) were seen at noon time. Earlier in the day (8:00 am), I saw these two geese with the local Canada Goose flock at DeAnza Park off Meridian between Kooser & Blossom Hill across the street from Mervyn's, so it appears these small geese are making the rounds throughout the Almaden area with the locals. The minima Canada Goose, which has been hanging around with them, was not seen. As for gulls, I counter 268 HERRING GULLS and at least six THAYER'S GULLS. At Almaden Reservoir, twenty WOOD DUCKS were seen. And that's about it for now - Ann Ann Verdi AMD/CA Central Svc Scheduling 408-749-2199 or x42199 [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 15 14:41:03 1999 Subject: [SBB] birds On Friday afternoon, 12 Feb 99, I stopped by CCRS and had a good look at the apparent Kumlien's ICELAND GULL; even finding a second bird that Al thought might be borderline. On Saturday, 13 Feb 99, I went out to Alviso to look for gulls. There wasn't anything unusual, but I did find 219 MEW GULLS at Arzino Ranch, along with the ROSS' GOOSE. Three BURROWING OWLS were along Nortech Pkwy. At the Sunnyvale Baylands Park I found a male BLUE-WINGED TEAL. I then went to Stevens Creek Park and drove up Stevens Canyon Road past the intersection with Mt. Eden Road. When I pulled off between the second and third bridges, I found a pair of AMERICAN DIPPERS along the creek. Also, 7 RING-NECKED DUCKS were at the reservoir. On Sunday, 14 Feb 99, I went to Shoreline Lake, where I had a male BARROW'S GOLDENEYE and a RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. A EURASIAN WIGEON was in the flood control basin and 6 BLACK SKIMMERS were in Charleston Slough. At Crittenden Marsh I had a female MERLIN perched on a power tower and a TREE SWALLOW over the marsh. On Monday, 15 Feb 99, I went to the south county and checked Bloomfield Ave. The fields here had many AMERICAN PIPITS, SAVANNAH SPARROWS, KILLDEER, LEAST SANDPIPERS, and 2 COMMON SNIPE. Six TREE SWALLOWS were foraging overhead. On San Felipe Road, 2 pairs of TREE SWALLOWS seemed to be checking out the eucalyptus trees that had hosted the Cassin's Kingbirds. At San Felipe Lake, 20 white geese were too distant for details, but were probably ROSS' based on size. At least 4 GREAT BLUE HERONS were standing on nests. Fifteen swallows were over the lake; probably Trees, but I didn't have good enough light to be certain. Mike Mammoser ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 15 15:03:55 1999 Subject: [SBB] CCRS birds All, Today Frank Vanslager and I saw an essentially all white first winter Glaucous Gull in the Coyote Creek outflow pond/mudflat which is west the Waterbird Pond and south of the Newby Island dump. A second, large light buffy colored gull with white wingtips was seen to fly into the salt pond to the southwest (another possible Glaucous Gull?). We also had the Ross's Goose in the Waterbird Pond and a male Ring-necked Pheasant on the road nearby. We also had a pair of Blue-winged Teal at Sunnyvale Baylands Park, in the weeds to the right (south) of the observation platform (not the pier). An unusual medium sized gull at CCRS today was an overall light buffy color with darker buffy spots overall. The wing was a shade lighter than the body with very pale wingtips. When viewed from the side the upper tail appeared to be essentially all white. The lower tail was more the color of the body with the lower aft portion of the body being a somewhat darker buff color. The legs were pink (more pink than a nearby imm CAGU). The bill was black with some pinkish highlights on the proximal end. The bill was about the same size (length and depth) as the bill on Thayer's gulls (smaller all around than on CAGU). The eye was dark with very little smudging around the eye. The gull was larger than adjacent CAGUs and smaller than adjacent HEGUs (about the same size as nearby Thayer's Gulls). The head was somewhat round but not so round as the head of Mew Gulls. Take care, Bob Reiling, 2:25 PM, 2/15/99 ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Tue Feb 16 10:53:12 1999 Subject: [SBB] Backyard report The American Goldfinches are really beginning to get their breeding plummage. The Juncos are flittering around the yard in pursuit of each other with the whites on their tails flashing. The White-throated Sparrow is absolutely gorgeous as he sits at the end of a twig with his eyes to the stars, showing his throat. His white is as white as any Tide commercial. He tends to not interact with the other birds. My White-crowned sparrows have left me but still have lots of Golden-crowned. A pair of Purple Finches are frequent visitors. I must feed 50 house finches. Tried a bag of the $5.99 bird seed from Costco. Wellllll, it's got sooooo much filler in it that it's a pain...to have to every day throw away so much leftover. The other bird seed is eaten to the last seed. With 14 feeders and being an analytical person I can tell you what MY birds prefer...Costco it isn't....gloria leblanc Your PFO (Personal Financial Officer) http://www.lgsia.com http://www.wallstreetgifts.com ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Tue Feb 16 11:27:21 1999 Subject: [SBB] Pileated Woodpecker I have lived up near intersection of 84 and 35 (Skylonda area) for past 10 years, amidst redwoods, madrone, tanoak woodland at around 2000'. 2 new interesting things happening: 1. for first time, we have Red-shouldered Hawks in vicinity. Are they expanding their range? 2. Paul Noble was up at the house this weekend, (lucky for me, otherwise I would still be wondering what that call was!) and spotted a Pileated Woodpecker, a tiny dot on a far douglas fir snag but no doubt about it. First time for my "yard" list and very exciting. Now that call is burned into my memory, and I'm anxious for repeat. Janet Hanson SFBBO ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Tue Feb 16 11:36:28 1999 Subject: [SBB] Panoche & Paicines & Beyond Jeanne and I had a marvelous two day trip through Paicines and Panoche Valleys and part of the Central Valley. Weather was great, cold and gray or partly cloudy, but no rain or fog. We saw most of what was reported last week, but no Fe Hawks, Owls, or Bunting. Different, additional birds seen included: A pair of MERLINs at the south entrance to Shotgun Pass, a SAGE THRASHER in the middle of Shotgun Pass, at an asphalt turnout. A PRAIRIE FALCON over Little Panoche Reservoir, and a ROCK WREN on the inside face of the dam (south end). SAY'S PHOEBE and LARK SPARROW were common. The center of Los Banos WMA is closed to vehicles, but the outer edge was good for AMERICAN BITTERN and WHITE-FACED IBIS. Merced NWR was excellent, as were the fields across the road, for huge numbers of SNOW GOOSE and SANDHILL CRANES, and modest numbers of WHITE-FACED IBIS and WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. A plowed field on Hwy 140 just east of Gustine held about 30 CATTLE EGRETS. - Chris Salander ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 17 04:29:51 1999 Subject: [SBB] Just another day in the Almaden Valley... Howdy birders, Tuesday, in spite of the storm, I did some birding near home (south San Jose). My first stop was Almaden Lake Park, where I hoped to see the Clark's Grebe found by Ann Verdi on Saturday. I didn't see the Clark's, nor did I see the Red-necked Grebe, but I did find a first winter GLAUCOUS GULL at the inflow to the lake, with a flock of mostly HERRING GULLS. This was a different bird from the one I saw here in December. There were also several adult THAYER'S GULLS, and God knows how many immatures. I again saw an odd white gull about the size of a small Herring Gull. It had a black bill, black eyes, and white wings and tail with very pale gray mottling (no band on the tail). Possible Iceland Gull? Its plumage was almost as white as that of the nearby Glaucous Gull, although it was a much smaller bird. The gulls come and go, and the flocks tend to disperse by mid-afternoon. Around noon seems to be the best time to study them. The usual COMMON MERGANSERS and COMMON MOORHENS were also there. At the Santa Clara Valley Water District Pond there was a MERLIN perched atop one of the sycamores, and a single TREE SWALLOW flew by. It was raining pretty hard by the time I reached Calero Reservoir, but I did see a COMMON LOON near the boat ramp there. I've made some changes to my birding web pages, adding new links and photos. I've posted a new page with recent Alamitos Creek/Almaden Lake bird photos and text. You can it find at: http://home.pacbell.net/redknot Or directly by going to: http://home.pacbell.net/redknot/alamitoscreek.html I've also added some new photos to my owling page: http://home.pacbell.net/redknot/owling.html John Mariani [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 17 12:39:35 1999 Subject: [SBB] Sage Sparrow Sorry if you get this twice. I have placed 2 photos of a Sage Sparrow that was found along Davis Rd. in eastern Stanislaus County in a rolling hills/grassland habitat. I will try to have them scanned at a higher resolution later. I would like commentary on which subspecies you think it might be. Unfortunately, you can't see the malar stripe. http://www2.ainet.com/sas Follow the photos link. Jim ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 17 14:33:05 1999 Subject: [SBB] Iceland Gull All, Steve Rottenborn asked me to post that he had the Kumlien's Iceland Gull again today at CCRS. It was in the second pond on the left as you drive in, between 1:30 and 1:50 and still present when he left. Mike Rogers ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 17 15:13:58 1999 Subject: Re: [SBB] Iceland Gull At 02:33 PM 2/17/99 -0800, Dr. Michael M. Rogers wrote: > >All, > >Steve Rottenborn asked me to post that he had the Kumlien's Iceland >Gull again today at CCRS. It was in the second pond on the left as >you drive in, between 1:30 and 1:50 and still present when he left. > All: I am working at home today, so can't assure that the gate will be open today. I assume it is and that it will be closed at 6 pm or so. If in doubt, check in at the trailers. I will be in at CCRS on Friday and will make sure the gate is open for those who may want to come in then. Weekend access may be more tricky as I do not think anyone will be in. Sorry for the inconvenience to CCRS members. Al Alvaro Jaramillo "It was almost a pity, to see the sun Half Moon Bay, shining constantly over so useless a country" California Darwin, regarding the Atacama desert. [[email protected]] Helm guide to the New World Blackbirds, Birding in Chile and more, at: http://www.sirius.com/~alvaro ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 17 16:01:48 1999 Subject: [SBB] CC Longspur, Iceland Gull All: On 10 Feb., Scott Terrill, Mike Rogers, and I saw the immature/ female-type CHESTNUT-COLLARED LONGSPUR on private property in northeastern San Jose. No sign of the Lapland. The med.-small CANADA GOOSE was still at Arzino Ranch. On 11 Feb., the ROSS'S GOOSE and the med.-small CANADA GOOSE were still at Arzino Ranch. On 12 Feb., the third-winter LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL was at Lake Cunningham. I received a call from Al Jaramillo about a small second-winter GLAUCOUS GULL at CCRS and arrived in time to look at the bird for 10 seconds or so before it flew off. As we were looking through the gulls remaining in the WPCP ponds visible from the CCRS office, we found a very pale Thayer's Gull and joked about being glad that it was not a bit paler, as we would then have to write it up for submission to the CBRC as an Iceland Gull. Shortly thereafter, I saw a very pale gull fly in, and upon looking at it through the scope I saw that it was clearly in the realm of "KUMLIEN'S" ICELAND GULL. Al and I took notes on the gull at our leisure, and fortunately the bird has been cooperative enough to hang around for others to see. Regardless of whether or not this bird is ultimately accepted by the CBRC, it is a very interesting bird, and I'd urge anyone who sees it to submit details to the Committee. I personally think that it is a pretty typical (not even "dark-end") Kumlien's. With BOGU, MEGU, RBGU, CAGU, THGU, HEGU, and GWGU, I saw 10 gull species in the county that day (missing Western!). Single MERLINS were along Great America Parkway near Highway 101 and along Montague Expwy. near Lafayette. On 16 Feb., two different MERLINS were in the Stanford arboretum. On 17 Feb., I again saw the KUMLIEN'S ICELAND GULL near CCRS, in the second WPCP pond on the left as you drive in toward the trailers. Steve Rottenborn ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 17 16:04:57 1999 Subject: [SBB] Bald Eagle, Am. Dipper All: On 12 Feb., Scott Terrill saw a first-year BALD EAGLE flying high over Coyote Creek at Highway 237, heading toward the bay. On 15 Feb., David Johnston had an AMERICAN DIPPER along Saratoga Creek in his backyard near "downtown" Saratoga. Steve Rottenborn ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 17 16:06:57 1999 Subject: [SBB] Iceland Gull, Ross's Goose All: At the fourth attempt, I finally caught up with the first-winter Iceland Gull today - fairly obvious bird. There are plenty of other gulls on the sewage ponds, but no sign of a Glaucous there or in the areas by the dump. The Ross's Goose remains at the waterbird pond. The ICGU has much paler wingtips than the Thayer's Gulls. These basically appear buffy-brown in the center with broad white fringes. T The tertials are essentially creamy with a narrow darkbar about a third of the way along the feather. The greater coverts are also largely creamy with a single dark bar running down through them. The other coverts also had a fair percentage of white in them. The amount of white gave a very different impression to the normal chequered look of Thayer's. The tail looked pretty much pale on the sitting bird (obviously dark on Thayer's). When it preened, the tail could be seen to have a lot more pale on the sides and tip than a Thayers, with the center of the tail appearing a little darker. This effect may have just been because the center tail feathers were more bunched together. The bird flapped its wings once and showed even buffy-cream flight feathers with no darker secondary bar or outer primaries as shown by Thayer's. Structurally, it appeared similar to smallish Thayer's, with a fairly small bill and long primary projection. It was clearly smaller than almost all the Herring Gulls present and similar in size to several nearby Thayer's. The bill was dark with a dark pinkish suffusion on the basal two-thirds. Nick ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 17 16:07:19 1999 Subject: [SBB] CCRS happenings. Birders: As I promised I will give you a quick rundown on the changes ocurring at CCRS. The station began as an offshoot of the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory over a decade ago, and was primarily a bird banding site for many years. This is what the birders know CCRS for, yet the organization grew and eventually became heavily involved in stream research such as the Community Creekwatch and Streamkeepers to give examples. There was an educational component, and a large involvement in watershed science here in the south bay. We had a great deal of input into the Watershed Management Initiative in Santa Clara County, and the protocols we developed in streamkeepers and creekwatch are being used throughout the state to monitor creeks by volunteers. Overall, we have been very successful in these projects, they have had a large impact. On the other hand, CCRS has been in financial trouble for some time now. Its complex understanding exactly why this was so, and I won't get into details as I probably don't know them all, but the economic situation became worse recently. Many contracts came to an end, and key personnel left the station, which prompted a difficult decision for our board. The decision was to close down the watershed programs, and the GIS (Geographical Information System) work. The avian research program will not be shut down, but will become part of the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory. In essence, CCRS is going back to its roots, to its parent organization and going back to birds as its primary focus. While outwardly it may seem that CCRS is 'shutting down', the reality is much more positive than this. No argument, its a shame that the watershed program has to close down, particularly given the positive impact it had on local policies and conservation, yet in my opinion the unification of the bird research programs of CCRS and SFBBO is great. This will provide critical mass for the creation of a strong research program. We will be able to go in directions which were not necessarily available to us working as separate entities. SFBBO is extremely excited about our long term banding data, and the continuation of banding at CCRS. Currently, the banding data is being worked up as part of several studies. For example, I am working on a 10 year summary of what has occurred to the bird community at CCRS in the last decade. As I work through the results I shall be informing you about them. In addition, Brett Sandercock, of UC Berkley, and I are working on a paper comparing survival rates of four species of sparrows that winter at CCRS. There is other ongoing work on Common Yellowthroats, as well as a brand new program to study habitat use along urban creeks in San Jose. We will be needing birders to help us census this summer and fall as part of this project, do let me know if you are interested. There are details still to be sorted out in this change, as you can imagine. Some of the trailers may move from the levee eventually. While the changeover occurs, the combination to the gate will change and access will be much more restricted than it has been in the past. It is our hope that this will be temporary. If you are exited about the opportunity that the merger of CCRS with SFBBO creates with respect to understanding the movements and conservation of birds in the South Bay. I urge you to join SFBBO as a member. This is particularly important in this time of change. Please contact me for details, or surf in to: http://www.sfbbo.org/ I will keep people updated on these events. There will be a members meeting soon, when I have the date and time I shall let people know. take care and good birding, Al Alvaro Jaramillo "It was almost a pity, to see the sun Half Moon Bay, shining constantly over so useless a country" California Darwin, regarding the Atacama desert. [[email protected]] Helm guide to the New World Blackbirds, Birding in Chile and more, at: http://www.sirius.com/~alvaro ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 17 18:24:51 1999 Subject: [SBB] Oka/Campbell ponds on Monday Sorry this is a bit late. My wife and I visited said ponds on 2/15, where in spite of the heavy traffic we found most of the usual species. Of note were a pair of Hooded Mergansers in the creek, an escaped small Parrot (green and noisy, as it flew in the distance), the American Bittern, and to our surprise a lovely male Purple Finch (showed to us by John Fletcher). Charles Coston ______________________________________________________________________ Join YnnMail at http://www.ynnmail.com and get your free secure e-mail and 40,000+ newsgroup... ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 17 18:59:49 1999 Subject: [SBB] Stanford stuff One of my students told me that a large white bird making unearthly screechings had been seen regularly evenings around the Law School, so I just went down to look and indeed a BARN OWL was perched right on the Law School building at about 6:30 pm; it was not screeching, but rather giving out a series of very loud staccato clicks with a hiss in the background, a sound that I hadn't heard before. I checked the Big Puddle (Lagunita) at midday to see if the new rain had added any new birds; the Lake still is only partly filled, and only with rainwater. Along with the usual Mallards, Bufflehead, and California Gulls were 15 RING-NECKED DUCKS and at least 12 MEW GULLS. The flock of AMERICAN PIPITS was still on the dry part of the lake bed. -- Tom Grey Stanford CA [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 17 19:13:26 1999 Subject: [SBB] Bird Lists on a PalmIII I recently bought a PalmIII palm computer (of course the week after I bought it the price dropped $50), mostly to store my life list info (exported to text format from a database program), my ABA list (I put a "*" in front of the birds seen), and a list of the bander's 4-letter codes for birds. I found this information very useful and convenient (i.e., searchable) during last weekend's trip to the Salton Sea Bird Festival [if anyone wants my impressions (good ones) on the 3rd annual festival, give me a call at 650-493-7210]. Anyway, I had to do a lot of editing of the ABA list and the 4-letter code list (already on SBBU) to compact them to fit on the small screen of the PalmIII. To save you time if you want to do this, I have posted these modified pages with how-to directions on the SBBU Home Page as "Bird Documents for PalmIII". South Bay Birders Unlimited (SBBU) http://www.stanford.edu/~kendric/birds/ Kendric ----------------------------------------- Dr. Kendric C. Smith 927 Mears Court Stanford, CA 94305-1041 (650) 493-7210 (voice or fax) [[email protected]] http://www.stanford.edu/~kendric/ ------------------------------------------ ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 17 19:58:28 1999 Subject: Re: [SBB] Stanford stuff I have seen a pair of BARN OWLS fly into a palm tree near the Oval and it seemed like they were nesting in there since one flew in and disappeared and the other disappeared into the palm after staring at me for a minute or so. This happened around 2:30AM. I have also seen one fly over the Rains dorms at night. At 06:59 PM 2/17/99 -0800, Tom Grey wrote: >One of my students told me that a large white bird making unearthly >screechings had been seen regularly evenings around the Law School, so I >just went down to look and indeed a BARN OWL was perched right on the Law >School building at about 6:30 pm; it was not screeching, but rather giving >out a series of very loud staccato clicks with a hiss in the background, a >sound that I hadn't heard before. > Cagan H. Sekercioglu Center for Conservation Biology Department of Biological Sciences Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305 Tel: 650-723-3237 Fax: 650-723-5920 ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 17 21:50:28 1999 Subject: Re: [SBB] Iceland Gull, Ross's Goose South-Bay-Birders, Nick: I took a trip to the CCRS this afternoon as well. It took me an hour to get from Mathilda in Sunnyvale to the turn-off off of Highway 237 to the CCRS, only about 6 miles! No other birders were around. I eventually came across the Kumlien's-type Iceland Gull on the 2nd pond on the left past the entrance coming in from the south. I viewed the gull from 4:30 to 5:00 PM. The gull was probably still around although the Red-tailed Hawk flew in over-head scaring up the flock. While I had the gull in view in the scope, I hoped the driver in the red car would stop but just hurried quickly out toward the exit. Without duplicating Nick's detailed description, I must say that the gull Nick describes is likely the same gull I saw. The gull was preening in the middle of the mud-flat on the east side of the pond facing west. It seemed to have little to do with the other gulls around it. I have come across a couple web sites with gull photographs. The first one has pictures of Kumlien's-type Iceland Gulls (I think figure 2 is the most interesting). The 2nd web site I am including for comparison; it's a Thayer's Gull compliments of Monte Taylor. http://www.best.com/~petrel/Angus.KUGU.html http://www.tsuru-bird.net/gulls/gull_thayers_juv1.jpg -- Mike Feighner, Livermore, CA, [[email protected]] Nick Lethaby wrote: > > All: > > At the fourth attempt, I finally caught up with the first-winter Iceland > Gull today - fairly obvious bird. There are plenty of other gulls on the > sewage ponds, but no sign of a Glaucous there or in the areas by the dump. > The Ross's Goose remains at the waterbird pond. > > The ICGU has much paler wingtips than the Thayer's Gulls. These basically > appear buffy-brown in the center with broad white fringes. The tertials > are essentially creamy with a narrow darkbar about a third of the way along > the feather. The greater coverts are also largely creamy with a single dark > bar running down through them. The other coverts also had a fair percentage > of white in them. The amount of white gave a very different impression to > the normal chequered look of Thayer's. The tail looked pretty much pale on > the sitting bird (obviously dark on Thayer's). When it preened, the tail > could be seen to have a lot more pale on the sides and tip than a Thayers, > with the center of the tail appearing a little darker. This effect may have > just been because the center tail feathers were more bunched together. The > bird flapped its wings once and showed even buffy-cream flight feathers > with no darker secondary bar or outer primaries as shown by Thayer's. > Structurally, it appeared similar to smallish Thayer's, with a fairly small > bill and long primary projection. It was clearly smaller than almost all > the Herring Gulls present and similar in size to several nearby Thayer's. > The bill was dark with a dark pinkish suffusion on the basal two-thirds. > > Nick > ========================================================================== > This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list > server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the > message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 17 22:31:14 1999 Subject: [SBB] Glaucous Gull Howdy South-bay-birders, Early this afternoon I again saw a first winter GLAUCOUS GULL at Almaden Lake Park. There were a total of 7 gull species, including MEW (1), plenty of THAYER'S, and GLAUCOUS-WINGED. The smaller whitish gull was not seen. The imm. SNOW GOOSE and ROSS'S GOOSE were with the gulls on the island near the creek inflow. The lake seems to be a stop for gulls enroute to/from the Guadalupe landfill, and numbers decrease through the afternoon-- John Mariani [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Thu Feb 18 07:45:04 1999 Subject: [SBB] Calero/Chesbro Reservoirs Late report from Monday, 15 Feb At Calero, I saw the previously reported adult BALD EAGLE perched on an oak tree at the west end of the reservoir. A GOLDEN EAGLE hunted the ridge line with WHITE-TAILED KITES in the area. Two COMMON LOONS were along the east side of the reservoir with a CLARK'S GREBE. A dozen LEAST SANDPIPERS foraged at the water's edge. At the Calero Park HQ, two RED-SHOULDERED HAWKS soared overhead and two CALIFORNIA THRASHERS were along the road leading to the horse ranch. A LINCOLN'S SPARROW was along the levee leading out to the reservoir. At Chesbro, good numbers of WOOD DUCKS (24), COMMON MERGANSERS (50), and BONAPARTE'S GULLS continue. Two GOLDEN EAGLES soared overhead with an accipiter, probable COOPER'S HAWK. An OSPREY flew over the reservoir to the south. A SPOTTED SANDPIPER was on the short opposite the restaurant. I saw a COYOTE near the west shore and two WESTERN BLUEBIRDS on a fence line just south of the reservoir. Jan Hintermeister Santa Clara, CA [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Thu Feb 18 08:32:11 1999 Subject: [SBB] Stanford white-throated sparrow(s) I have seen the white throated sparrow near the Stanford Mausoleum several times in the past few weeks including yesterday, 17 Feb. On 25 Jan, I was about 75% sure that there were two WTSP there; yesterday, my certainty rose to about 95%. All my sightings (except for the initial sighting near the Weeping Angel on the Christmas Count) have been at the large clump of shrubbery near the paved path southwest of the Mausoleum about 1 PM. Dick Stovel [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Thu Feb 18 10:48:51 1999 Subject: [SBB] Iceland Gull 12 Feb 1999 All, For those looking for the Iceland Gull I thought I would post my description of the bird. This may help in locating the gull we are talking about. I developed the photos and they are indeed distant, although many of the noted field marks are visible. I plan on getting enlargements made and we'll see if that helps. Good luck if you look for this bird! Mike Rogers --------------------------------------------------------------- Kumlien's Iceland Gull - Larus glaucoides kumlieni 12 February 1999, 2:24pm to 3:13pm San Jose-Santa Clara Water Pollution Control Plant, as viewed from CCRS Santa Clara County After receiving a telephone call from Steve Rottenborn about an apparent Kumlien's Iceland Gull at CCRS (Coyote Creek Riparian Station) I headed over there to attempt to refind the bird, which Steve indicated had been last seen in the southernmost water pollution control plant pond along (west of) the CCRS levee. After arriving, I quickly scanned the southernmost pond without finding the bird. However, there were many gulls in the next pond to the north and I was soon able to locate the bird with binoculars here at 2:24pm. After watching the bird and taking a few distant photographs, the gulls all flushed and circled briefly before landing again in the same pond at 2:41pm. Rather than try to refind the bird, I decided to head to the CCRS trailer and borrow Al Jaramillo's scope. Upon returning to the pond I noted that Mike Mammoser was scoping the southernmost pond. He soon joined me and at 2:58pm I relocated the Iceland Gull. We both studied the bird in scopes until it flew off over the dike and across Coyote Creek to the southeast at 3:13pm. Visibility was good, with the sun off to our left and the bird perhaps just under a hundred yards off the dike. These ponds had several hundred roosting and bathing gulls in them, with a high percentage of them being Thayer's Gulls, including several very pale individuals (others species noted included Herring, California, Ring-billed, and Mew). The Iceland Gull was similar in size and build to these Thayer's Gulls, being perhaps on the small end with a somewhat smaller bill and more rounded head, although certainly not unusually so in comparison to some female Thayer's Gulls (thus not an extreme short-billed, round-headed Iceland Gull). Overall this bird differed from the pale Thayer's Gulls in being largely chalk white on the exposed primaries, with a largely white base color to the tertials, greater secondary coverts, and outer portion of the uppertail. In flight the exposed portions of the secondaries were also seen to be very white, appearing even paler than the rest of the upperwing, including the adjacent pale greater coverts. The limited amount of darker (pale tan) color in the primaries was no darker than the general coloration of the upperparts. Overall the head and body of the bird were a fairly uniform smudgy brownish-gray. There was a slight paling from the smokey tan belly to the slightly whiter chest and on occasion the nape appeared slightly whiter as well, although this may have been due to exposed feather bases when the feathers were ruffled by wind or raised by the bird. The upper auriculars appeared slightly darker than the rest of the face, giving the impression of a darker area behind the eye. The chin was slightly whiter than the rest of the face. The crown was streaked with narrow diffuse streaks of pale brown and appeared less "smudgy" than the underparts. The bill appeared fairly typical of a female Thayer's Gull, with no significant widening at the gonys. It was proportionately deeper than those of the nearby California Gulls, and may have been absolutely (rather than just proportionately) shorter in length. The bill appeared entirely dark (black), although it is unlikely that any faint pink hues could have been noted under these conditions. The eye was dark and the legs were a fairly average pink. The markings on the coverts created a crisp marbled pattern. The whiter base color of these feathers resulted in this pattern being reminiscent of the marbling on a Glaucous Gull, with chalk white feather regions contrasting crisply with tan or brown feather markings; these feathers did not have the the washed out look of, for example, most Glaucous-winged Gulls. The greater coverts were more extensively white than the median and lesser coverts. All the tertials showed very broad chalk white tips, forming a broad white band from the base of the exposed primaries to the lower back. Additionally, the base color of the proximal portions of the tertials was also white, not pale tan as on most pale Thayer's Gulls. This was the case not just for the uppermost tertial, but also for those partially hidden by this uppermost feather. There were a few dark (brown/tan) markings near the centerline of uppermost tertial, with the darkest being a subterminal crescent adjacent to the broad white terminal band (see attached field sketch). The scapulars also were largely white, with very broad white tips. The primaries forming the folded wing tip appeared very white and quite long (extending well beyond the tail). Parts of four primaries were normally visible beyond the tertials, with the tips of p9 and p10 (outermost two primaries) not being distinguishable at this distance (or p10 was completely hidden by p9). When preening, the bird occasionally pulled the tertials away from the folded wing tip and additional primary tips could be seen. The uppermost primary normally extending beyond the tertials (p6?) appeared chalk white on both feather webs and this covered a significant fraction of the base of the exposed wing tip. The remaining visible primaries were also largely white but showed thin edges of pale tan (near the feather shaft?) and faint pale tan markings near their tips. This tan color was more visible when viewed from near head-on and was strongest below the tertials on the folded wing (away from the wing tip). In flight the primaries showed broad white tips that seemed to continue down the trailing edge of the wing into the very pale secondaries, which, as noted above, appeared paler than the rest of the upperwing surface, being white with just a few dark markings. The amount of white in the wing tip was notably greater than on any of the pale Thayer's Gulls and the limited dark visible in the primaries was no darker than the rest of the upperwing. While the bird was standing, the underside of the rear wing tip (primaries) was noted to be unmarked white. In addition, when the bird was extensively preening much of the underwing was visible and this too appeared to be an unmarked soft white. This was confirmed when the bird was flapping while standing and when it was in flight. In flight from below the primaries and secondaries appeared translucent and unmarked. The tail was seen well during preening. The basal third of the uppertail appeared to be pale tan, whereas the outermost two-thirds was essentially white with just a few dark (brown/tan) markings near the tip (see sketch). The undertail appeared white but may have been very pale tan, as this area was in shadow. Both the uppertail and undertail coverts were obviously barred with brown on white. The white bars were quite broad and made this character much more obvious than on any of the Thayer's Gulls present. Also, these bars seemed more coherent than on most Thayer's Gulls, running continuously across the entire rump and undertail, rather than simply across individual feathers. These barred feathers were readily visible when the bird was preening (wings pulled away to expose the uppertail) and when the bird dipped its head and lifted its tail (exposing the undertail). It seems possible to find gulls with almost any plumage combination in the spectrum from Thayer's Gull to Iceland Gull, and birds that would likely be called dark Iceland Gulls back east may best be considered possible intergrades out here. Despite this, this bird is not on the dark end for kumlieni. In fact, it is quite a pale bird. The combination of the white base color to the tertials, the largely white primaries with limited dark markings no darker than the rest of the upperwing, secondaries paler than the pale greater secondary coverts, and the largely white tail would seem to eliminate any of the Thayer's Gull-like traits that have been observed in more intermediate birds. It thus seems that if any California gull can be called an Iceland Gull that this bird would fall into that category. ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Thu Feb 18 12:33:22 1999 Subject: [SBB] Thursday's birds at CCRS This morning at CCRS Rosalie Lefkowitz and I saw what was very likely the Kumlein's Iceland Gull in the pond directly across from the office trailer at about 10:30. It was an extremely pale gull with pale wing tips, dark eye, all dark bill. There also was a Merlin perched on the power pole next to the banding trailer. We banded an immature White-throated Sparrow, different bird than the one reported by Les Chibana earlier this month. ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Fri Feb 19 00:38:05 1999 Subject: [SBB] Almaden Lake Park Howdy South-bay-birders, On Thursday I saw several adult THAYER'S GULLS and 1-2 MEW GULLS at the inflow to Almaden Lake. Also a MARSH WREN was heard singing in a small patch of cattails there. An OSPREY was perched atop a sycamore at the SCVWD Pond. John Mariani [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Fri Feb 19 06:52:19 1999 Subject: [SBB] Great Backyard Bird Count going on now! Hey, California birders-- A reminder that the 2nd Annual Great Backyard Bird Count is taking place right now, through Monday, Feb 22. We at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon are asking everyone across the continent to count the highest number of birds they see at one time (on each of the days they participate) in their backyards, local parks and other areas. The reports are submitted online at The site is already getting a lot of hits, and you can see even now where reports are coming in from. On the results page, we've got a graph of number of hits per hour, and we're keeping a regularly updated list of the most frequesntly reported birds. Currently (10 am.), it's 1. Mourning Dove 19 2. American Crow 17 3. Northern Cardinal 17 4. Blue Jay 15 5. Dark-eyed Junco (form?) 15 6. Tufted Titmouse 15 7. Downy Woodpecker 13 8. House Sparrow 12 9. Black-capped Chickadee 11 10. House Finch 10 For fun, we're also inviting everyone to vote for their "favorite" bird. Right now, it's 1. Black-capped Chickadee 2. Ruby-throated Hummingbird 3. Northern Cardinal 4. Eastern Bluebird 5. Pileated Woodpecker Please add your bird sightings to the ever-growing BirdSource database, which is already yielding some interesting finds. With all the birds and birders in CA, we're hoping for a strong turn-out from your state. And the Great Backyard Bird Count is also fun! So please count for the birds, and visit the web site often for the latest updates! Allison Wells Cornell Lab of Ornithology Ithaca, NY [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Fri Feb 19 14:58:52 1999 Subject: [SBB] Calero Reservoir, strange icterid behavior Howdy South-bay-birders, Got a message from Hugh McDevitt that this morning that he saw 5-6 VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS at the Calero Reservoir boat launch. Our first spring sighting? I was there in the early afternoon, and although I didn't see the swallows, I did see 3 COMMON LOONS, 1 ad. GOLDEN EAGLE, 7 BONAPARTE'S GULLS, a HERRING GULL, and 1 FORSTER'S TERN near the boat launch. At the east end of the reservoir there was a large duck flock--mostly RUDDY DUCKS, RING-NECKED DUCKS, and LESSER SCAUP, but there were a few (3+) GREATER SCAUP in with them. At the boat launch I noticed some very strange behavior between a male BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD and female RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD--maybe someone out there can explain what I saw. The male cowbird was following the female blackbird (actually sort of pursuing her). He would bow his head submissively and hold it up against the breast of the female, who didn't seem especially interested, and usually walked away from him. Occsionally she would peck or nibble at his lowered head, which didn't seem to bother him. My guess is that he was trying to get rid of parasites...or could this be some sort of misguided courtship ritual? Drove by Almaden Lake Park. The imm. SNOW GOOSE and ROSS'S GOOSE were still there. The gull flock there was pretty small at noon-- John Mariani [[email protected]] http://home.pacbell.net/redknot/index.htm ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Fri Feb 19 15:54:23 1999 Subject: [SBB] Iceland Gull All, Hoping to get better photos of our Iceland Gull, I headed back to CCRS early this afternoon to check the gull roost in the drying ponds. I quickly refound the Kumlien's Iceland Gull sleeping in the second pond on the left and it was on the first mud bar, quite a bit closer than last time! Not only that, but I had my 2x converter with me and thus was shooting with a 1000mm lens on the tripod - pictures should thus be about four times better than last time. After watching this bird for a bit,I was surprised by a second pale gull (the same one that Mike Mammoser had?). This bird was a little larger, still had very white tertials, but had more coffee color in the primaries and more pale in the base of the bill - took a few photos of this bird for good measure too. At 2:04pm the Iceland Gull flew to the southeast just like last week. I tracked it as long as I could and it seemed to go down in front of the Holiday Inn. I figured maybe it was eating french fries at the In-and-Out Burger and followed it. There were indeed a few gulls at the In-and-Out Burger dumpster, but no ICGU. Also this was still pretty far from the Holiday Inn. Looking across highway 237 I was amazed to see the Iceland Gull sitting on the roof of the food mall across the way. I quickly crossed 237 and after heading east on Bellew Drive and north on Barber Lane to its end, refound the Iceland Gull eating rice with other gulls behind the Tainan Restaurant between Ming's Salon and Fujisan Sushi. Here I got excellent looks in great light and frame-filling photos with the 500mm lens. The bird would sit on the roof or lamppost and then swoop down to grab up food from the parking lot (more rice was tossed out while I was there). Upon very close inspection there is a pink hue underlying the basal 60% or so of the bill, but except for small spots near the base of the upper and lower mandibles this is very difficult to discern and cannot be seen at any significant distance. The appearance of the secondaries varies with lighting. There is some pale tan in them and they can sometimes appear darker than the greater coverts, but they can also be very reflective and appear paler at some angles. Overall the entire upperwing is quite uniformly colored and very pale. From below all the flight feathers are translucent and unmarked. I guess the money I will spend for enlarging the photos taken on 12 Feb will be wasted now! :( - it's worth it for this bird though. So, even if CCRS is closed this weekend you can have a shot at the Iceland Gull when the lunch leftovers are tossed out! Good luck, Mike Rogers ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sat Feb 20 14:46:27 1999 Subject: [SBB] Iceland and Glaucous Gulls Saturday morning, I saw at least one 1W Glaucous Gull at the Fremont Lagoons. I had a bird that might have been a 1W Iceland Gull here - totally white primaries and tertials on at rest, but it showed fairly extensive pink suffusion in the basal two-thirds of the bill, similar to a Herring Gull. Unfortunately I did not see it in flight. Structurally it looked similar to Thayer's but not a small one. At CCRS, I had excellent views of a 1W Iceland Gull on the first pond (they are filling the second pond with sewage). This bird appeared to be different to one I saw on Wednesday. It lacked the very distinct narrow dark bar running through the greater coverts and in flight it showed a faint secondary bar and tailband. The primaries lack the buffy-tan appearance of the other bird and the outer ones appeared pale brown in flight. ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sun Feb 21 11:10:17 1999 Subject: [SBB] "Rare variant" Varied Thrush All, This morning, 2/21/1999, at about 10:20am, while surveying our Pescadero orchard for the "great backyard bird count" in progress this weekend, I found a highly unusual Varied Thrush in company with another of standard coloration. This bird was identical in form and behavior to the adjacent VATH but all parts which should have been orange were a bright white instead. Crown was blackish, but all remaining dark parts were slate gray, including the breast band. Thank heavens the Natl Geo guide mentions this "rare variant form" or I would've doubted my own senses! Neither Stokes nor the Audubon field guides make any mention of it. Other birds were the usual suspects for this place and season (excepting an adult Golden Eagle circling slowly as it headed east from 10 to 10:10 AM). Allen's Hummingbirds have shown up in good numbers now but all winter residents such as Fox Sparrows, Hermit Thrushes, RC Kinglets etc. are still in place. Steelhead (and other salmonids hope, hope) were observed spawning in most high-quality riffles here a few weeks ago, before the latest round of storms churned everything up again. The odd VATH was seen from Pescadero Road on the ground under apple trees about 100 yards east from the Pescadero Creek bridge that is located 5.8 miles inland from the coast highway (approximately 3 miles inland from Phipps Ranch). While facing eastward, these trees would be on your right. If anyone refinds this bird, please drop me a note - thanks. --Garth Harwood ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sun Feb 21 12:52:16 1999 Subject: [SBB] Lifer Dove, surely an escapee Hi Birders, Of all times for this bird to show up on one of our backyard feeders. Right in the middle of the Great Backyard Bird Count. South San Jose, about a half- mile from Bernal & Santa Teresa intersection. About noon today, I was watching a Chestnut-backed Chickadee eating peanuts from a feeder, when a single dove flew onto a nearby flat feeder, where Sharon had put a pile of black oil sunflower seeds. The dove began feeding, and I didn't pay much attention. Then I noticed that it didn't have the expected Mourning Dove's spots and that it was much lighter and pinker. Then I noticed a black ring around the back of its neck. I grabbed the NGS book and there on page 226 was the RINGED TURTLE-DOVE, a popular caged bird, it said. It stayed about ten minutes, then flew off. The Mourning Dove's wing whistle was noticeably absent, as it flap-flapped across our back yard, then over the fence. So I guess we were looking at an escaped bird. Got 6-8 photos and some video, in case it's unusual, but surely it's not. Good birding, Bob Lutman ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sun Feb 21 13:39:27 1999 Subject: [SBB] Some Santa Clara Co. birding A few reports from this past week: Monday, Feb. 15 --------------- Since I haven't seen a more recent report, I'll mention that at about 3 PM I saw the third-winter LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL out on the water at Lake Cunningham, San Jose. A couple of points seemed interesting about the plumage, as compared to the description in Grant. First, Grant refers to a "freckling" (I think that's his word) of brown on the wing coverts and tertials; on this bird the brownish (or grayish-brown) areas on those tracts seemed rather extensive. Second, as has been noted earlier, the bill is still largely black, with a short pale tip and several pale areas near the base; I felt these areas were pale yellow. This bill pattern seems to match Steve's first description for this winter. Does bill color change gradually or sudden- ly, and is the change akin to a "moult"? Saturday, Feb. 20 (selected stops) ----------------- Sunnyvale WPCP - I walked to the northwest end with too goals: seeing a Tufted Duck, and getting a bit of exercise. I accomplished only one. Of about 400 SCAUP I saw, most were on salt pond A3W, along with hordes of RUDDY DUCKs. I think the chance is low I would have missed a male Tufted, but I could well have missed a distant female. There were at least 4 RED-BREASTED MERGANSERs on A3W. Dabbler numbers were way down. Sierra Road - East of the summit I saw a flock of at least 37 HORNED LARKs; at least 20 AMERICAN PIPITS were nearby. I was about 95% sure there was nothing more interesting by the time an Accipter flushed the lot. Almaden Lake Park - At 1 PM, there were about 8 or 10 first-winter THAYER'S GULLs at the inlet. Also there was perhaps the bird John Mariani has men- tioned: it was comparable in size to the Thayer's, but with rather white primaries. However, it largely lacked the marbled patterns I'd expect on something more interesting; it was more "blotchy". While I can't really explain it (I don't pretend to Gull expertise), I wonder if it was just a smallish Glaucous-Winged. (I didn't get a good comparative read on the bill, although at times it seemed a bit bulkier.) Of course, John's may have been a different bird. Also at the Lake were four Grebe species (but no Clark's or Red-Necked seen), 3 COMMON MERGANSERs, and 1 COMMON MOORHEN. I didn't see the small Geese, but I didn't look hard for them, and in any case most of the giant Canada's seemed to be elsewhere. Calero Reservoir - I'm now 0 for 2 on Bald Eagle there, but my mid-PM timing both times is probably far from optimum. I did see a single group of 6 COMMON LOONs, at least 24 COMMON MERGANSERs, and 1 SURF SCOTER. Swallows - I saw VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWs at Sunnyvale (about a dozen), Calero (at least two dozen), and Parkway Lakes. At the latter spot, the flock of several dozen was dominated by TREE SWALLOWs. Sunday, Feb. 21 --------------- Stanford - another try for WHITE-THROATED SPARROW was successful. At noon it was in Dick Stovel's "1 PM spot". (A half hour earlier, I hadn't picked up a hint of any sparrows.) Cheers, Al ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sun Feb 21 14:12:04 1999 Subject: [SBB] Short-eared Owl at Charleston Slough In between rain squalls this morning, Sunday, Feb 21, I saw a Short-eared Owl from the Charleston Slough levee trail at approximately the same place as I reported them in March, last year. I was at the bench near the 3-mile marker, and the line to the owl was through a point approximately 10 yards to the right (south) of the dam structure; however, the bird was almost surely in the background near the levee that's just north-east of there. Only the upper part of the owl was visible above the foreground levee and the view was not all that good. But, I had several minutes to verify (using the book) the vertical streaking, and the dark smudges around the yellow eyes. I was showing the owl to some out-of-state birders when it vanished in some unknown manner. Frank Vanslager ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sun Feb 21 14:27:06 1999 Subject: [SBB] Thanks. Lesser Black-backed Gull at Cunningham. Hi Birders, Thanks to Bob Reiling for his extensive SBB description on 2/12/99. That got me over there (5th time in two years) on Friday 2/19, but no luck again. Thanks to Joe Morlan for the photo collection on his website at http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~jmorlan/gallery.htm. Thanks to Mike Rogers for the two great photos of the LBBG on the Morlan website. I showed them to my wife Sharon, and we decided that we might be able to pick out this gull on Saturday afternoon 2/20. How could we miss that black beak with the yellow tip? Thanks to the two rangers at Cunningham who told us that they had seen the LBBG on the water, and telling us the location. Even though one of them proudly claimed that he had picked out a Wood Stork at Shoreline last year. Thanks to the two guys sailing who gleefully plowed through the big California gull flock with the LBBG, scattering them everywhere. Thanks to Sharon who, about thirty minutes later, picked out the LBBG from the exact center of a flock of perhaps 100-200 California Gulls, standing on the grass northeast of the lake. I had expected it to be exhibiting its "loner" qualities, so I was concentrating on the perimeter. It was (as most everybody now knows) a little larger that the Californias around it, bill mostly black with significant yellow tip, distinctive yellow eye, dark smudging around the eye, head a little gray, mantle and similarly colored parts darker than those of the Californias (though I wouldn't call them black, from our angle - sun at our backs), and no windows on the wing- tips. Thanks to you all. We finally got this great-looking lifer - ABA number 499. Bob Lutman ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sun Feb 21 16:25:01 1999 Subject: [SBB] PANOCHE trip Jesse Conklin and I entered Little Panoche Road from I-5 we perhaps 3-4 miles when we encountered a small group of MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD. The LONG-EARED OWL continues in the first row of trees at Mercy Hot Springs on Little Panoche Road. There was also a pair of BARN OWLs roosting in the same grove. On the BLM road we saw 5 SAGE THRASHER about 1.5 miles from the intersection with Little Panoche. We had been looking for Sage Sparrow and continued doing so at many spots along the road, but with no luck. Perhaps someone can suggest a milepost... Continuing up the hill on the BLM at about 5.0 miles parked and walked 100 yards up a dirt road on our left. There we saw a shrike which appeared to have a longer bill (with an obvious hook) and a narrower mask than usual. The top of the dark eye seemed to rise slightly above the top edge of the black mask. I cannot say with certainty that there was white on the forehead above the bill. The bird appeared paler than the other loggerheads we'd been seeing all day, and had a slight "warmth" to its gray. My first thought was that it could be NORTHERN SHRIKE. It was sitting about 50 yards away on the top of large bush and even though the light was not perfect, its apparent larger size, and then its flight, gave us pause. It flew with a more relaxed, undulating flight, a bit like a woodpecker, and three times we saw it rise high and kite for several seconds like a kestrel. In all my encounters with loggerheads, I have never seen one kite like this, and their direct flight has always been lower, with faster wingbeats and not so obviously undulate. I know Northern Shrike has been seen on BLM in the past, but wasn't able to determine if it has been seen there recently. Has one been seen in this area in the past few weeks? Up farther on the BLM road at approximately 5.5 miles from the the intersection with Little Panoche we saw a SHORT-EARED OWL engaging in a brief flight with a HARRIER. Matthew Dodder ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sun Feb 21 18:27:38 1999 Subject: [SBB] The count I was disappointed I only had 21 species these past 3 days but delighted my White-throated Sparrow graced me with his presence for TWO of them! Also, I all of a sudden had 11 Band-tailed pigeons each day, haven't had a large group since before Xmas. the other 19 species were: 1-Hermit thrush, 2-Spotted Towhee, 3-Calif Towhee, 1-Orange-crowned Warbler, 12-American goldfinch (a few practically in breeding plumage), 1-Pine Siskin, 4-Lesser goldfinch, 6-Oregon Junco, 15-Golden-crowned sparrow, 7-Chestnut-backed Chickadees, 2-Oak Titmouse, 10-American robin, 1-Mockingbird, 1-Anna's, 1 Scrub Jay, 7-Mourning Doves, 23-House Finch, 1-Purple Finch and a dozen Crows that flew overhead which I saw through my skylight! It's interesting looking at the map by species...Cornell's doing a really good job! Gloria Leblanc, Los Gatos off Quito Your PFO (Personal Financial Officer) http://www.lgsia.com http://www.wallstreetgifts.com ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sun Feb 21 18:54:04 1999 Subject: [SBB] birds On Saturday, 20 Feb 99, I went by CCRS and found Nick Lethaby looking at the apparent ICELAND GULL. I observed it with him for some time before the bird flew off. After Nick left, I remained to study the gulls and found the second bird I had seen the previous day. Studying the gulls here, I became concerned with the amount of fading and bleaching that I was seeing on many of the first-winter birds. The adults looked relatively normal, but many immatures were extremely faded. Virtually every first-year MEW GULL that I looked at had pure white greater wing coverts. Two immature RING-BILLED GULLS had the entire upperwing coverts pure white. And the range of variation in the fading on young THAYER'S GULLS was mind-boggling. I believe that the second bird I found was just an extremely pale Thayer's. It had the very white wing coverts and tertials, like the first bird, only the tertials had a slight amount of dusky coloration that was restricted to the base of the feather right along the shaft. The tail of this bird was fairly dusky, and the outer webs of the outer primaries were darker. I could just make out the tip of the dark web on the folded wing, it wasn't quite hidden by the preceding feather. The tips were mostly white, like the pale "V"s had become quite broad, but not quite enough to hide the darker tip of the outer web. It's certainly a small step from this bird to the first one, I believe. The timing is also suspicious. Why aren't these Iceland Gulls being found earlier in the season? Why only now, when there is a multitude of extremely pale Thayer's Gulls about? Of course, if Thayer's is just a clinal variant of Iceland, then the whole thing is moot anyway. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, a handful of VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS were over the sludge ponds. On Sunday, 21 Feb 99, I was back in Alviso. A few dozen VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS over the Water Pollution Control Plant included a single BARN SWALLOW. An adult COOPER'S HAWK was hunting sparrows along the EEC entrance road. Mike Mammoser ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sun Feb 21 23:16:03 1999 Subject: [SBB] RB Sapsucker races I spent a couple of hours Sunday PM along Arastradero Creek, just downstream from Junipero Serra (Foothill expwy). 2 male and 1 female HOODED MERGANSERS were sleeping upstream of the dam (just upstream from the bridge on the biking trail). The place was teeming with Mallards with atleast 50 birds close together, all of them apparently in pairs. Near the bridge are some trees pockmarked with Sapsucker holes. There I saw a RB SAPSUCKER that looked like a _ruber_. Its apparent differences were highlighted for me since I saw a nice _daggetti_ soon after. The "non-daggetti" had the white mark right at the lores, while the _daggetti_ had that mark taper off into a long malar stripe, that cut right across the side of the face. The white wing patch looked larger on the _daggetti_ and the back was distincly more heavily streaked in white than the other bird. According to Kaufman in Advanced Birding, _ruber_ the northern race breeds as far south as southern Oregon and winters in the costal areas of its breeding range. I certainly will be paying more attention to RB Sapscuker races in the future, but would really appreciate it if somebody would care to clue me in on the occurence of the two races (and their hybrids) in the Bay Area? Thanks! Vivek Tiwari [[email protected]] Santa Clara, CA ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 22 00:38:34 1999 Subject: [SBB] Great Backyard Bird Count Howdy South-bay-birders, For the "Great Backyard Bird Count" on Sunday I did a one mile walk along the Arroyo Calero and base of the Santa Teresa Hills, starting from the trailhead on Harry Road near Camden Ave. Habitats included riparian, open fields and orchards, and hillsides with chaparral. I tallied 43 species, the best of which was a tan-striped WHITE-THROATED SPARROW. It was not far upstream from Harry Road, in streamside brush just past a green metal gate on the left side of the path. Other bird count highlights: 1 NORTHERN HARRIER, 1 adult GOLDEN EAGLE, 1 NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW (flying north along the Santa Teresa Hills--a first for this spring?), and 1 HOUSE WREN (in hillside chaparral). Interestingly, of the sparrows counted the most abundant was LINCOLN'S SPARROW, with 13+ seen/heard, most in hillside sagebrush--not a habitat in which I would expect to find so many. Only heard 1 RUFOUS-CROWNED SPARROW in this same habitat. Later in the afternoon I visited Calero Reservoir. There I saw 1 COMMON LOON, 1 CLARK'S GREBE, and about 100(?) VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS. John Mariani [[email protected]] http://home.pacbell.net/redknot/index.htm ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 22 09:30:54 1999 Subject: [SBB] No ICGU All, Sunday after the SCVAS field trip I was behind the Tainan Resturant, south of Hwy 237 near I-880, from about 1 PM to 3 PM with no sighting of the ICGU. The area was extremely busy and none of the gulls were feeding on rice cakes (or anything else). Will try again this afternoon. Take care, Bob Reiling, 9:30 AM, 2/22/99 ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 22 11:03:01 1999 Subject: [SBB] RE: PANOCHE trip --====51494851515352555455===1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-Ascii" REPLY RE: PANOCHE trip Matthew Dodder wrote: [snip] >"warmth" to its gray. My first thought was that it could be NORTHERN >SHRIKE. It was sitting about 50 yards away on the top of large bush and >even though the light was not perfect, its apparent larger size, and >then its flight, gave us pause. It flew with a more relaxed, undulating >flight, a bit like a woodpecker, and three times we saw it rise high and >kite for several seconds like a kestrel. In all my encounters with >loggerheads, I have never seen one kite like this, and their direct >flight has always been lower, with faster wingbeats and not so obviously >undulate. = > >I know Northern Shrike has been seen on BLM in the past, but wasn't able >to determine if it has been seen there recently. Has one been seen in >this area in the past few weeks? > >Up farther on the BLM road at approximately 5.5 miles from the the >intersection with Little Panoche we saw a SHORT-EARED OWL engaging in a >brief flight with a HARRIER. > >Matthew Dodder First of all, Matthew, thanks for confirming what I thought I saw -- a = NORTHERN HARRIER harrying a SHORT-EARED OWL. Our group was a bit = further along the BLM road from where Matthew and Jesse were. We = saw the raptor encounter from a distance, and I thought that the obvious = harrier was diving on an owl, but the owl tucked its wings and dropped = from sight. Calvin Lou reported a SEOW on the BLM road on 2/4/99. We did not see any Northern-like Shrike in the area. We did have a good = look at a LOGGERHEAD hovering like a kestrel in this area. It was the = first time I've seen this. So, while I can't say that Matthew didn't see a = NSHR, I did see a LOSH hovering. It surprised me. The last NSHR sighting that I could find was on 1/24 by Tom Grey. Les --====51494851515352555455===1 Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-Ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable 


 REPLY    RE: PANOCHE trip

Matthew = Dodder wrote:
[snip]
>"warmth" = to its gray. My first thought was that it = could be NORTHERN
>SHRIKE. It was sitting = about 50 yards away on the top of large = bush and
>even though the light was = not perfect, its apparent larger size, and
>then = its flight, gave us pause. It flew with = a more relaxed, undulating
>flight, = a bit like a woodpecker, and three times = we saw it rise high and
>kite for several = seconds like a kestrel. In all my encounters = with
>loggerheads, I have never seen = one kite like this, and their direct
>flight = has always been lower, with faster wingbeats = and not so obviously
>undulate.
>
>I = know Northern Shrike has been seen on BLM = in the past, but wasn't able
>to determine = if it has been seen there recently. Has = one been seen in
>this area in the past = few weeks?
>
>Up farther on the = BLM road at approximately 5.5 miles from = the the
>intersection with Little Panoche = we saw a SHORT-EARED OWL engaging in a
>brief = flight with a HARRIER.
>
>Matthew = Dodder


First of all, Matthew, thanks = for confirming what I thought I saw -- a =
NORTHERN HARRIER harrying a SHORT-EARED = OWL. Our group was a bit
further along = the BLM road from where Matthew and Jesse = were. We
saw the raptor encounter from = a distance, and I thought that the obvious =
harrier was diving on an owl, but the = owl tucked its wings and dropped
from = sight. Calvin Lou reported a SEOW on the = BLM road on 2/4/99.

We did not see = any Northern-like Shrike in the area. We = did have a good
look at a LOGGERHEAD = hovering like a kestrel in this area. It = was the
first time I've seen this. So, = while I can't say that Matthew didn't see = a
NSHR, I did see a LOSH hovering. It = surprised me.

The last NSHR sighting = that I could find was on 1/24 by Tom Grey.

Les --====51494851515352555455===1-- ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 22 12:45:56 1999 Subject: [SBB] Panoche/BLM All: On Friday afternoon, Maria and I went to the Panoche Valley with Mitch Ninokata. We saw two PRAIRIE FALCONS along Panoche Road, and a third along Little Panoche Road shortly after the intersection. The LEWIS' WOODPECKER was on the large snag to the north at 19.0 on Panoche Road. On the BLM road, there were MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS about 1.5 miles in, a SAGE THRASHER at the gate further up (and another at about 5.0), and a CHUKAR (walking on the road itself, then standing perhaps 25 feet north of the road) at 5.7 miles from Little Panoche Road. John Meyer *********************************************************** John Meyer, Dept. of Soc., Stanford U., Stanford, CA 94305: (650)7231868 ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 22 13:06:36 1999 Subject: [SBB] Friday at CCRS Hi Everyone-- I spent some time at CCRS on Friday (2/19) looking at gulls. The palest medium-sized gulls I saw were Thayer's (some are very pale) until about noon, when a bird with very pale primaries landed on the close mud bar on the second pond (I felt bad for Jack Cole, who had to leave at 11:30). All the birds scattered at that point, and I had some trouble following it, but I did find a gull on the rearmost mud bar soon thereafter with long primary extension (covering the tail), virtually white outermost primaries, very pale tan on the other primaries, pale tan tertials with a distinct tan bar about 1/3 of the way down from the tip (you get the effect of stripes instead of marbling), pale gray head and chest, pink legs, and dark bill with some pink mixed in, but not two-toned like Herring. Tail was tan with paler edges and tip. The whole back end of the bird looked white at a distance. Size was close to Thayer's or a bit smaller. The bird went to sleep for at least twenty minutes, during which time Steve Miller and Jim Danzenbaker also got good views. We were of the opinion that that we were looking at an ICELAND GULL. I then went to the waterbird pond, and saw an adult ROSS' GOOSE and at least 10 TREE SWALLOWS. I stopped briefly on the way out around 1:30 and did not see the pale gull. Mark Miller ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 22 13:08:17 1999 Subject: [SBB] Birds at Almaden Lake Park On Saturday, Feb. 20, Jack Cole led our walk at Almaden Lake Park and part of Alamitos Creek Trail. Among the 37 species we spotted, we saw a few COMMON MOORHENS, COMMON MERGANSERS, and COMMON GOLDEN-EYES. We also saw several KILDEERS, and (1) RED-SHOULDERED HAWK along with a BELTED KINGFISHER and a few NORTHERN FLICKERS. Pat Curtis ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 22 16:23:02 1999 Subject: [SBB] Panoche Valley, 2/20 and 2/21/99 All, I led two groups through Panoche Valley this weekend. The weather was quite different on both days and may have been responsible for some of the differences that I saw in the presence of some species. Saturday was cold and overcast with no sun, but also no rain until after 5pm. Sunday was mostly sunny and cool, and NO rain! Highlights: - Two adult BALD EAGLEs at Paicines Res. (both flew very low over us at the store on Sunday!) - CASSIN'S KINGBIRD at the south end of the Pacines Res. on Sat. (We didn't look for it on Sun.) 2 CAKI on Sat. at the New Idria-Panoche Rd. junction, 1 on Sun. - Fledgling BARN OWL, 1/8th of a mi. from Paicines along Panoche Rd. - LEWIS' WOODPECKER at MP 19, on the large snag, next to the mobile home, etc. - 8 MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDs were in bright sunlight at the junction of New Idria and Panoche Rd. - SAGE THRASHER: at the summit of Shotgun Pass on both days. One also seen at mi. 5.1 along the BLM access rd. - SHORT-EARED OWL: previously reported by Matthew Dodder, mi. 5.5 along the BLM rd. A male(?) Northern Harrier continually dove on this bird while it was in flight. From our viewpoint, it appeared very short-tailed, blunt-headed. It often held its wings in a steep dihedral. It escaped the NOHA by folding its wings and dropping down, apparently to the ground. This is where we lost sight of it. Other notable sightings: - A CLARK'S and a WESTERN GREBE were at Paicines Res. on Sat. - COMMON MERGANSERs were the most numerous duck sp. at Paicines Res., followed by MALLARD, CANVASBACK, RING-NECKED DUCK, and REDHEAD - PHAINOPEPLA were easily found at a MP 13.86 - FERRUGINOUS HAWKs: about 6 seen on Sat., only 1 on Sun., in the main valley - MERLINs: 2 on Sat., 1 on Sun. in the main valley - VESPER SPARROWs were plentiful at the New Idria Rd. intersection with Panoche Rd. There were a few TRICOLORED BLACKBIRDS in a blackbird flock here. Not found: - Lark Bunting: Silver Creek Ranch has lots of tumbleweed piled up along the fence which may have concealed a lot of birds. - Greater Roadrunner: Other birders did see them along Panoche Rd. in the first 10 mi., or so. - Chukar: weren't able to stumble upon any in Shotgun Pass or along the BLM access rd. Les ========================================== Les Chibana, Palo Alto [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 22 16:32:42 1999 Subject: [SBB] Almaden Lake 2/19 I stopped by Almaden Lake Park late on Friday. The imm. SNOW GOOSE and ROSS'S GOOSE were there with the large CANADA GOOSE. At at about 4:45p they flew out with a few CAGO. They disappeared over the apartments/ condos on Coleman Rd. Les ========================================== Les Chibana, Palo Alto [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 22 16:43:14 1999 Subject: [SBB] notes on pale gulls Dear south-bay-birders, A number of people have tried to locate "the Iceland Gull" at CCRS over the past week or so and many have seemed unsure about whether they found "the bird" or not. On Friday 12 Feb, Mike Mammoser located another very pale bird that he refound on Saturday 20 Feb. I believe that I saw (and photographed) this same individual on 19 Feb. Nick Lethaby's "Iceland" Gull of 17 Feb may also have been this bird since it had a pink-based bill and was different from the bird he saw on 20 Feb. Al Jaramillo reports that he found three very pale birds besides the "Iceland Gull". Aside from perhaps raising the question of whether any of these will ever be truly different enough to be called an Iceland Gull, it is making it difficult to sort out which bird(s) people are actually seeing. In order to assist with this, I thought I would summarize what to look for on these first-year birds and note the characters of the bird that Steve and Al Jaramillo first called an Iceland Gull. For those who hate gulls you might want to push delete now. For those with web access I will point to some of my photos of two "intermediate" birds on Steve Hampton's web site http://www.west.net/~dj/inter1.htm that are instructive for calibrating what I mean by certain things in this description (figures 1 and 2 are of the same bird, different from figures 3 and 4, which are also of the same bird). Tomorrow I should have my new photos back and I will gladly send .jpg files of the "Iceland Gull" to those who are interested. As Matt Heindel stated in a recent calbird post, there are four important feather groups to study on a candidate Iceland Gull: the tertials, the primaries, the secondaries, and the tail. While many birds called Iceland Gulls back east may show some Thayer's-like traits in these feather groups, a bird out here that shows intermediate characteristics may perhaps never be reliably separated from a possible intergrade Thayer's/Iceland Gull. Considering these feather groups individually: 1) The tertials. On an Iceland Gull the base color of the tertials should be largely chalk white rather than pale tan. Dark markings should be limited in extent. On Thayer's Gulls the centers of the tertials are tan to brown with white limited to around the edges (although it can be extensive there), rather than across most of the feather. Some intermediate birds can have very white tertials (see the website), especially the uppermost tertials. However, as you can see in figure 3, the bases of the hidden tertials underneath may show pale tan bases more typical of Thayer's Gull. 2) The primaries. On an Iceland Gull the exposed primaries should be very white, although on Kumlien's Iceland Gull there may be some pale tan in these feathers - in other words they do not have to be entirely chalk white. On Thayer's Gull the tan/brown is more extensive and the white edgings on each feather are much less pronounced. On an Iceland Gull the darkest brown in the wing tip should be no darker than the rest of the upperwing surface. Darker feathers suggest possible introgression. Note that the darkest parts of the feathers may not be visible while the bird is standing and flight photos may be best to discern this. For instance, the bird in figures 1 and 2 showed a lot of white in the primary tips (obstructed in figure 1) and yet in flight a few primaries had pigment slightly darker than the rest of the upperparts (best seen in other photos not posted). 3) The secondaries. These feathers are concealed on a standing bird unless it is preening. Flight photos are again useful in assessing this field mark. On Thayer's Gulls the secondaries are darker than the adjacent greater secondary coverts, forming a "secondary bar". On Iceland Gull the secondaries should be no darker than the rest of the upperwing surface. On many of these pale gulls the greater secondary coverts (the big coverts along the lower edge of the wing below the tertials) are very white, which means even if the secondaries are quite pale they may still look darker than the adjacent coverts. In figure 2 this can be noted. While this happens in many Iceland Gulls back east, it will probably bring some uncertainty in identifying birds out here. 4) The tail. Thayer's gulls typically have a dark "tail band", which means that most of the exposed tail is uniform brown (or, in pale Thayer's, tan). However, close inspection shows that Thayer's has pale edging with some mottling around the entire tail. Also, if the uppertail coverts are pulled back there may be some marbling at the bases of the feathers (usually not exposed in most situations). On pale Thayer's the white edge-marbling and paling at the tail tip becomes more pronounced (see figure 2), but the basic pattern is still like a pale Thayer's. Unequivocal Iceland Gulls show tail patterns more like their tertial patterns, that is feathers with significant portions of chalk white coloration marbled with pale brown or tan throughout the middle of the tail (see for instance photos in the most recent _Birders Journal_ of a bird in the Yukon). The bill is typically smaller and the head shape more rounded in Iceland Gull than in Thayer's Gull but, as in all gulls, there is much difference between the sexes of birds of the same species. The head and bill of the bird in figure 1 are somewhat large and may be too big for most Icelands. The bird in figure 3, on the other hand, is likely a small female pale Thayer's (or intergrade) and its head and bill shape are fine for Iceland Gull. Some (female?) Iceland gulls have truly petite bills, but we haven't been lucky enough to get many like that out here. Bill color may also be suggestive, with Iceland Gulls usually showing more pink at the base than Thayer's Gulls at the same time of year. However, soft part coloration is variable and many Thayer's Gulls have varying amounts of pink in the bill base. An example can be seen in figure 7 of: http://www.west.net/~dj/thay1.htm and I photgraphed another bird with even more pink at Almaden Lake recently. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Now to the bird at hand. All four of the possible Kumlien's Gulls noted by Al Jaramillo have "marbled tertials". Whether they show white bases on all the tertials or just the upper ones (like figure 3) Al didn't say. The two birds I have seen (presumably also seen by Nick Lethaby and Mike Mammoser) have had very white tertials. The two birds I have seen have also had large amounts of white in the primaries, although the "Iceland" Gull has even more white, such that it is not easy to see the faint tan stripes on the individual feathers. Where these tan areas pile up below the tertials the tan is more visible, but out at the tip it is not easy to see from most angles. Bird 2 shows more pale coffee color in the primaries such that it is easily noted, despite extensive white edges. I have not seen the secondaries of bird 2, but given the more extensive pigment in the primaries it probably has more than the "Iceland" Gull. The "Iceland Gull" has very pale secondaries that usually appear about the same color as the very pale greater secondary coverts. At close range on 19 Feb I could see buff in these feathers, but from many angles they appear fairly white. The most distinctive aspects of this "Iceland" Gull compared to the imtermediate birds that I have seen (including those shown on the web site) is the tail. Whereas other birds have shown very pale Thayer's-like patterns (which is shown by some Kumlien's back east), this bird shows much more extensive chalk white in the tail, with the outer two thirds appearing almost solid white at a distance, there being just a few dark markings subterminally. Although a pale bill base is good for Iceland Gulls, this bird appears essentially dark-billed except at very close range in very good light. At close range there is a hint of pink undertone to the base of the bill and small areas near the base of both mandibles that actually are predominantly pink. A bird with fairly obvious pink hues over much of the bill base is more likely bird 2. When reporting these birds please especially note the bill and tail. Since the tertials of many birds are marbled, the secondaries are usually concealed, and the extent of white in the primaries is somewhat subjectively described, these first two marks become fairly critical for ensuring that we are tracking the same bird. Good luck, Mike Rogers ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 22 19:09:39 1999 Subject: Re: [SBB] PANOCHE trip Matthew Dodder wrote: > > Continuing up the hill on the BLM at about 5.0 miles parked and walked > 100 yards up a dirt road on our left. There we saw a shrike which > appeared to have a longer bill (with an obvious hook) and a narrower > mask than usual. The top of the dark eye seemed to rise slightly above > the top edge of the black mask. I cannot say with certainty that there > was white on the forehead above the bill. The bird appeared paler than > the other loggerheads we'd been seeing all day, and had a slight > "warmth" to its gray. My first thought was that it could be NORTHERN > SHRIKE. It was sitting about 50 yards away on the top of large bush and > even though the light was not perfect, its apparent larger size, and > then its flight, gave us pause. It flew with a more relaxed, undulating > flight, a bit like a woodpecker, and three times we saw it rise high and > kite for several seconds like a kestrel. In all my encounters with > loggerheads, I have never seen one kite like this, and their direct > flight has always been lower, with faster wingbeats and not so obviously > undulate. > > I know Northern Shrike has been seen on BLM in the past, but wasn't able > to determine if it has been seen there recently. Has one been seen in > this area in the past few weeks? > This sounds like the bird that Hugh Cotter, I and the m.ob. saw when I was looking for the NSHR earlier this winter. After much observation, we came to the conclusion that this was a LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE with a mask that was closer to NSHR than to LOSH. The NSHR which had been reported in the BLM area was an immature. I have been fortunate enough to just return from the Seattle area where I had good looks an immature NSHR and there was little possibility of confusion between the two species. However, I have no field experience with adult NSHRs. Regards, Mark -- Mark Eaton 1524 36th Avenue [[email protected]] San Francisco, CA, 94122-3123 Visit my web page at Visit the Golden Gate Audubon web page at http://www.best.com/~eaton http://goldengate.ca.audubon.org "Time is the purest and cheapest form of doom." - Jack Kerouac, "Visions of Cody" ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Mon Feb 22 20:23:29 1999 Subject: [SBB] Say's Phoebe Sunday, 2/21/99, my wife and I were participating in the Backyard Bird Count in Century Oaks Park at the South end of Snell Ave. in San Jose about 3:45 PM. We saw the usual Oak Timouse, Bushtits, Spotted Towhee, CA Towhee and Black Phoebe. Then we were delighted by the appearance of a Say's Phoebe, the first time I have observed it in this location during the past three years. Karl Fowler ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Tue Feb 23 07:55:56 1999 Subject: [SBB] Purple Finch and Chickens My White-throated sparrow appeared yesterday, so I was 3 of 4 for the Backyard Bird count. One of the 11 Band-tailed Pigeons has a beak that looks more like a gull than a pigeon, otherwise it appears to be normal. For an hour yesterday I had a hen and a rooster in my yard! Hadn't had a chicken since last summer. There must be a neighbor somewhere who owns them--haven't a clue who or where. And a Sharpie flew through to give my little birdies a scare. now to show my willingness to learn (that's the positive spin from admitting not knowing!) Purple Finch I have counted having a Purple Finch in my yard - but I thought I'd verify that it truly is one. I may have a female one(s) too, but I haven't looked to see if that is true. The one I would like to discuss is male and is in my yard a lot. I don't normally use my binocs in my yard, but with it being the count I decided to see what all I could see. In the past, I have used the raspberry color and the distribution of the raspberry color as my primary basis for saying I had a male Purple Finch. I would assume that color would be what you all use too as your first ID. Then, what would be next? Using the Peterson's guide I decided it should be the face pattern. Their guide shows a dark stripe from the beak to just above the upper wing which I guess would be called the mustache. The third characteristic would be the amount of streaking on the breast. When I first started birding 4 years ago I'd read that the tail could be indicative. The House finch having a straighter end, like the middle of the "H" and the Purple having a notched tail. I gave up on this indicator when it seemed from my eyes that various House finches had different amounts of notching in the tail. "My" Purple Finch had the mustache - but does one really need to go past the raspberry color and the distribution of the raspberry color to feel sure it is a male Purple Finch? Gloria LeBlanc Los Gatos off Quito Your PFO (Personal Financial Officer) http://www.lgsia.com http://www.wallstreetgifts.com ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Tue Feb 23 08:24:43 1999 Subject: [SBB] Albino Herring Gull at CCRS All, Yesterday afternoon, 2/22, Frank Vanslager, Jack Cole and I were at CCRS and later at Tainan Restaurant in an unsuccessful attempt to see/photograph the Iceland Gull. We did however see a fairly large, unusually light colored gull in the pond alongside the CCRS trailers. It had a fairly heavy, but not to long, all black bill. The bird was the size of a nearby Herring Gull and obviously larger than adjacent Thayer's Gulls. It had dark pink legs and had a dark eye. The overall color was a very light grayish-white (including the primaries and the tail, upper and lower). The most unusual thing about the bird was that the body, wings and tail were unmarked with no spots, bars or other contrasting marks. Figure 214a, plate 62 in Harrison's Seabirds of a 1st winter albino Herring Gull is a very close approximation of the bird we saw except that the bill did not show pink highlights. A very interesting bird to see when your looking for an Iceland Gull. I might also add that the ponds alongside the entrance road to CCRS have been ideal of late for gull watching with 6-7 species in close approximation to each other allowing for quick comparison of identifying characteristics. (It's possible to see two to three more species nearby), An isolated 1st winter albino Herring Gull could be a very hard ID for most of us. Frank and I then went to Arzino Ranch were we had ten Common Snipe near the fence between the ranch and the Jubilee Christian Center. We also had an adult Golden Eagle on one of the power towers alongside the road into the Environmental Education Center. Finally we had an alternate plumage adult male Eurasian Wigeon in the pond in the northwestern corner of Arzino Ranch near the intersection of Grand Blvd and Spreckel Ave. This bird was unusual, to me, in that it had the green structural mark normally only seen on the head of the American Wigeon under certain lighting conditions. I have never seen a mark of such magnitude on an adult male EUWI before. I believe that EUWI normally have this marking but that it is usually smaller and not so obvious. All of the other markings appeared normal for an alternate plumage adult male (reddish head, golden forehead, pinkish-gray chest, grayish back and sides, white and black ventral region, white speculum [I did not note the green patch], blue- gray bill with a black nail). I suspect that this bird is a pure EUWI as it showed no other AMWI characteristics. Comments? Take care, Bob Reiling, 8:25 AM, 2/23/99 ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Tue Feb 23 14:20:02 1999 Subject: [SBB] CCRS Gulls Today, at the first pond at CCRS, I saw a 1W molting to 1S Franklin's Gull and the same Iceland Gull as on Saturday. 2 1W Glaucous Gulls were on the dump. ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Tue Feb 23 14:51:43 1999 Subject: [SBB] Stanford W-T Sparrow I was at the Stanford Arboretum from 1:00PM to 1:30PM. Took me a while to figure out where the "Dick Stovel spot" was. Once I found the spot, the WHITE-THROATED SPARROW did show up. The spot is a big, dense, clump of bushes right next to the broad paved path south-west of the Mausoleum. Its across from the Cactus Garden. This is the path that leads from the parking lot off Quarry road. The bird appeared at the edge of the clump and was foraging on a sunny patch of ground. In the same clump there also were GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWs, a FOX SPARROW, and a CALIFORNIA THRASHER. Vivek Tiwari [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 24 04:16:22 1999 Subject: [SBB] [Fwd: {EBB} Rails at Alviso on Sunday, posted for Bill Scoggins] Return-Path: [[email protected]] Received: from mail-gw5.pacbell.net (mail-gw5.pacbell.net [206.13.28.23]) by mail-sf1.pacbell.net (8.8.8/8.7.1) with ESMTP id VAA12054; Tue, 23 Feb 1999 21:06:16 -0800 (PST) Received: from lists1.best.com ([[email protected]] [206.86.8.15]) by mail-gw5.pacbell.net (8.8.8/8.7.1+antispam) with ESMTP id VAA27781; Tue, 23 Feb 1999 21:06:04 -0800 (PST) Received: (from daemon@localhost) by lists1.best.com (8.9.3/8.9.2/best.ls) id UAA11528; Tue, 23 Feb 1999 20:58:16 -0800 (PST) Message-Id: <[[email protected]]> From: Larry Tunstall <[[email protected]]> Subject: {EBB} Rails at Alviso on Sunday, posted for Bill Scoggins Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 20:54:43 -0800 BestServHost: lists.best.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: [[email protected]] Errors-To: [[email protected]] To: [[email protected]] Hi Larry, My computer had a very bad crash and I lost my address book. Would you please post this for me to save time? Thanks. Happy Birding, Bill Scoggins ================= 21 Feb. 1999, Sunday, 9AM-Noon. Hello East Bay Birders, Two clapper rails highlighted a walk from the Environmental Education Center to the floating platform at Don Edwards SF Bay NWR at Alviso. I joined the NWR birdwalk with 4 other birders. From the platform we saw five rails including a Virginia and two sora. One clapper rail was identified by Peg, trip leader and naturalist for the NWR, by its very noticeable limp. We watched the other clapper forage in the open within 15 feet of us; this siting lasted for 12 minutes, then ended as the clapper took flight across the creek. During the flight a Virginia rail came down to the water to take a bath. It was a magical morning as common yellowthroat males and females interrupted our rail viewing. As if this wasn't enough, a snowy egret caught a large fish (about 6-7 inches long) and flew near us; for about 15 minutes, try as it might, the egret could not get the fish down his throat. A western gull arrived to "help" just as the egret tired and dropped the fish. The gull made quick work of the fish. The egret rested for a few minutes, cleaned up, and went back to the water to catch a small fish and eat it. Here is the list for the morning. Two pied-billed grebe, 19 eared grebe, 9 ruddy duck, 38 Canada goose, 35 Am. wigeon, 2 pair gadwall, 23 mallard, 65 N. shoveler, 2 female common goldeneye, 1 snowy egret, 17 Black-crowned night heron, 3 turkey vulture, 1 white tailed kite, 1 Cooper's hawk, 2 red-tailed hawk, 1 ring-necked pheasant, 30 Am. coot, 2 long-billed curlew, 3 willet, 6 long-billed dowitcher (ID by voice), 28 Am. Avocet, 1 Anna's hummingbird, 1 belted kingfisher, 1 black phoebe, 1 hermit thrush, 5 marsh wren, 9 bushtit, 5 ruby-crowned kinglet, 3 house sparrow, 5 house finch, 2 yellow-rumped warbler, 5 common yellowthroat, 16 white-crowned sparrow, 28 golden-crowned sparrow, 1 California towhee, 6 red-winged blackbird, 4 western meadowlark, and 2 Brewer's blackbird. Happy birding, Bill Scoggins [[email protected]] What's going on at Coyote Hills?http://members.aol.com/coyotehrp/ ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 24 08:16:30 1999 Subject: [SBB] Morning Commute Folks: On my commute this morning, 2/24/1999, the seven BLACK SKIMMERS remain at Charleston Slough and the female RED-BREASTED MERGANSER remains on Shoreline Lake. A COMMON YELLOWTHROAT singing in the Mountain View Forebay is a harbinger of spring, but the grayish ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER along Adobe Creek showed extensive staining about the bill and has probably wintered in the eucalyptus there. Along Stevens Creek above Crittenden I saw a female integrade NORTHERN FLICKER. She had a bright, lemon yellow on her undertail feathers and a gray crown, but no red nape patch. The throat was gray as in RSFL and this blended with the YSFL gray crown to offset a brown mask around the eyes which was the crown and face color of RSFL. Bill ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 24 13:28:14 1999 Subject: Re: [SBB] Iceland Gull On Fri, 19 Feb 1999 15:54:23 -0800 (PST), "Dr. Michael M. Rogers" <[[email protected]]> wrote: >Here I got excellent looks in great >light and frame-filling photos with the 500mm lens. Mike's excellent photos and some additional comments on the Iceland Gull in Milpitas are now online at my photo gallery of recent California rarities here: http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~jmorlan/gallery.htm Also with respect to gulls in the south bay, I received the following from Dick Newell of Great Britain who spent some time photographing gulls in Santa Clara County: >I am now back in Cambridge - many thanks for your suggestions. Palo Alto >duck pond was good with 3 or 4 1st winter Thayers and usually 1 or 2 Mew >Gulls. Alviso was well stocked with about 50 Mew Gulls and about 5 adult and >1 1st winter Thayer's Gull. At Alviso, I spotted a dump across the bay (on >Dixon Landing Road off 880) so headed there rather than trying the sewer >ponds. There were a few adult Thayer's Gulls and 1 or 2 1st winters and a >1st or 2nd winter Glaucous Gull (very bleached white but not a single grey >feather in the mantle/scaps). Maybe the Californian sun bleaches your first >winters more than ours. There was also an adult Western Gull with legs more >yellow than pink (I think it was a Western Gull). >Mew Gulls are stunningly different from Common Gulls - both Adults and 1st >winter. Has to be a good contender for a split. >I must say, I found separating 1st winter Glaucous-winged, Herring and >Thayer's a lot trickier than I had expected. Good examples of each were OK, >but a worrying number of birds I just had to say "I don't know". There was >also a bird with a pretty good cachinnans head (but it wasn't). There were >adult gulls showing much of the wing pattern above and below of Thayer's - >but structurally they were Herring Gulls - and they were not >Glaucous-winged. >I guess it takes more than 1 day to get tuned in to a new gull-set. >I was surprised that there were no Ring-billed Gulls on the dump - perhaps >that's why I have never seen one on my dump here in Cambridge. >I was surprised to find 2 Macgillivray's (can't spell) Warblers at the duck >pond as well. -- Joseph Morlan, Pacifica, CA 94044: [[email protected]] California Birding; Mystery Birds: http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~jmorlan/ California Bird Records Committee: http://www.wfo-cbrc.org/cbrc/ ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 24 15:59:20 1999 Subject: [SBB] gull crazy At the local Patagonia gull rest stop aka CCRS today, Wednesday, between 11:30 and 1 PM, notibly absent were any gull experts including yours truly, and anything resembling the excellent Mike Rogers photos of the Iceland gull (which in my humble opinion is the bird that Bob Reiling, Frank Vanslager and I saw on Monday). What was present was a small very pale gull, the size of the many mew gulls present, with a similar bill shape, except that this bird was uniformally light colored, about the color of an adult glaucous-winged gull, (no black-tipped primaries) and the bill was mostly dark. Unlike the other mew gulls present, and most other gulls, this bird spent 95% of it's time sleeping, with an occassional stretch and brief preening. As noted above, I have no idea what it was, but I am open to suggestions. There was a single cattle egret behind the Jubilee Christian Center and the eurasion wigeon hybrid was still at Spreckles and Grand in Alviso. Jack Cole ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Wed Feb 24 19:24:10 1999 Subject: [SBB] Cooperative Lesser Black-Backed Gull I went to Lake Cunningham on my lunch hour today to scout the area in hopes of coming back this weekend for a longer period to look for the Lesser Black-Backed Gull. I spent about 15 minutes near the marina and then went to the far side of the lake, where there seemed to be more gulls closer to shore. After walking along the edge of the lake near the larger island and seeing lots of "normal" looking gulls, I happened to look out in the middle of the lake and see several gulls fighting over what appeared to be an apple core. One of the gulls looked to be a little larger and much darker than the others. Luckily for me, this gull flew back to the side of the lake and perched on the bird house on the small island. It was the LBBGU! I got great looks at it for nearly 20 minutes before I had to go back to work. The only feature that wasn't clear in the light was the yellow tip on the end of the bill. Getting a lifer on your lunch hour always makes the afternoon brighter! I was expecting to have to work much harder for this one. Hugh McDevitt ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Thu Feb 25 09:38:45 1999 Subject: [SBB] Bluebirds I'm a member of the Los Gatos Lions and yesterday at our weekly meeting one of the members was beside himself with excitement. He lives near Blossom Hill Road and Union. He was drinking a cup of coffee yesterday morning and noticed a bird looking into a bird house he has. (Gary's an architect) He said it was a gorgeous blue, larger than a sparrow and smaller than a robin. He then noticed another bird with a blue tail sitting nearby. He said he knew they were bluebirds even though he hadn't seen a bluebird in 40 years, when he was a kid. He has 2 birdhouses. The male then flew over to check out his second bird house at which point the female checked out the first bird house. He said they didn't enter the houses (and I suggested he measure the entrance hole to see if it was the right size). He is a non-birder, but enjoys birds and he was sooooo excited. My contact at Santa Clara Valley Water has her eyes out for bluebirds on their property on More Street in Los Gatos, but nothing yet. The head huncho swears they've had them in years past. PS my White-throated Sparrow is here as I type this. gloria leblanc los gatos off quito Your PFO (Personal Financial Officer) http://www.lgsia.com http://www.wallstreetgifts.com ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Thu Feb 25 09:59:55 1999 Subject: [SBB] P.A. Baylands Three good sightings this a.m. at Palo Alto Baylands/Charleston Slough between 7:30 - 8:30 a.m. A Common Yellowthroat in the weeds near the porta-potties at the entrance. 5 Western Meadowlarks singing and showing their beautiful yellow colors in a clump of pampas grass near the entrance. The 7 Black Skimmers on their usual island in the first pond. Ain't birding fun! Nancy Teater -- Nancy R. Teater Hamilton Communications phone: +1 650 321 0252 [[email protected]] http://web.hamilton.com fax: +1 650 327 4660 ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Thu Feb 25 12:30:18 1999 Subject: [SBB] Iceland Gull All: Based on a re-review of Mike's photos and Steve's input, I feel I have probably not seen two different Iceland Gulls. I only saw the bird on the 17 flap its wings briefly and so couldn't be sure exactly of the wing pattern, although it was clearly much paler than Thayer's. Later discussion with Mike and Steve led me to believe that this bird had no dark bar on the secondaries. When I saw the bird on the 20th had a faint secondary bar, combined with my perception that the greater-coverts were slightly differently marked, I decided it must be a separate bird. However, Mike's photos clearly show bird1 has a faint secondary bar. I suspect my recollection of the greater-coverts was exaggerated and that I saw the same bird. Certainly, the tail pattern was very similar. Nick ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Thu Feb 25 12:58:16 1999 Subject: [SBB] Santa Clara VATH, GCKI I did some lunch time birding at the open space area in Santa Clara along the Guadalupe River at Tasman and Lick Mill Blvd. A chorus of frogs greeted me at the north pond. Sightings included: Varied Thrush Hermit Thrush Golden-Crowned Kinglets (at least 3) Orange-Crowned Warbler Townsend's Warbler Common Yellowthroat Fox Sparrow (3) Red-Shouldered Hawk White-Tailed Kite Jan Hintermeister Santa Clara [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Thu Feb 25 14:50:55 1999 Subject: [SBB] swallows At least 2, maybe 3, NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWS were along Coyote Creek south of Hellyer today, 25 Feb 99. Mike Mammoser ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Thu Feb 25 18:50:32 1999 Subject: [SBB] Some Thursday birds and a couple of Tuesday birds Howdy South-bay-birders, Today the ROSS'S GOOSE and imm. SNOW GOOSE were at Almaden Lake Park. There was a COMMON YELLOWTHROAT in marsh vegetation bordering the lake. I didn't see the Red-necked Grebe, and I think it's probably gone. From the boat launch at Calero Reservoir I saw at least 5 COMMON LOONS, 22 COMMON MERGANSERS, an OSPREY, a FORSTER'S TERN, and a leucistic EARED GREBE (white on the back). At the Parkway Lakes near Monterey Highway there were lots of VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS and at least 1 NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW. Visiting the Santa Clara Valley Audubon office on Feb. 23 I saw several PINE SISKINS at the feeders, and a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK along McClellan Ave. John Mariani [[email protected]] ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Fri Feb 26 18:04:34 1999 Subject: [SBB] Panoche Friday, Feb. 26 The CDF fire station had at least one Red-breasted Nuthatch. Just beyond, at milepost 19, there was a Lewis's Woodpecker and a Phainopepla. In the valley I had two Ferruginous Hawk sightings (could have been the same bird). Panoche Road just past the New Idria junction had two Cassin's Kingbirds and at least one Vesper Sparrow. Saw at least three Barn Owls at Mercey Hot Springs, but missed the Long-eared Owl. On the BLM road at 1.5 miles there were several Mountain Bluebirds and two curves farther up there were two Sage Thrashers. Five miles up the BLM road there was at least one other Sage Thrasher. Did not see either Northern Shrike or Chukar, but might not have gone quite far enough. --------------------------------------------------------- Peter LaTourrette Bird photos: http://www.stanford.edu/~petelat1/ Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society: http://www.scvas.org/ Western Field Ornithologists: http://www.wfo-cbrc.org/ Peninsula Open Space Trust: http://www.openspacetrust.org/ ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Fri Feb 26 19:57:21 1999 Subject: [SBB] Violet-green Swallows at Mtn. View Forebay This morning at 8:50 AM two Violet-green Swallows flew over the MVFB. On Tuesday Feb. 23rd, a Green-backed Heron flew into the forebay from the little channel near the south end. Phyllis ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Fri Feb 26 20:38:54 1999 Subject: [SBB] Barn owls at Stanford Wed, 17 Feb 1999 19:58:28 -0800, Cagan H. Sekercioglu wrote: >I have seen a pair of BARN OWLS fly into a palm tree near the Oval and it >seemed like they were nesting in there since one flew in and disappeared >and the other disappeared into the palm after staring at me for a minute or >so. This happened around 2:30AM. I have also seen one fly over the Rains >dorms at night. > >At 06:59 PM 2/17/99 -0800, Tom Grey wrote: >>One of my students told me that a large white bird making unearthly >>screechings had been seen regularly evenings around the Law School, so I >>just went down to look and indeed a BARN OWL was perched right on the Law >>School building at about 6:30 pm; it was not screeching, but rather giving >>out a series of very loud staccato clicks with a hiss in the background, a >>sound that I hadn't heard before. Tonight at about 8:00 pm I spotted a BARN OWL perched on the edge of the Law School building at Stanford overlooking the little plaza with the statue (behind the bookstore). Another one then glided in and landed higher on the building. The first one then dropped down out of sight into a gutter, or some other opening not visible from the ground, and began to emit a nonstop series of high-pitched chips. The second barn owl flew off after a minute with a screech. The hidden one was still chipping a good ten minutes later, when I left, though it appeared to be tiring, becoming more irregular and lower in volume. A nesting site, perhaps? William Cabot Stanford University, [[email protected]] (650) 723-8520 fax: (650) 723-9617 NASA/Ames Research Center, [[email protected]] (650) 604-4728 fax: (650) 604-0841 ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sat Feb 27 08:27:54 1999 Subject: [SBB] Barn owls at Stanford, cont'd To follow up on my previous post, last night (2/26/99) round 9 pm, I walked past the Law School again. There were no barn owls to be seen on the building, but one BARN OWL then glided in low over the building, making loud "staccato clicks" (as Tom Grey described it previously); it then made wide, ascending circles around the area, all the time loudly clicking. (It was such a spectacle that many casual passers-by were looking up in curiosity; one woman commented to me, as I peered upward, "I think it's lost!"). To respond to Chris, who wrote: >Sounds like the chirping was from a young in a nest. Just last night we >were listening to the young in the nest box outside SFBBO HQ in Alviso. >Parents were bringing food back to the young. Adult probably left after >feeding and you didn't see it. > >The young are already pretty decent in size from the loudness of their >vocalizations. In the previous sighting I did see the owl on the ledge drop down into its hiding place. However, it's possible, as Chris suggested, that I missed it leaving. Also, the loud clicking noise made by the adult in the second sighting was similar, but not identical, to the sound coming from the hiding place in the first sighting, which sounded more like chipping or chirping; however, the acoustics were different in each case... So it's possible that there are young ones there, but it may take more observations to tell for sure. -- Bill -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- | William Cabot, Research Associate, Center for Turbulence Research | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | NASA/Ames Research Center | Stanford University | | [Mon, Wed] | [Tues, Thur, Fri] | | phone: (650) 604-4728 | phone: (650) 723-8520 | | FAX: (650) 604-0841 | FAX: (650) 723-9617 | | email: [[email protected]] | e-mail: [[email protected]] | --------------------------------------------------------------------- ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sat Feb 27 10:26:27 1999 Subject: [SBB] Sandhill Cranes, Snow Geese Hi South Bay Birders, Couple of weeks late, but still applicable, I think. Thanks to Les Chibana for answering my question about Aleutian Canada Goose locations. Monday February 15, after visiting relatives near Porterville (about an hour south of Fresno), Sharon and I stopped in at the Merced NWR, hoping to see an Aleutian Canada Goose. We weren't able to, but had an otherwise useful trip. We finally got our lifer DUNLIN about 1/4 of the way into the Driving Loop. And when we first arrived, I shot about three video minutes of perhaps a thousand (500? 2000?) SANDHILL CRANES flying in circles high above and calling. It looked like a migration practice. Then about halfway around the loop, I got an equally fantastic video shot of all the SNOW GEESE in the air at one time. They were in perhaps six or seven clusters, each cluster moving together in its own direction - some rising, some dropping, some swirling left, some right, all within the biggest cluster. Like several small snowstorms visible within one huge snowstorm. Nice. Good Birding, Bob & Sharon Lutman ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sun Feb 28 06:54:06 1999 Subject: [SBB] Merlin, Winter Wren: Coyote Hills Reg. Park Sat. 27 Feb. 1999 Hello Coyote Hills bird watchers, This morning I joined 45 friends and neighbors to plant oaks and other tre= es at Coyote Hills Regional Park. While planting near the intersection of Nik= e and Bay View trails I heard 3 common yellowthroat warblers singing off and= on for a couple of hours. >From 1PM to 5PM I searched the area from Lizard Rock to the visitor's cent= er and up to Hoot Hollow and found the birds listed below. Pied-billed Grebe 3 Eared Grebe 3 Canada Goose 9 American Wigeon 2 Gadwall 8 Mallard 32 Cinnamon Teal 1 Northern Shoveler 38 Common Goldeneye, one with the buffleheads + 2 others, all female. Bufflehead, 2 males, 32 females. It's wonderful to watch 30 in flight. Ruddy Duck 49 Great Egret 2 Turkey Vulture 3 White-tailed Kite 3 Northern Harrier, pair handing off mouse in midair near entrance kiosk! Cooper's Hawk Red-tailed Hawk, pair + one immature. American Kestrel female Merlin, this female has been here all winter, check both parking lots. Ring-necked Pheasant 4 California Quail 1 female at visitor center American Coot 17=09 Mourning Dove 5 Great Horned Owl pair was hooting a duet back and forth at 4:40PM. The ma= le was located in the Acacia trees next to the tall conifer where they nested last year at Hoot Hollow. Check the tallest conifer on the Glider trail a= t the edge of Hoot Hollow for the nest. Last year, after their nest tree fe= ll down during El Nino, the owls took this nest from red-tailed hawks. The h= awks had used the nest for the previous 3 years. The nest was empty when I che= cked it several times today; so I don't know who is claiming it this year. Anna=92s Hummingbird 2 Allen=92s Hummingbird 1 Nuttall's Woodpecker 1 by voice Black Phoebe 1 Scrub Jay 4=09 Common Raven 4 Bushtit 7 Marsh Wren 9=09 Bewick=92s Wren 1 seen, two by voice Winter Wren 1 at Hoot Hollow has been seen here since Christmas Bird Count Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2/2 by voice Hermit Thrush 1 American Robin 34, many at Hoot Hollow Northern Mockingbird 2 California Thrasher 1 singing at visitor center European Starling 8 House Finch 9 Common Yellowthroat Warbler 3 by voice Yellow-rumped Warbler 45+ California Towhee 5 Fox Sparrow 1 Song Sparrow 2 Golden-crowned Sparrow 65+ White-crowned Sparrow 6 Dark-eyed Junco 14 Spotted Towhee 3 California Towhee 5 Red-winged Blackbird 2 males singing in the marsh. Western Meadowlark 15 Happy bird watching, Bill N. Scoggins Castro Valley, CA [[email protected]] Please report your bird sitings to me so I can post them on the Coyote Hil= ls web site. Thanks. What's going on a= t Coyote Hills? http://members.aol.com/coyotehrp ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sun Feb 28 10:31:44 1999 Subject: [SBB] Owls All, On a SFBBO "owl prowl" at Monte Bello OSP our class had a vocal, but very uncooperative NSWO near the "meadow' and a very cooperative WESO at the first sag pond. A possible LEOW was seen flying over the meadows near the parking area. Overall it was very quiet. Regards, Screech. -- Paul L. Noble [[email protected]] ^ ^ @ @ ( v ) ( ) / \ m m ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sun Feb 28 11:06:39 1999 Subject: [SBB] RSHA, "Yellow-shafted" Flicker at Stevens Creek On my morning jog around 7:30 am along Stevens Creek Trail, I saw a FLICKER WITH YELLOW SHAFTS near L'Avenida Ave.; I didn't get a look at its head pattern to see if it was intergrade or pure. Just north of Moffett Blvd, two RED-SHOULDERED HAWKS were copulating atop an electric tower -- maybe there's a nest site nearby? The pair of RED-TAILED HAWKS that have nested successfully the last several years on the big wind-tunnel at NASA/Ames have also been "busy" (in the above sense) and have reoccupied their old nest site recently. William Cabot Stanford University, [[email protected]] (650) 723-8520 fax: (650) 723-9617 NASA/Ames Research Center, [[email protected]] (650) 604-4728 fax: (650) 604-0841 ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sun Feb 28 11:24:12 1999 Subject: [SBB] RFI - Crittenden Marsh Directions Apologies to you folks, but I can't seem to remember how to get to Crittenden Marsh. Please respond to me privately as I dare say most folks on this list know this information. Thanks, Mark -- Mark Eaton 1524 36th Avenue [[email protected]] San Francisco, CA, 94122-3123 Visit my web page at Visit the Golden Gate Audubon web page at http://www.best.com/~eaton http://goldengate.ca.audubon.org "Time is the purest and cheapest form of doom." - Jack Kerouac, "Visions of Cody" ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sun Feb 28 15:03:23 1999 Subject: [SBB] Eur. Wigeon Saturday, I checked the Sunnyvale Sewage Ponds hoping to check on the progress of the Tufted Duck and see it it had developed a better tuft. No luck with that but I did see 3 male Eurasian Wigeon and a male hybrid Eurasian x American Wigeon. No good gulls at CCRS. ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]] From [[email protected]] Sun Feb 28 15:38:02 1999 Subject: [SBB] Iceland-type Gulls in Alviso All: On Friday, I saw the apparent ICELAND GULL (the same one that I had seen there twice before) from about 11:50 until 12:20 or so. The bird was initially in the WPCP pond closest to the CCRS trailers. It was flushed twice by a Red-tailed Hawk passing overhead, flying around the pond for several minutes before finally landing in the next pond to the south. Al Jaramillo also reported having seen the bird on Friday. Later Friday afternoon, I returned with Scott Terrill. While Al J. and I were looking through the gulls in the pond, Al spotted a very pale gull at the far end of the pond nearest the trailers. This bird, obviously not "the" Iceland Gull (hereafter "Bird #1"), was somewhat larger, being about the size of a large Thayer's and as large as some of the Herring Gulls present. It was actually whiter overall then Bird #1 (which was no longer present), having less extensive and paler brownish coloration in the primaries, having virtually pure white tertials except for two pale subterminal markings, and having greater upper-secondary coverts that appeared, from a distance, to be pure white. At close range, we could see very faint, but quite extensive, darker checkering in these feathers. The rest of the coverts were quite whitish as well, and the tail appeared very similar to that of Bird #1. We were reluctant to call this bird an Iceland Gull because of its size, but everything else fits Iceland Gull quite well. I then spotted another first-winter gull that matched Bird #1 in many respects, having primaries that were virtually identical or possibly even paler than on Bird #1, tertials with pure white bases and a few dark subterminal markings (a bit more dark marking than on bird #1, but no solid dark areas), and very pale secondaries (as seen briefly on the spread wing). This bird was much whiter on the head and underparts than Bird #1 but had more dark markings on the upperwing coverts. I did not see this bird's tail before it flew off. Seeing these two birds, in addition to Bird #1, was quite perplexing. The second bird was larger than one would expect an Iceland Gull to be, although I'm not sure how I would reconcile its plumage with any other species unless the bird was leucistic. The paleness of this bird's plumage was far outside the range of Thayer's Gull. The third bird was very similar to Bird #1 (although I did not see its tail), and like that bird, I also think that its characters are well outside what I would consider even for a pale Thayer's. Another very pale bird, possibly an intergrade, was also present, and I got video of another such bird yesterday (Saturday). Added to these were the myriad plumages of first-winter Thayer's Gulls present, some of which were very faded (and usually obviously worn) and some of which appeared extremely pale to begin with. At one point, 108 of the 155 gulls in the pond we were looking at were first-winter Thayer's Gulls! At this point, I don't really know what to think of the identity of these pale birds, but observers should be aware of the presence of multiple Iceland-type Gulls in the Alviso area and take detailed notes (and photos if possible) on any that are seen. Also on Friday, the CHESTNUT-COLLARED LONGSPUR was still in northeast San Jose, and the imm. ROSS'S GOOSE was at Arzino Ranch. On Saturday, I checked the WPCP ponds from CCRS, finding one very pale Thayer's-type gull that may have been in the intergrade range, but I saw no birds that I thought showed the characters of Iceland Gulls. Steve Rottenborn ========================================================================== This message was posted through the Stanford campus mailing list server. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message body of "unsubscribe south-bay-birds" to [[email protected]]