We've had Rufous hummers at our feeders here at Tahoe since July 5.  All
adult males so far.
Also Anna's and Calliope, all at 6800 ft.

Richard C. Carlson
Full Time Birder, Biker & Rotary Bureaucrat
Part-time Economist
Palo Alto & Lake Tahoe, CA
rccarl@...
650-949-9590

I saw a male Rufous in Big Bear today and another male Rufous at
Heartbar State Park.

My guide to Birdwatching in Riverside California shows the Rufous
coming to Southern California for their "Fall" migration in July and
August.

Doug Karalun
Highland, CA

Thanks to everyone who replied to my earlier post with suggestions and
tips.  There were too many of you to thank individually, but all of your
contributions were extremely useful, and Mike and I thank you all.  Our
week-long birding adventure has begun.

My friend Mike arrived about noon in San Jose.  We birded the
Sunol-Ohlone Regional Park for an hour and got him 4 of his lifers.  They
were California Tohee, Nuttall's Woodpecker, Chestnut-backed Chickadee,
and Warbling Vireo.  The biggest disappointment was not seeing
Yellow-billed Magpie.  We also saw a family or families of wild Turkeys
with poults of varying sizes, too.

Then we went up to Livermore and drove Mines Road most of the remainder
of the afternoon.  We planned to drive to the intersection of San Antonio
and Del Puerto Roads, but got the target bird, Lawrence's Goldfinch,
earlier.  Mike also added Oak Titmouse and California Quail to his life
list on Mines Road.  I pointed out Wrentit calls at a chaparral area, and
thought we had a California Thrasher there for a while, but it turned out
to be a California Towhee.  Mike wouldn't count a "heard only" bird, so
he didn't add the Wrentit.  On the way back, just outside Livermore, he
added his life Yellow-billed Magpie.  Birding in the middle of the day,
we hit the midday doldrums, but still tallied about 45 species.  In
addition, we also saw a Coyote and four Blacktail Deer.

Best non-lifers were 10 Great-tailed Grackles at the Shell Oil Spill
Mitigation Site in Martinez, SE of the Marina Vista exit off I-680

Darrell Lee
Alameda, CA
snorkler@...


________________________________________________________________
GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
Join Juno today!  For your FREE software, visit:
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...a couple of exciting upcoming events.

Please join Yolo Audubon and the CVBC in Davis on August 10th for an
outing that will focus on the region's migratory waterbirds,
Swainson's hawks, and wetlands; an outstanding list of speakers are
scheduled for this full day event which promises to be fun and
educational (the agenda is posted at the bottom of this e-mai).

The Central Valley birding Symposium is scheduled for November 21-24
in Stockton.  This year's agenda is once again outstanding! Featured
speakers will include Kevin Karlson, Shawneen Finnegan, and Ed
Harper. Workshop and day programs will be presented by Jon Dunn
(gulls), Kimball Garrett(warblers), Andy Engilis (bird specimens),
John Robinson (computer programs for birders), Kelley Sorenson
(Condor Recovery), and Keith Hansen (bird sketching).

Hope to see you there,

Leo

Yolo County 10 August 2002


Agenda for August 10th - Davis Wetlands Trip

Join CVBC and Yolo Audubon on August 10th for a birding day
concentrating on shorebirds and other wetland birds.  We will meet in
Davis at 7:30 am at the Burger King on Mace Boulevard at I-80.  We
will spend the morning visiting local hot spots, such as the City of
Davis Wetlands and Yolo Basin Wildlife Area, along with flooded
alfalfa fields.  Besides migrating shorebirds there should be
concentrations of Swainson's hawks, whit-faced ibis, herons, and
egrets.

After grabbing lunch, we will regroup from 2 to 5pm at the Yolo Basin
Wildlife Area Headquarters on East Chiles Road for presentations and
dessert.  Topics include water, shorebird, and ibis distribution in
the Central Valley in late summer (Dave Shuford), Swainson's Hawk
clustering and foraging in late summer (Jim Estep), the expanding
Yolo Basin Wildlife Area (David Feliz/Mary Schiedt), and a look at
the birds of the City of Davis Wetlands (John McNerney).  We'll
finish off the day with a CVBC Board Meeting.

Dear Calbirders,
	 I will personally email thanks later (I just got home after working 12
hours), but thank you to all of you who sent info about Lawrence's
Goldfinch and California Gnatcatcher locations up and down the state.  My
friend Simon went home to the Netherlands after having seen both species (2
adult Cal Gnatcatchers feeding 3 babies!), along with quite a number of
Rufous and Allen's Hummingbirds.
	 By the way, the  Mil Portero Park campground is closing, due to some
financial dispute between the company that has the concession and the
governmental agency that owns the property.  The couple that maintain the
approximately 10 oversized meghummingbird feeders are being forced to move
out after 26 years.  They told us that they are moving to a mobile home
park in Santa Maria, Santa barbara County, where they will set up their
megafeeders.
Thomas Miko (Mikó Tamás)
2445 Oswego Street
Pasadena, CA 91107

home: (626) 793-2133
page:  (310) 366-9990
cell:    (626) 390-1935

thomasmiko@...
thomas_miko@...

http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/birdsofhungary

A belated thanks to everyone who sent suggestions as to the nature of the
bird and fish kill that we are experiencing at Ken Malloy Harbor Regional
Park in LA County.  Although we don't have conclusive proof, it is virtually
certain that botulism, perhaps in combination with other factors, is the main
cause of the kill, which is ongoing but hopefully abating. It is also
apparently a problem for ducks at a nearby mortuary lake, and perhaps
elsewhere.
For those interested, typical symptoms are paralysis from the legs upward, so
that birds may be able to get to water and swim using their wings even if
walking is difficulty. Eventually the wings give out and then the animal gets
a "droopy neck" look and can't hold its head up. Death can be slow, unlike
avian enteritis.  There is an antitoxin but it is expensive and seldom
administered except in captive animals.  It is very difficult to get samples
that yield a positive test, but there is a Fish and Game lab in Rancho
Cordova (sp?) that can test for the toxin, if it receives 3 freshly dead
birds of the same species.  Live birds, even if severely affected, apparently
don't have enough toxin in them to give a positive test result.
We have been advised to remove all dead birds immediately, which is being
done (and it isn't an easy or pleasant process in a lake with a great deal of
aquatic vegetation).  We are going to implement a limited water exchange, if
possible, without raising the overall water level of the lake.  It seems that
high water temperatures, a heavy nutrient load (feeding and "dumping" of
bread into the lake), possible input of anoxic sediments from upstream, and
lack of water input during the drought have contributed to the growth of the
type C Clostridium bacteria that thrives in anaerobic sediments and produces
the toxin.  It is primarily spread by birds/fish scavenging on the dead
animals and the maggots that are in them-an interesting fact is that 2-5
maggots can carry sufficient toxin to kill a bird, and one dead bird can
contain over 4000 maggots.
Remarkable is the variability in sensitivity to the toxin, as well as the
apparent feeding habitats of different species.  We have lost virtually all
feral ducks, many gulls and coots, and a smattering of ruddies, gadwall, and
others (even a raccoon, though it might have died from other botulism types
or other causes) Yet most native species persist, including recently-fledged
juveniles, and seem unaffected. The geese (except for one feral Canada goose)
have all survived.  It is impossible to remove the bacteria, which goes into
a spore stage in the sediments when conditions work against it, but we are
hoping and optimistic that that publicity and action that this kill has
triggered will allow us to develop and implement a new watershed plan and new
park management procedures that will improve overall water quality at the
lake and make future die-offs much less likely.
Hope this info is helpful to others who may experience a similar situation.
Martin Byhower
       __    /\    __        Martin Byhower, Lomita, CA
  / ___\/  \/___\   Director, BIRDING SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
             \| |/                Private guiding, & more
                /\                  Email: mbinrbc@...
            ///\\\             WEBSITE: http://www.qi-whiz.com/birds

Hi, all!

Went a little backwards this morning and started at Lake Miramar instead of
Blue Sky Ranch so I wouldn't be battling the rush hour traffic.  Crawled down
to the Natalie Trail where the Selasphorus hummers were having a big time in
the flowering eucs; unfortunately the only birds I could get a look at were
all female types, so I had no idea whether they were Rufous or Allen's.  Over
at the dam an Osprey was sitting one-legged on top of that round structure
that sits in the water, while a Green Heron sat on the same structure but low
to the water!

Went up to Penasquitos Canyon after that, where a group of sheriff department
people had evidently just finished their workout (I thought they were Marines
at first the way they were "chanting" when I got out of the car!).  No
Grasshopper Sparrows, but plenty of Nuttall's Woodpeckers around; nothing
really out of the ordinary.  Tons of bunnies, though...

Blue Sky had a few more interesting things in the oak woodland: both
Pacific-slope Flycatcher and Western Wood Pewee were calling, and a Yellow
Warbler sang from the creek.  A pair of Black-chinned Hummers sparred right
behind me at the resting spot: it was almost the hummingbird equivalent of
those films you see of the eagles who clasp talons and then somersault
downwards!  Only these guys were twirling around facing each other until the
male literally drove the female (or whatever) to the ground!  Interestingly,
the latter stayed there motionless, and the male sat on a twig a couple of
inches off the ground right next to him/her, until I moved--then they both
took off!  The most incongruous bird was a Caspian Tern overhead (probably on
its way to Lake Poway), but the best sighting was on the way back to the car,
and it wasn't even a bird: it was one of those endangered Orange-throated
Whiptails!  I haven't seen one of those in almost ten years!  A cooperative
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher popped up in the same area.

Headed over to Lake Murray after that, where even though I stick to the dirt
trail to bird, I always feel self-conscious because it seems I'm the only one
using the area who's not practically naked!  A female Wood Duck preened on
the shore, and enjoyed the Pied-billed Grebe family (complete with
stripey-headed youngsters as big as the parents).  Around the bend a family
of California Gnatcatchers came right up to my face; those babies were so
cute!  (Well, all they had to indicate they were still babies were the gape
marks and fuzzier-than-normal heads, but they were still cute!)  A Lawrence's
Goldfinch was calling from an unseen tree on the other side of the trail (I
was kind of down in the "ditch" at that point) and a Blue Grosbeak sang down
the way.  Herp-wise, I hit the jackpot again with yet another Orange-throated
Whiptail!  I couldn't believe it!!  Scanning the lake picked up the usual
Western Gulls on the dock and a Clark's Grebe in the water, that golden bill
really standing out!  Killdeer peeped at me worriedly, and over at the
concession stand a Snowy Egret fed amongst the rocks, along with the various
blackbirds, while a Forster's Tern batted around.

Headed home after that with 56 species for the morning.  Bird List:

   Pied-billed Grebe                     Podilymbus podiceps
   Clark's Grebe                         Aechmophorus clarkii
   Double-crested Cormorant              Phalacrocorax auritus
   Great Blue Heron                      Ardea herodias
   Snowy Egret                           Egretta thula
   Green Heron                           Butorides virescens
   Wood Duck                             Aix sponsa
   Mallard                               Anas platyrhynchos
   Turkey Vulture                        Cathartes aura
   Osprey                                Pandion haliaetus
   American Coot                         Fulica americana
   Killdeer                              Charadrius vociferus
   Western Gull                          Larus occidentalis
   Caspian Tern                          Sterna caspia
   Forster's Tern                        Sterna forsteri
   Rock Dove                             Columba livia
   Mourning Dove                         Zenaida macroura
   Black-chinned Hummingbird             Archilochus alexandri
   Anna's Hummingbird                    Calypte anna
   Costa's Hummingbird                   Calypte costae
   Allen's Hummingbird                   Selasphorus sasin
   Nuttall's Woodpecker                  Picoides nuttallii
   Western Wood-Pewee                    Contopus sordidulus
   Pacific-slope Flycatcher              Empidonax difficilis
   Black Phoebe                          Sayornis nigricans
   Ash-throated Flycatcher               Myiarchus cinerascens
   Cassin's Kingbird                     Tyrannus vociferans
   Northern Rough-winged Swallow         Stelgidopteryx serripennis
   Cliff Swallow                         Petrochelidon pyrrhonota
   Phainopepla                           Phainopepla nitens
   Bewick's Wren                         Thryomanes bewickii
   House Wren                            Troglodytes aedon
   Northern Mockingbird                  Mimus polyglottos
   California Thrasher                   Toxostoma redivivum
   Wrentit                               Chamaea fasciata
   Blue-gray Gnatcatcher                 Polioptila caerulea
   California Gnatcatcher                Polioptila californica
   Bushtit                               Psaltriparus minimus
   Western Scrub-Jay                     Aphelocoma californica
   American Crow                         Corvus brachyrhynchos
   Common Raven                          Corvus corax
   European Starling                     Sturnus vulgaris
   House Sparrow                         Passer domesticus
   House Finch                           Carpodacus mexicanus
   Lesser Goldfinch                      Carduelis psaltria
   Lawrence's Goldfinch                  Carduelis lawrencei
   Yellow Warbler                        Dendroica petechia
   Common Yellowthroat                   Geothlypis trichas
   Spotted Towhee                        Pipilo maculatus
   California Towhee                     Pipilo crissalis
   Song Sparrow                          Melospiza melodia
   Blue Grosbeak                         Guiraca caerulea
   Red-winged Blackbird                  Agelaius phoeniceus
   Brewer's Blackbird                    Euphagus cyanocephalus
   Great-tailed Grackle                  Quiscalus mexicanus
   Brown-headed Cowbird                  Molothrus ater

56 SPECIES

Mary Beth Stowe
MiriamEagl@...
San Diego, CA

California birders:

If you don't follow the hummingbird internet discussion group
(Humnet), you have missed some bashing of our competence
in tracking hummingbird distribution.  See the posting by
Sheri Williamson below.

For additional postings on this subject, see the Humnet archives
at:  http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/HUMN.html

I certainly agree that we have much to learn about hummingbird
distribution in winter (and at all other seasons), but I don't
think the situation is as grim as some of the postings imply.

-- Kimball

**********************************************************

Subject: Re: hummingbird distribution in California, a.k.a. Terra Incognita
From: Sheri Williamson <tzunun@...>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 17:23:15 -0700

Greetings, Humnetters,

No apologies necessary from John MacGregor, because I share his
frustration about the lack of data on wintering hummingbirds in
California. Getting meaningful, trustworthy data on California
hummingbirds in any season is extremely frustrating. It's a sad, sad
state of affairs when such hummingbird riches as California is blessed
with are largely ignored by its birding and ornithological
communities, but Ron's observation that Californians tend to assume
every winter hummingbird is an Anna's seems a fair assessment of the
situation to me. In fact, I'm not sure they pay much attention to
hummingbirds in any season. After a presentation I gave in San Diego
in May, a local birder told me that he might get a hummingbird field
guide for his next trip to Arizona, but he didn't need one at home!

While a lot of banding data went into the maps in the guide, y'all
have to appreciate that the Southeast is a very special case, and
there is no place else in the country with such intensive study of
wintering hummingbirds. For most areas, I relied heavily on sources
such as American Birds/Field Notes, including the Christmas Bird Count
issues. I also had access to some breeding bird atlas data, but not
nearly enough to present more than a rough sketch of hummingbird
distribution in most areas. Of the many places in the U.S. and Canada
for which distributional data were scare and/or unreliable, none was
so well populated with birders as California.

Habitat and climate are other problems that plague those trying to map
bird distribution in California. A few miles one direction or another
and the proportion of Anna's to Costa's, for example, might reverse
itself. Add in habitat change due to rampant development, and a
species once common in an area might virtually disappear. Climatic
mood swings are a California specialty, and a few especially wet or
dry years in a row will mess things up even more, allowing some
species to prosper and spread at the expense of others. We're missing
out on an awful lot of change in hummingbird distribution because so
few people are paying any attention and even fewer are actually
documenting the phenomena!

I've expressed this before on Humnet, but making range maps that
accurately depict geographic and temporal distribution AND please
everyone is just flat-out impossible. The best we can do is
approximate based on the best info we have and hope that the "Here
There Be Dragons" parts of the maps inspire others to fill in the gaps
in our knowledge.

Sheri Williamson
Bisbee, AZ
tzunun@...
http://tzunun.home.mindspring.com

*************************************************************
*****************************
Kimball L. Garrett
Ornithology Collections Manager
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
900 Exposition Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90007 USA
(213) 763-3368
(213) 746-2999 FAX
kgarrett@...
*****************************

Hi, all!

Today picked up at the north end of Lake Murray and then did the rest of
Mission Trails Regional Park.  I wanted to start surveying this end because
it seems to be a pretty reliable place for Golden-crowned Sparrows (not this
time of year, of course), so I wanted to start hitting it regularly just to
see (plus I've also occasionally heard Least Bitterns here).  No bitterns
today, but lots of baby coots being fed (and one being beat up by its
parent), and a very pale Anna's Hummer that I could have easily mistaken for
a Costa's were it not for some of the other subtle clues (voice and wing
length in particular).  DID have a real Costa's singing later...  A flock of
Bushtits came within inches, along with a young Bewick's Wren trying fitfully
to learn its song!  Three Snowy Egrets fought across the lake near the docks,
and the resident Western Gulls were hanging out there as well.

I had never really checked out the trailhead at the end of Jackson Road, so I
did, and decided not to include it because it shortly went straight downhill,
and the other direction didn't go far before you were at the Oak Trailhead
near the visitor's center (which I DO bird regularly).  Besides, with the
traffic on Mission Gorge you couldn't hear anything anyway...  Wasn't a total
loss: got California Gnatcatchers in here, so it's nice to know of yet
another easily-accessible spot.

Went on to Oak Trail and enjoyed the loop, picking up Pacific-slope
Flycatcher and Spotted Towhee for the day.  A young Red-tailed Hawk was
squealing in a euc near Mission Gorge, and at the resting spot in the grove a
young Cooper's came screaming in (literally); needless to say the songbird
life came to a halt!  Did have White-throated Swifts overhead and California
Quail on the way back to the car, though.

Crawled over to Mission Dam after that and hiked the loop, picking up the
target Bell's Vireo as well as Nuttall's Woodpecker and Red-shouldered Hawk.
Still no kites or Grasshopper Sparrows; makes me wonder if they're gone for
good from this area.  DID pick up the Rufous-crowned Sparrow in the grassy
area just before the descent into the ditch, and a couple of California
Gnatcatchers popped up in the same area (which was nice because this isn't as
reliable a place for them as it used to be).  Back down in the riparian area
and over by the canyon, a real Canyon Wren "beeped" from the rocks (they're
not as easy to get here, anymore, either), and more Black-chinned Hummers
sparred with each other.  A lady walking her dog close to where I had parked
perfectlly described a male Phainopepla that she had seen (and I had indeed
heard one earlier, the first time I had had one here in fact).

The last trail of the day was the one at the end of Mast Boulevard, where it
was pretty warm, but did manage to pick up Blue Grosbeak, both kingbirds,
Ash-throated Flycatchers chasing each other, a Turkey Vulture, and a distant
Yellow-breasted Chat (plus more gnatcatchers).  All in all, it was a big day
numbers wise for California Towhees, House Finches, and Mourning Doves!  Bird
List:

   Pied-billed Grebe                     Podilymbus podiceps
   Snowy Egret                           Egretta thula
   Mallard                               Anas platyrhynchos
   Turkey Vulture                        Cathartes aura
   Cooper's Hawk                         Accipiter cooperii
   Red-shouldered Hawk                   Buteo lineatus
   Red-tailed Hawk                       Buteo jamaicensis
   California Quail                      Callipepla californica
   American Coot                         Fulica americana
   Killdeer                              Charadrius vociferus
   Western Gull                          Larus occidentalis
   Rock Dove                             Columba livia
   Mourning Dove                         Zenaida macroura
   White-throated Swift                  Aeronautes saxatalis
   Black-chinned Hummingbird             Archilochus alexandri
   Anna's Hummingbird                    Calypte anna
   Costa's Hummingbird                   Calypte costae
   Allen's/Rufous Hummingbird.          Selasphorus sp.
   Nuttall's Woodpecker                  Picoides nuttallii
   Pacific-slope Flycatcher              Empidonax difficilis
   Black Phoebe                          Sayornis nigricans
   Ash-throated Flycatcher               Myiarchus cinerascens
   Cassin's Kingbird                     Tyrannus vociferans
   Western Kingbird                      Tyrannus verticalis
   Cliff Swallow                         Petrochelidon pyrrhonota
   Phainopepla                           Phainopepla nitens
   Canyon Wren                           Catherpes mexicanus
   Bewick's Wren                         Thryomanes bewickii
   Northern Mockingbird                  Mimus polyglottos
   Wrentit                               Chamaea fasciata
   California Gnatcatcher                Polioptila californica
   Bushtit                               Psaltriparus minimus
   Western Scrub-Jay                     Aphelocoma californica
   American Crow                         Corvus brachyrhynchos
   Common Raven                          Corvus corax
   European Starling                     Sturnus vulgaris
   House Sparrow                         Passer domesticus
   Bell's Vireo                          Vireo bellii
   House Finch                           Carpodacus mexicanus
   Lesser Goldfinch                      Carduelis psaltria
   Common Yellowthroat                   Geothlypis trichas
   Yellow-breasted Chat                  Icteria virens
   Spotted Towhee                        Pipilo maculatus
   California Towhee                     Pipilo crissalis
   Rufous-crowned Sparrow                Aimophila ruficeps
   Song Sparrow                          Melospiza melodia
   Blue Grosbeak                         Guiraca caerulea

47 SPECIES

Mary Beth Stowe
MiriamEagl@...
San Diego, CA

Showcasing northern Santa Barbara County sites on the Central Coast Birding
Trail which includes sites between Ventura and Monterey Counties, the fifth
annual Central Coast Birding Rally will be held the weekend of October 4-6.  A
reception to acquaint visitors to the area will be held Friday evening.  The
rally itself will run from 7 a.m. to noon on Saturday followed by a Santa Maria
style bar-b-cue and auction of birding related items Saturday afternoon.  A Big
Day at "the ponds" on Vandenberg Air Force Base will take place on Sunday.  How
many species can be found at this premier trail site on a single day during fall
migration?  During its brief 8 year existence, this preserve near the mouth of
the Santa Ynez River has produced 30 species of warblers.  For a complete list:
http://lpas.westhost.com/birdlists.htm#pondslist .  The entire event is free to
participants having been funded by La Purisima Audubon and the business
community of northern Santa Barbara County.  For more information, visit our web
page at http://lpas.westhost.com/rally or write LPAS, PO Box 2045, Lompoc, CA
93438

John Ayres
Rally Chairman
La Purisima Audubon
Lompoc, CA


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

>communities, but Ron's observation that Californians tend to assume
>every winter hummingbird is an Anna's seems a fair assessment of the
>situation to me. In fact, I'm not sure they pay much attention to

Dear Kimball and Calbirders,
          I just wrote a separate response to Kimball about a specific
incident several years ago, but let me generalize:
1) I don't feel dissed, because I think it's right on the money.
2) Besides myself, others whom I know personally have claimed to have seen
certain hummingbirds that "do not occur in winter," and nobody bothered to
check to see if the person making the claim was right or wrong, because it
wasn't woth anybody's effort, time, bother, etc.  There has been a
consistent dogmatic dismissal of such "sightings", but during the winter
few people really put the same effort that they put into finding wintering
orioles and sparrows into thoroughly mulling over every hummingbird that
they see.
3) This leads to a hesitancy to say anything, lest one get shot down by
"the big boys" (this is not an oblique shot at K Garrett).





Thomas Miko (Mikó Tamás)
2445 Oswego Street
Pasadena, CA 91107

home: (626) 793-2133
page:  (310) 366-9990
cell:    (626) 390-1935

thomasmiko@...
thomas_miko@...

http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/birdsofhungary

Hello all,
I wrote the babbling below last night and was intending to send it to the
hummingbird group.  Since I didn't belong to the group I would have to have
joined just to send this out and after I read the recent messages I could see
that I wouldn't have been very interested.  Most of the messages were about
humminbird feeders rather than actual hummingbirds and I don't even have a
feeder.  And anyway, i'm not really that interested in sparring with Ms.
Williams so I will just keep it "inhouse".  I apologize if the organization
could be better, hopefully it makes sense.

Perhaps I shouldn't be tempted to respond to such drivel but i've always had
a hard time keeping my mouth shut.  If Ms. Williamson had simply said that
there is much more that we Californians could learn about hummingbird status
and distribution I would have gladly accepted the criticism.  After all, can
anyone say that there is a region, even southeastern Arizona, that totally
and completely understands any group of birds and has nothing left to learn?
Of course not.  What stuck in my throat was the unbelievable statement that
she isn't sure we look at hummingbirds at all. Besides an apparent visit to
the LA County Museum has she been to California?  If so, did she spend any
time at all with dedicated birders?
First of all, what exactly does "meaningful data" mean? Would it come from
any of the banding stations throughtout the state? Are they all overlooking a
treasure-trove of non-Anna's in winter? Would it come from any of the long
line of regional status and distribution guides available from California?
Besides southeast Arizona where hummingbirds are extremely popular, and with
good reason, is there another state where you could find as much data on
wintering hummingbirds?  And once you get away from the southeastern portion
of Arizona, are you likely to be swimming in "meaningful" data?
Secondly, though I must admit to not knowing "Ron" or who he is, I find it
very hard to believe he has spent much time around serious birders in
California either.  I don't think we assume at all that any hummingbird in
winter is an Anna's though especially in Northern California it is true that
a hummingbird in winter is an Anna's until proven otherwise just as small
black-legged peeps are assumed to be Westerns and wintering catharus thrushes
are assumed to be Hermits.  This is just plain commonsense and it comes from
thousands of birders logging literally millions of hours and finding almost
nothing but Anna's. Sometimes when you don't find something it really is
because it wasn't there. Perhaps, as Mr. Miko states, some claimed birds are
never searched for by "the estabishment" but would a couple of claimed
rarities (that are usually misidentified anyway) going to drastically alter
the groundwork laid down over the past century?
And I would be hard-pressed to let the statement "..I'm not sure they pay
much attention to hummingbirds in any season." pass by though I did have to
wait for a very painful laughing attack to die down.  We don't pay attention
to hummingbirds in California?  At last check there were 12 species of
Hummingbird on the California list so at least a few people have been awake
long enough to find Xantu's, Violet-crowned, Blue-throated, and
Ruby-throated.  Broad-billeds are found annually in Southern California.
Imagine how many rarities we would find if we were paying attention.  Right
off the bat, I can vouch for there being over 500 hummingbird breeding
records in the database of the Contra Costa County Breeding Bird Atlas for
just the first four years alone and that is from one of the smaller counties
in the state.
The last statement is so preposterous it barely deserves comment, but of
course I will anyway.  Exactly what does "a local birder" mean?  I live in
California and have people ask me about the "Blue Jays" at their feeders all
the time.  Are these birders? Are they in any way representative of the
California birding community? I've never met any serious birder in California
who would say they didn't need a field guide to hummingbirds in California.
I have, however, run into birders in southeast Arizona carrying around the
Golden Guides (that are so old they were still gold rather than blue) and
asking if i've seen the pretty "stork" down in the channel. Does this say
anything about the birders of southeastern Arizona?  Not a whit.
Perhaps Ms. Williamson could bless us with a lengthy stay in California and
point out all of the hummingbirds we are missing.  Has she spent more than a
minute birding in California and around California birders? This is a state
where the business of finding and identifying rare birds can be an obsession,
to say the least.  Over 100 Christmas Bird Counts are conducted each year in
California, I think more than any other state and certainly far more than
Arizona, and I promise you that there are  capable birders on each one of
those looking at hummingbirds.  It goes without saying that rarities must be
overlooked, as they must be absolutely everywhere, but I would be willing to
bet my copy of Howell's hummingbird book against anyone's copy of the
Williamson book that the percentage of hummingbirds, or any other species for
that matter, found and identified correctly in California is as high or
higher than anywhere in North America.  That's not bragging because I myself
am not the second coming of Roger Tory Peterson but if you pay attention to
California birding for any length of time you will be stunned by the large
number of skilled birders capable of finding and correctly identifying birds.
  It never ceases to amaze me how many birders I have never even heard of are
finding very difficult to identify rarities.  Apparently we are living in a
state where there are birders capable of finding and correctly identifying
things like Greater Sand-Plover (where field marks are only recently
emerging), Couch's Kingbird, Nutting's Flycatcher, etc. but we overlook
bushels of wintering hummingbirds.
I know Northern California far better than I do southern but I have to say
that the matter of wintering hummingbirds in Northern California really isn't
all that complicated once you get past Rufous vs. Allens and even then my
understanding is that all specimens of Selasphorus hummingbirds from winter
in Nor. Cal have proven to be Rufous.  We get a Costa's or a few each winter
at feeders.  Thats it.  Every decade or so we might get a wintering
Broad-billed.  Decades of field work that at the very least compares
favorably to any other state in the U.S. has established this.  Anyone is
welcome to come see for themselves.  Come to Northern California this winter
and tell me what hummingbirds you find besides Anna's and, very occasionally,
a Selasphorus. The foundation has been laid and it is solid.
Finally, as the Nor. Cal. regional editor for North American Birds who
handles hummingirds (for about 3 years now), I can say with certainty that I
was never contacted by Ms. Williamson for data from our voluminous files
which stretch back to 1954.  Perhaps I came on the scene too late and she
contacted Don Roberson (who handled hummingbirds before I came along) but in
any event Don would surely have been able to point Ms. Williamson in the
direction of published works such as Grinnell and Miler's classic "The
Distribution of the Birds of California", Garrett and Dunn's "Birds of
Southern California", "Birds of Northern California" by McCaskie et al.,
Northwestern California Birds, Birds of Yosemite and the East Slope, The
Birds of Orange County, Monterey Birds, The Birds of Santa Barbara County,
The Birds of San Diego County, Birds of the Lower Colorado River Valley, etc.
  In addition, 4 county breeding bird atlases have been published, and at
least 7 or so more have at least finished field work.  I'm sure those in
charge of the other atlases would have gladly added input if asked.  Now I
know that to go through that many sources would require a lot of work, but to
shift the blame to California is absurd and, frankly, dishonest.
I apologize if the tone of the above comes across as harsh but it seems no
harsher than what it was intended to respond to.  I understand completely
that compiling range maps for a broad area must be a brutally difficult task
and a thankless one at that as i'm sure everyone who doesn't find their
little patch represented is probably beside themselves.
Though it doesn't sound like it, in the end I really don't care a whole heck
of a lot what Ms. Williamson thinks.  What I do care about is field
ornithology in California.  I would love to know what California birders, as
a group, could do to bring our understanding of hummingbirds up to par.
Kimball said he agrees that there are many gaps in our knowledge, and I
believe him since he has forgotten more about birds than I ever learned, so
let's focus on the gaps and narrow them.  Maybe Kimball or others could point
out some of the weaknesses.  If nobody knows what they are nobody is going to
do anything any differently.
I'm looking forward to a discussion on this!
Steve Glover
Dublin, CA




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

On Thu, 18 Jul 2002 02:44:53 EDT, sgloverccc@... wrote:

>Maybe Kimball or others could point
>out some of the weaknesses.  If nobody knows what they are nobody is going to
>do anything any differently.
>I'm looking forward to a discussion on this!

Here's one that's been bugging me, but it deals with summer not winter
distribution.

On July 16, 2001, Robbie Fischer and I birded Mt. Pinos on our way
home from Laguna Beach.  I was interested in the massive number of
Selasphorus Hummingbirds feeding on red penstamen at McGill
Campground.  One adult male had a solid green back.  One evident
immature male did a pendulum display over some flowers.  My impression
is that we were seeing mostly Allen's.  Another birder from New York
was sure they were Allen's.  He had been to some feeders where the
lady said that Allen's were common in that area.

I looked in Garrett & Dunn, Grinnell & Miller, etc. and didn't get a
very real sense of the status of rufous/allen's hummingbirds there.
The LA Audubon field trip reported both species.

In the Bay Area, Allen's tends to be strictly coastal, so I'm
surprised that they would be present so far inland, at such high
elevations, and in such numbers.  I contacted a few people at the time
and they seemed as confused as I was.

Any thoughts?

--
Joseph Morlan, Pacifica, CA 94044: mailto:jmorlan@...
Fall Birding Classes start Sept 4: http://fog.ccsf.org/~jmorlan/
California Bird Records Committee: http://www.wfo-cbrc.org/cbrc/

Hey all,

     A simple heads up to those of you who might not be following the water
issues affecting the Salton Sea and the decisions that will affect the
future of the entire Pacific Flyway.  How important?  If you have always
wanted to see the amazing bird life at the Salton Sea but never had the
time........ do it soon.

     This is not a proper topic for continued discussion on CALBIRDS so
please do not continue this thread here.  Here is a list that posts all of
the latest editorials and news print on the issue, although it is not from a
birders perspective.  Salton_Sea@yahoogroups.com

    See ya at the sea......................


    (!__!)
    (0V0)      HAPPY BIRDING
    {}~~{}         BOB MILLER
=='''='''==
Imperial, CA
SouthWest Birders
760.355.1008
http://www.southwestbirders.com
bob.miller@...

I am glad that Joe brought this subject out for discussion, because, being a
fellow northern Californian, I had also assumed that most if not all inland
Rufous/Allen's Hummingbirds were Rufous. However, banding during recent late
summers and falls at the South Fork of the Kern River has firmly established
that ~10% (if I recall correctly) of Selasphorus banded there are Allen's.  This
prompted me to watch the hummingbird feeders last July at the the Audubon
Reserve Headquarters in Weldon on the river and I was able to pick out a few
Allen's by tail patterns/shapes of rectrices.  It is not easy to do, but if one
watches carefully and for a long time, it is possible.  So.....this leads me to
believe that perhaps Allen's is not so rare inland in northern California where
even in the Central Valley, it is thought to be rare at best away from the delta
region.  Mistnetting should confirm the presence of Allen's. I can only hope
that the current crop of banders from PRBO and other groups are aware of the
possibility of Allen's at inland sites and are carefully and properly
identifying Selasphorus.

Also, I wanted to point out that Joe's statement about the Bay Area that,
"Allen's tends to be strictly coastal";also holds true for the northwest
(Mendocino to Del Norte).

And thanks to Steve Glover for his excellent and spirited reply to Williamson
and his plea for these constructive types of discussions.

John

**********************************
John Sterling
26 Palm Ave
Woodland, CA 95695
530 668-8694 (home office)
530 668-1985 (home)
916 737-3000 ext 3593 (Sacramento office)
916 813-1766 (cell phone)


   ----- Original Message -----
   From: Joseph Morlan
   To: calbirds@yahoogroups.com
   Sent: Thursday, July 18, 2002 7:52 AM
   Subject: Re: [CALBIRDS] Half-baked Hummingbird Hogwash


   On Thu, 18 Jul 2002 02:44:53 EDT, sgloverccc@... wrote:

   >Maybe Kimball or others could point
   >out some of the weaknesses.  If nobody knows what they are nobody is going to
   >do anything any differently.
   >I'm looking forward to a discussion on this!

   Here's one that's been bugging me, but it deals with summer not winter
   distribution.

   On July 16, 2001, Robbie Fischer and I birded Mt. Pinos on our way
   home from Laguna Beach.  I was interested in the massive number of
   Selasphorus Hummingbirds feeding on red penstamen at McGill
   Campground.  One adult male had a solid green back.  One evident
   immature male did a pendulum display over some flowers.  My impression
   is that we were seeing mostly Allen's.  Another birder from New York
   was sure they were Allen's.  He had been to some feeders where the
   lady said that Allen's were common in that area.

   I looked in Garrett & Dunn, Grinnell & Miller, etc. and didn't get a
   very real sense of the status of rufous/allen's hummingbirds there.
   The LA Audubon field trip reported both species.

   In the Bay Area, Allen's tends to be strictly coastal, so I'm
   surprised that they would be present so far inland, at such high
   elevations, and in such numbers.  I contacted a few people at the time
   and they seemed as confused as I was.

   Any thoughts?

   --
   Joseph Morlan, Pacifica, CA 94044: mailto:jmorlan@...
   Fall Birding Classes start Sept 4: http://fog.ccsf.org/~jmorlan/
   California Bird Records Committee: http://www.wfo-cbrc.org/cbrc/


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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

At 08:34 PM 7/17/02 -0700, Thomas Miko wrote:
>
>Dear Kimball and Calbirders,
>         I just wrote a separate response to Kimball about a specific
>incident several years ago, but let me generalize:
>1) I don't feel dissed, because I think it's right on the money.
>2) Besides myself, others whom I know personally have claimed to have seen
>certain hummingbirds that "do not occur in winter," and nobody bothered to
>check to see if the person making the claim was right or wrong, because it
>wasn't woth anybody's effort, time, bother, etc.  There has been a
>consistent dogmatic dismissal of such "sightings", but during the winter
>few people really put the same effort that they put into finding wintering
>orioles and sparrows into thoroughly mulling over every hummingbird that
>they see.
>3) This leads to a hesitancy to say anything, lest one get shot down by
>"the big boys" (this is not an oblique shot at K Garrett).

Tom:

Admittedly not perfect and 20 years out of date, Garrett and Dunn (1981)
shows that 8 hummingbird species have been recorded in mid-winter in
southern California (one can argue about just what "mid-winter" is for a
hummingbird -- probably that means September for an Allen's -- but I chose
December). That number is actually now ten statewide because of December
records for Xantus's and Blue-throated Hummingbirds.

In other words, standard literature sources available to any birder show
that there are far more species of hummingbirds in California in winter
than just Anna's. Obviously you asked the wrong person about the winter
status of hummingbirds if you were told that other species "do not occur
in winter", or you misunderstood their answer.

More likely, you were given the response that the species you observed
in winter was very unusual, and the sighting would need to be supported
by the appropriate level of documentation.  If you were unable to provide
that documentation, then you should not carry any grudge about how the
sighting was treated.  The "big boys" (surely not me, at only 5'7", and I
would also point out that some of the "big boys" are women) aren't out
there to "shoot you down", but, rather, to see that claimed sightings
are appropriately substantiated before they go into the permanent
record.

Birders should work on their documentation skills, because it is true
that somebody with a long history of poorly documented or undocumented
claims will not inspire the "big boys" (or others) to go and check out
their sightings.

Kimball
*****************************
Kimball L. Garrett
Ornithology Collections Manager
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
900 Exposition Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90007 USA
(213) 763-3368
(213) 746-2999 FAX
kgarrett@...
*****************************

Friends of mine who live between Auburn and Grass Valley said that
Allen's Hummingbird(s) were reported in the Sierra foothills in
Nevada and/or Placer County amongst their Audubon members last year.
I don't know if these IDs were established by capturing the bird(s)
and taking measurements, so I am skeptical. Does anyone know about
those sightings/reports?

I've banded a few ALHU/RUHU in the south SF Bay Area at SFBBO's
Coyote Creek Field Station and have a healthy respect for the ID
challenge even in the hand, aside from an all rufous-backed male.
I may have not been the most skilled at hummingbird assessment at
banding, but I felt that it was sometimes difficult to establish a
concrete ID even having taken measurements and assessing rect shape.
I remember that a few birds were intermediate in measurements and
the R2 notch was variable. I know of one bander in CA who has been
focusing her energies on banding selasphorus sp. but I don't know
how many bandering operations have the opportunity to handle enough
selasphorus sp. to have a good grasp of their presence/passage for
their niche in CA.

I, like Steve Glover, wondered what kind of data to which Sheri W.
referred that she could not get. Was it anecdotal info from birders'
trip lists and would this be of real use to someone putting together
a field guide? Or was she referring to the banding operations in CA?
E.g., was the Kern River info that John Sterling mentioned not
available to her? Perhaps her comments in reaction to the discussion
on a CA email list that compared the two new hummingbird guides?

Les Chibana, Palo Alto CA


On Thursday, July 18, 2002 9:39 AM, John Sterling <ani@...> wrote:
>I am glad that Joe brought this subject out for discussion,
>because, being a fellow northern Californian, I had also
>assumed that most if not all inland Rufous/Allen's Hummingbirds
>were Rufous. However, banding during recent late summers and
>falls at the South Fork of the Kern River has firmly
>established that ~10% (if I recall correctly) of Selasphorus
>banded there are Allen's.  This prompted me to watch the
>hummingbird feeders last July at the the Audubon Reserve
>Headquarters in Weldon on the river and I was able to pick out
>a few Allen's by tail patterns/shapes of rectrices.  It is not
>easy to do, but if one watches carefully and for a long time,
>it is possible.  So.....this leads me to believe that perhaps
>Allen's is not so rare inland in northern California where even
>in the Central Valley, it is thought to be rare at best away
>from the delta region.  Mistnetting should confirm the presence
>of Allen's. I can only hope that the current crop of banders
>from PRBO and other groups are aware of the possibility of
>Allen's at inland sites and are carefully and properly
>identifying Selasphorus.
>
>Also, I wanted to point out that Joe's statement about the Bay
>Area that, "Allen's tends to be strictly coastal"; also holds
>true for the northwest (Mendocino to Del Norte).
>
>And thanks to Steve Glover for his excellent and spirited reply
>to Williamson and his plea for these constructive types of
>discussions.
>
>John Sterling
>26 Palm Ave
>Woodland, CA 95695
>530 668-8694 (home office)
>530 668-1985 (home)
>916 737-3000 ext 3593 (Sacramento office)
>916 813-1766 (cell phone)

Calbirders,

On the theme of Allen's Hummingbirds in interior California, I have some
data from the north-east of the state. During June-August banding work
that I have undertaken in recent years for Lassen Volcanic National Park
in extreme northwestern Plumas Co. (elev. 5900'), two Allen's
Hummingbirds have been trapped, a hatch-year male on 10 July 2000, and
an adult male on 18 June 2001. (Incidentally, these appear to be the
first Plumas County records of this species, but this requires
confirmation.)

Although these records don't sound like much, we didn't actually catch
huge numbers of Rufous, and overall Allen's comprised one percent of
_Selasphorus_ trapped in Lassen VNP.

Given that at the north end of the Sierra Nevada at Lassen, Allen's
account for one percent of _Selasphorus_ in June-Aug, and by the south
end at Kern they may apparently account for up to ten percent (if John
recalls correctly), it is presumably fair to interpolate that throughout
the Sierra in summer a few percent of all _Selasphorus_ are indeed
Allen's. This would suggest that Allen's undergo some degree of inland
post-breeding dispersal in California, as yet unpublished. Many other
similar data sets must exist for elsewhere in interior California, and
collation of these could probably shed further light on these movements
(assuming all "Rufous" hummingbirds trapped have been fully examined for
possible Allen's).

Cheers, Jon.

On Thu, 18 Jul 2002 02:44:53 EDT, Steve Glover at sgloverccc@... wrote:
> I would love to know what California birders, as
> a group, could do to bring our understanding of hummingbirds up to par.
> Kimball said he agrees that there are many gaps in our knowledge, and I
> believe him since he has forgotten more about birds than I ever learned, so
>let's focus on the gaps and narrow them.  Maybe Kimball or others could point
> out some of the weaknesses.  If nobody knows what they are nobody is going to
> do anything any differently.
> I'm looking forward to a discussion on this!

On 7/18/02 7:52 AM, Joseph Morlan at jmorlan@... wrote:

> Here's one that's been bugging me, but it deals with summer not winter
> distribution.
>
> On July 16, 2001, Robbie Fischer and I birded Mt. Pinos on our way
> home from Laguna Beach.  I was interested in the massive number of
> Selasphorus Hummingbirds feeding on red penstamen at McGill
> Campground.  One adult male had a solid green back.  One evident
> immature male did a pendulum display over some flowers.  My impression
> is that we were seeing mostly Allen's.  Another birder from New York
> was sure they were Allen's.  He had been to some feeders where the
> lady said that Allen's were common in that area.
>
> I looked in Garrett & Dunn, Grinnell & Miller, etc. and didn't get a
> very real sense of the status of rufous/allen's hummingbirds there.
> The LA Audubon field trip reported both species.
>
> In the Bay Area, Allen's tends to be strictly coastal, so I'm
> surprised that they would be present so far inland, at such high
> elevations, and in such numbers.  I contacted a few people at the time
> and they seemed as confused as I was.

on 7/18/02 9:39 AM, John Sterling at ani@... wrote:

> I am glad that Joe brought this subject out for discussion, because, being a
> fellow northern Californian, I had also assumed that most if not all inland
> Rufous/Allen's Hummingbirds were Rufous. However, banding during recent late
> summers and falls at the South Fork of the Kern River has firmly established
> that ~10% (if I recall correctly) of Selasphorus banded there are Allen's.
> This prompted me to watch the hummingbird feeders last July at the the Audubon
> Reserve Headquarters in Weldon on the river and I was able to pick out a few
> Allen's by tail patterns/shapes of rectrices.  It is not easy to do, but if
> one watches carefully and for a long time, it is possible.  So.....this leads
> me to believe that perhaps Allen's is not so rare inland in northern
> California where even in the Central Valley, it is thought to be rare at best
> away from the delta region.  Mistnetting should confirm the presence of
> Allen's. I can only hope that the current crop of banders from PRBO and other
> groups are aware of the possibility of Allen's at inland sites and are
> carefully and properly identifying Selasphorus.

Steve, Joe, John,

I apparently started this spirited discussion about hummingbird
identification and distribution in southern California (that has since
expanded to cover the entire state and the honor of all California birders)
with my comments that Allen's are breeding in the Pasadena area in February
and March and that I was frustrated not to find any evidence of this in the
maps of several hummingbird references, including Sheri Williamson's
Peterson Guide .

Since the owner and many of the subscribers to HUMNET-L  (where my comments
originally appeared) wish to maintain that group more strictly to cover
issues of hummingbirds in the southeastern USA, I have started two new
Yahoo! discussion groups to address the issues of trochilids in the West.
Among the primary objectives of Hummers-West and Humgardenpix-West will be:

To promote expansion of hummingbird banding in the West and provide a
central channel for banders to communicate methods, observations, and data.

To improve understanding of the distribution and migration routes of
hummingbirds in western North America.

To encourage gardeners to plant for hummingbirds and to disseminate
information on the best hummingbird nectar plants and their care.

Humgardenpix-West is strictly for posting photos and brief captions of
hummingbird plants and gardens.  Discussion will take place only on the main
list, and members of the "pix" list must also belong to Hummers-West.

For these groups to reach their greatest potential, I hope to achieve a good
mix between professional ornithologists and dedicated hummer enthusiasts and
gardeners.  I sincerely hope you and other members of CALBIRDS with a
serious interest in hummingbirds will join these groups and contribute your
knowledge and experience.

To subscribe, go to the group home pages and click on "Join this group" in
the upper right-hand corner and choose delivery preferences.  If you are not
already on any Yahoo lists, you will need a Yahoo! ID.  Just follow
directions carefully when that page comes up and it should work.

The home pages are at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hummers-West/?yguid=10555717

and

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humgardenpix-West/?yguid=10555717

Membership requires my approval, only because there have been
a rash of people joining Yahoo! groups just to post spam (often
pornographic).  All posts on both groups will require a signature including
the member's name and the city, state, and Sunset climate zone in which the
member lives.  I have already confirmed several  memberships, so I know it
is working.  If you have any difficulties, please contact me for help.

In the meantime, would you consider giving me permission to cross-post your
remarks about the distribution of Selasphorus in California on Hummers-West?

John MacGregor, List Owner
South Pasadena, CA 91030  USA
USDA zone 9  Sunset zones 21/23
jonivy@...

The eastward and upslope movement of warblers in
summer has been very well documented by researchers
like Dave DeSante and Jim Steele. And this makes sense
when you experience how buggy (and mosquito-y) those
meadows are in summer.

Orange-crowns, which probably don't nest above 4000
ft, are abundant in alpine meadows at 7 & 8 thousand
feet by July. Certainly the coast dries up in summer
and migrants like Orange-crowns and Allen's Hummers
must fatten up for migration in the face of greatly
reduced supplies of nectar  and small insects, and
plenty of competion from resident birds like Bushtits
and Anna's Hummers.

So it would make sense that Allen's Hummingbirds would
do exactly what Orange-crowned Warblers do; Head East,
go upslope, and fatten up for the big push south.

   Rusty Scalf
   Berkeley, CA



__________________________________________________
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I wish we could have matched John Mariani's late June Yosemite trip
report, but conditions have changed.  While John reported Red-breasted
Sapsuckers everywhere his group went in, we missed both them and their
Williamson's Sapsucker cousins, and got a number of the high Sierra
specialty species by the skin of our teeth.  We arrived Sunday 7/14 and
spent our time looking at tourist sites in the valley, adding no new
species, and seeing nothing noteworthy.  Mike did increase his target
lifer list by three (to eleven) that morning with Bell's and Hutton's
Vireos and Wrentit in Gates Canyon (Solano County) before we departed to
Yosemite.

On Monday, we started birding at Crane Flat (Chevron Meadow) and Mike
added Vaux' Swift to his life list there.  Then we drove across Tioga
Pass and got two of Mike's target birds, Sage Thrasher and Sage Sparrow,
at Mono Lake's South Tufa.  We went to the Jeffrey Pine burn area 8.1
miles east of US395 on CA 120 and Mike got single flying looks at his
lifer Lewis' Woodpecker and Black-backed Woodpecker.  Pińon Jays were
numerous and vocal there.  On the way back to the park, we stopped at the
Aspen Grove Campground west of Lee Vining and found Mike's 17th trip
lifer, Cassin's Finch, at a camper's bird feeders, right alongside Purple
Finches.  We birded the Chevron Meadow that evening but missed Great Gray
Owl.  We did close the day with a White-headed Woodpecker, a lifer for
Mike.

Tuesday 7/16 Mike saw his life Black Swift at Glacier Point.  Yosemite
was not kind to us, as we missed Dusky and Hammond's Flycatchers, Hermit
Warbler, both sapsuckers, Rosy Finches, and GG Owl.  Mike barely got each
of his target woodpeckers from single brief glimpses.  We looked for a
Williamson's Sapsucker nest below the parking lot at Sentinal Dome
trailhead, but the young have apparently fledged, and we missed that
species.  Mike got his 20th lifer of the trip, Tricolored Blackbird,
after we'd left the park and driven the auto tour at Merced NWR
unsuccessfully.  If Tricoloreds are nesting there in abundance, they
aren't visible from the tour route.  We pulled out all stops and started
birding nearby dairies from the road, picking up a Tricolored at Brasil
Dairy, two dairies east of Merced NWR.

Darrell Lee
Alameda, CA
snorkler@...

________________________________________________________________
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Hello!
	 I got home at 02:30 a.m. after doing a 12 hour suicide run to Kern County
(the Kern River Preserve and environs), and just woke up. Yesterday
afternoon at 3:15 p.m. Bill Myers and I had a juvenile/immature Curlew
Sandpiper at the Lancaster Sewage Ponds (Highway 14: Avenue D Exit, right
next to the freeway).
	 I called up Kimball Garrett and Steve Sosensky to describe the bird, but
had cellular phone difficulties.  When I got home last night, i.e. this
morning, I looked over some books on the bookshelf, to make sure I was not
in error: I'm not.
	 The one feature about the bird that threw us off was the bill shape, or
rather, the apparent bill shape.  The bird was moving around and walking,
and we didn't observe the droop in the bill that we should
have.  However,after poring over the details, and alternative species
choices, it is indeed a Curlew Sandpiper.  We also had good looks at the
bird in flight.
	 Access is possible to the sewage ponds, you just have to check in at the
gate, and tell them why you are there.  There is a sign-in book in the office.
	 I would like to acknowledge Mr. Glover's riposte to my posting of a few
days ago.  He is correct in his observations.

Thomas Miko (Mikó Tamás)
2445 Oswego Street
Pasadena, CA 91107

home: (626) 793-2133
page:  (310) 366-9990
cell:    (626) 390-1935

thomasmiko@...
thomas_miko@...

http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/birdsofhungary

Tom and calbirders:

A juvenile Curlew Sandpiper in July would be a remarkable record. There are
few records of Juvenile Curlew Sandpiper for North America, but those are
from the mid-Septmeber period at the earliest. Most of thge July records
documented for North America have been fairly bright adults (I lived in
Delaware for three years and saw multiple Curlew sandpipers during that
period.), althoug some birds can be quite faded by mid-august.

I wish I could get out to see the bird, but am tied-up all day, Hopefully,
it will be refound and can be studied at length.

Todd mcGrath
SKUA@...
MArina Del Rey




>From: Thomas Miko <thomasmiko@...>
>To: calBIRDS@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [CALBIRDS] Curlew Sandpiper LA County
>Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 10:38:22 -0700
>




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Santee Lakes & sewer ponds
Lindo Lake
Steltzer County Park

Hi, all!

Miraculously Santee Lakes was open when I swung by this morning; on Fridays
they open at six!  Things were relatively quiet; not a whole lot of variety,
but what WAS there was in "family" numbers: lots of Mallards, Great-tailed
Grackles, Coots, and even Pied-billed Grebes.  The resident Wood Ducks were
all huddled at the entrance to to campground (or in that area, anyway), and
had a dorky-looking 2nd-year night heron at the restrooms!  A family of
Yellow Warblers popped out on the way out, including several scruffy-looking
youngsters!

The three sewer ponds open at the far end of the facility were quite
productive: both Cliff and Tree Swallows were in abundance, and added a big
bunch of Gadwall to the list, enjoying studying them next to the Mallards
(which can be a trick, especially now when everything's in eclipse plumage).
A big surprise was a female Shoveler in amongst a couple of Cinnamon Teal,
and had what was probably a melanistic Ruddy Duck: he was entirely smoky
brown, smudged with sooty (his cap was entirely sooty), with a black bill and
tail and a puff of white undertail coverts!  In the shorebird department had
several Greater Yellowlegs and a few Killdeer, and both Forster's and Caspian
Tern flying around.  Across the way in the sage scrub you could actually HEAR
the California Gnatcatchers; boy, those guys can be loud when they want to be
(either that, or the acoustics there are great)!  Also had Rufous-crowned
Sparrows calling from the same area.  The drama of the day was played out by
two pairs of coots disputing a patch of water while their kids watched; the
way they "slap" each other with their feet remind me for all the world of
"girl fights"!  They weren't the only ones fighting, though: both Great Blue
Herons and Snowy Egrets were having altercations!  Scared up a small group of
Horned Larks while driving on the dirt as well.

Headed over to Lindo Lake after that, where one lonely White Pelican was
still hanging around, as well as a first in amongst the real and "fake"
ducks: a Black Swan!  A lone Long-billed Dowitcher flew around, peeping as he
did so.  The euc where all the herons were nesting appears to be dying, but
there were still a few egrets hanging out up there, as well as a couple of
cormorants.  Grackles and Redwings were there in abundance, but only a
handful of Tricolors at the "dike".  But the big sighting was at the bench at
the east end: at long last a Least Bittern finally showed up after years (it
seems) of not seeing or hearing ANY here!  Also had a couple of Green Herons,
but nothing else out of the ordinary (except a White-breasted Nuthatch in the
eucs; that was pretty odd).  Did mistake a basketball in the reeds for a
Cinnamon Teal, though....

Steltzer County Park was the last stop, where I hiked the whole Wooten Loop.
It was pretty quiet along the chaparral part, but there were TONS of Wrentits
in the riparian area, and pretty cooperative at that!  Black-chinned Hummers
were here as well, and got to study a nice female; she really DOES have a
much longer bill than a Costa's!  Also picked up Oak Titmouse, Hutton's
Vireo, and Pacific-slope Flycatcher for the day in here.

Bird List:

   Pied-billed Grebe                     Podilymbus podiceps
   American White Pelican                Pelecanus erythrorhynchos
   Double-crested Cormorant              Phalacrocorax auritus
   Great Blue Heron                      Ardea herodias
   Great Egret                           Ardea alba
   Snowy Egret                           Egretta thula
   Green Heron                           Butorides virescens
   Black-crowned Night-Heron             Nycticorax nycticorax
   Least Bittern                         Ixobrychus exilis
   Wood Duck                             Aix sponsa
   Gadwall                               Anas strepera
   Mallard                               Anas platyrhynchos
   Cinnamon Teal                         Anas cyanoptera
   Northern Shoveler                     Anas clypeata
   Ruddy Duck                            Oxyura jamaicensis
   Cooper's Hawk                         Accipiter cooperii
   Red-shouldered Hawk                   Buteo lineatus
   Red-tailed Hawk                       Buteo jamaicensis
   American Coot                         Fulica americana
   Killdeer                              Charadrius vociferus
   Long-billed Dowitcher                 Limnodromus scolopaceus
   Greater Yellowlegs                    Tringa melanoleuca
   Caspian Tern                          Sterna caspia
   Forster's Tern                        Sterna forsteri
   Rock Dove                             Columba livia
   Mourning Dove                         Zenaida macroura
   Black-chinned Hummingbird             Archilochus alexandri
   Anna's Hummingbird                    Calypte anna
   Costa's Hummingbird                   Calypte costae
   Nuttall's Woodpecker                  Picoides nuttallii
   Pacific-slope Flycatcher              Empidonax difficilis
   Black Phoebe                          Sayornis nigricans
   Ash-throated Flycatcher               Myiarchus cinerascens
   Cassin's Kingbird                     Tyrannus vociferans
   Horned Lark                           Eremophila alpestris
   Tree Swallow                          Tachycineta bicolor
   Northern Rough-winged Swallow         Stelgidopteryx serripennis
   Cliff Swallow                         Petrochelidon pyrrhonota
   Bewick's Wren                         Thryomanes bewickii
   Northern Mockingbird                  Mimus polyglottos
   California Thrasher                   Toxostoma redivivum
   Wrentit                               Chamaea fasciata
   California Gnatcatcher                Polioptila californica
   Bushtit                               Psaltriparus minimus
   Oak Titmouse                          Baeolophus inornatus
   White-breasted Nuthatch               Sitta carolinensis
   Western Scrub-Jay                     Aphelocoma californica
   American Crow                         Corvus brachyrhynchos
   Common Raven                          Corvus corax
   European Starling                     Sturnus vulgaris
   House Sparrow                         Passer domesticus
   Hutton's Vireo                        Vireo huttoni
   House Finch                           Carpodacus mexicanus
   Lesser Goldfinch                      Carduelis psaltria
   Yellow Warbler                        Dendroica petechia
   Common Yellowthroat                   Geothlypis trichas
   Spotted Towhee                        Pipilo maculatus
   California Towhee                     Pipilo crissalis
   Rufous-crowned Sparrow                Aimophila ruficeps
   Song Sparrow                          Melospiza melodia
   Blue Grosbeak                         Guiraca caerulea
   Red-winged Blackbird                  Agelaius phoeniceus
   Tricolored Blackbird                  Agelaius tricolor
   Great-tailed Grackle                  Quiscalus mexicanus
   Brown-headed Cowbird                  Molothrus ater
   Hooded Oriole                         Icterus cucullatus

66 SPECIES

Mary Beth Stowe
MiriamEagl@...
San Diego, CA

Dear CalBirders,
	 While sitting in an all-you-can eat Chinese buffet this afternoon I found
an illustration of a male Wilson's Phalarope with BLACK legs in Sibley's. Ouch.
	 The bird that we had yesterday at the Lancaster Sewage Ponds had coal
black legs, not blackish, not dark green, yellow-green, or yellow.  Its
bill appeared to be straight.  It DID NOT appear to be a pencil-thin bill,
which would be indicative of phalaropes (other than Red).  The bird's
mantle and wings had a mottled look, a combination of grays and browns and
some rufous splotches.  I thought that the bird had a white wing bar most
of the length of the outstretched wings while in flight,  It did not have a
homogeneous light gray pattern to the mantle, nape, and wings.
	 It had a white supercilium, but no dark or black line or splotch along the
auriculars, and a washed out buff smudge along the side of the neck.  This
smudge did not resemble the usual shape coloration of male phalaropes like
Red-necked or Wilson's.    When we first saw the bird, my first thought was
"phalarope."  Then, I started to ask myself, "What kind of phalarope is
this?"  I immediately ruled out any female pahalrope, and Red Phalarope of
either gender.  I just saw a flock of male and female Wilson's Phalaropes
at Bolsa Chica, Orange County, one week ago, and this bird did not remiind
me of the Orange County males or females.  Then I honed in on the the black
legs, and started to shift away from phalaropes.  Stilt Sandpiper came to
mind, but there were several things wrong with that idea, I won't bore you
guys.
	 The bird stood on the shoreline of a sewage pond with Least Sandpipers,
and towered over them, but it was not nearly the height i.e. body size (or
giz) of a dowitcher.
	 Then the bird took off, giving good views of the back, wings, rump, and
tail, which I have previously described.
	 Guy McCaskie asks if it does not occur to me to be far too early in the
season for a Curlew Sandpiper.  Well, yes, this is a reasonable question,
but it brings us back to the fistfight that broke out over hummingbirds
this week: dogmatic assumptions that certain birds "only" occur in certain
months. Hm...birding by calendar, are we lad?
	 So, if I am mistaken in my identification, which in this specific incident
is reasonably possible, that bothers me, but I am going to take this lemon
and make lemonade out of it, and use it as a learning experience.

	 By the way, I forgot to mention some other birds in Kern and LA County:

Bank Swallow: 1 flying around the sewage ponds with Cliff Swallows, 2 more
at the Kern River Preserve.

Long-eared Owl: apparently I'm the only person who didn't know htat they
are resident at the Preserve, living in the trees by the entrance.  They
started hooting at 7:30 p.m. last night, sounding like birder doing a
really bad imitation of a Spotted Owl.

N Pygmy Owl: We drove up Sawmill Road, which comes off the western shore of
Lake Isabella, all the way to the top of the mountain, where the road
intersects with the road to Bakersfield (for better directions, please
write Bob Barnes at the Kern River Preserve). This is a traditional Spotted
Owl spot, but my Spotted Owl imitation never fools them.  It turned out
that the rental car that we had (Jeep's in the shop for repairs) had a
broken cassette deck, and we couldn't play my owl tape. I tried my Spotted
Owl imitation to no avail (I mentally picture Spotted Owls looking at each
other and asking, "What the heck is THAT?"), and when that didn't work, I
tried my cheap imitation of a pygmy owl.  I got an instant response, and
spent the next 10 minutes exchanging calls with a N Pygmy Owl who hid right
above our heads in a cedar.

Brant: While we were talking with Bob Barnes in the K R Preserve yard last
night, at 6 p.m.-ish a flock of around 10 Brant flew over our heads, right
behind Bob, headed towards lake Isabella. Pretty cool, huh?
Tom
PS: Does anybody know very specifically where and when at Red Rock State
Park on Highway 395 to look for Chuckwallas?  We tried AGAIN yesterday.  Is
there an optimal time of the day, season of the year, location, habitat,
etc??? We saw Zebra-tailed Lizards and Back-throated Sparrows in the
campground.
Thomas Miko (Mikó Tamás)
2445 Oswego Street
Pasadena, CA 91107

home: (626) 793-2133
page:  (310) 366-9990
cell:    (626) 390-1935

thomasmiko@...
thomas_miko@...

http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/birdsofhungary

Tom,

I wish to point out that my question to you was "does it not occur to you to
be far too early in the season for a JUVENILE Curlew Sandpiper".  I
challenge you to direct me to a valid record of a JUVENILE Curlew Sandpiper
as far from this species' breeding range as is Lancaster as early as 19
July.  Do not imply that it is a "dogmatic assumption" that JUVENILE Curlew
Sandpipers only occur this far south of the species' breeding range in
certain months - I am confident that data accumulated by shorebird
researchers/enthusiasts confirm this as a fact.

Guy McCaskie
954 Grove Avenue
Imperial Beach, CA  91932
TEL  619-423-7524

----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Miko" <thomasmiko@...>
To: <calBIRDS@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, July 19, 2002 5:52 PM
Subject: [CALBIRDS] ?curlew? sandpiper


Dear CalBirders,
While sitting in an all-you-can eat Chinese buffet this afternoon I found
an illustration of a male Wilson's Phalarope with BLACK legs in Sibley's.
Ouch.
The bird that we had yesterday at the Lancaster Sewage Ponds had coal
black legs, not blackish, not dark green, yellow-green, or yellow.  Its
bill appeared to be straight.  It DID NOT appear to be a pencil-thin bill,
which would be indicative of phalaropes (other than Red).  The bird's
mantle and wings had a mottled look, a combination of grays and browns and
some rufous splotches.  I thought that the bird had a white wing bar most
of the length of the outstretched wings while in flight,  It did not have a
homogeneous light gray pattern to the mantle, nape, and wings.
It had a white supercilium, but no dark or black line or splotch along the
auriculars, and a washed out buff smudge along the side of the neck.  This
smudge did not resemble the usual shape coloration of male phalaropes like
Red-necked or Wilson's.    When we first saw the bird, my first thought was
"phalarope."  Then, I started to ask myself, "What kind of phalarope is
this?"  I immediately ruled out any female pahalrope, and Red Phalarope of
either gender.  I just saw a flock of male and female Wilson's Phalaropes
at Bolsa Chica, Orange County, one week ago, and this bird did not remiind
me of the Orange County males or females.  Then I honed in on the the black
legs, and started to shift away from phalaropes.  Stilt Sandpiper came to
mind, but there were several things wrong with that idea, I won't bore you
guys.
The bird stood on the shoreline of a sewage pond with Least Sandpipers,
and towered over them, but it was not nearly the height i.e. body size (or
giz) of a dowitcher.
Then the bird took off, giving good views of the back, wings, rump, and
tail, which I have previously described.
Guy McCaskie asks if it does not occur to me to be far too early in the
season for a Curlew Sandpiper.  Well, yes, this is a reasonable question,
but it brings us back to the fistfight that broke out over hummingbirds
this week, are we lad?
So, if I am mistaken in my identification, which in this specific incident
is reasonably possible, that bothers me, but I am going to take this lemon
and make lemonade out of it, and use it as a learning experience.

By the way, I forgot to mention some other birds in Kern and LA County:

Bank Swallow: 1 flying around the sewage ponds with Cliff Swallows, 2 more
at the Kern River Preserve.

Long-eared Owl: apparently I'm the only person who didn't know htat they
are resident at the Preserve, living in the trees by the entrance.  They
started hooting at 7:30 p.m. last night, sounding like birder doing a
really bad imitation of a Spotted Owl.

N Pygmy Owl: We drove up Sawmill Road, which comes off the western shore of
Lake Isabella, all the way to the top of the mountain, where the road
intersects with the road to Bakersfield (for better directions, please
write Bob Barnes at the Kern River Preserve). This is a traditional Spotted
Owl spot, but my Spotted Owl imitation never fools them.  It turned out
that the rental car that we had (Jeep's in the shop for repairs) had a
broken cassette deck, and we couldn't play my owl tape. I tried my Spotted
Owl imitation to no avail (I mentally picture Spotted Owls looking at each
other and asking, "What the heck is THAT?"), and when that didn't work, I
tried my cheap imitation of a pygmy owl.  I got an instant response, and
spent the next 10 minutes exchanging calls with a N Pygmy Owl who hid right
above our heads in a cedar.

Brant: While we were talking with Bob Barnes in the K R Preserve yard last
night, at 6 p.m.-ish a flock of around 10 Brant flew over our heads, right
behind Bob, headed towards lake Isabella. Pretty cool, huh?
Tom
PS: Does anybody know very specifically where and when at Red Rock State
Park on Highway 395 to look for Chuckwallas?  We tried AGAIN yesterday.  Is
there an optimal time of the day, season of the year, location, habitat,
etc??? We saw Zebra-tailed Lizards and Back-throated Sparrows in the
campground.
Thomas Miko (Mikó Tamás)
2445 Oswego Street
Pasadena, CA 91107

home: (626) 793-2133
page:  (310) 366-9990
cell:    (626) 390-1935

thomasmiko@...
thomas_miko@...

http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/birdsofhungary


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>More likely, you were given the response that the species you observed
>in winter was very unusual, and the sighting would need to be supported
>by the appropriate level of documentation.  If you were unable to provide
>that documentation, then you should not carry any grudge about how the
>sighting was treated.  The "big boys" (surely not me, at only 5'7", and I
>would also point out that some of the "big boys" are women) aren't out
>there to "shoot you down", but, rather, to see that claimed sightings
>are appropriately substantiated before they go into the permanent
>record.

Kimball and CalBirders,
          Everything in the above paragraph is true and factually correct.
However, in my relating the Brawley November (1998?) Black-chinned
Hummingbird incident an important point has been missed.  I understood that
without a photograph, or getting some other "trusted' birders out to
substantiate the claimed sighting, getting "the bird accepted' was a
daunting task.
          The real point that I was getting at was that like it or not,
there is a rigid caste system in the world of California birding.  I am
stuck in the lower castes, and will always be stuck in the lower caste, not
because I am an unreliable, 2nd rate birder, who is pushy, rude, and
annoying, but because I'm not buddies with the various "big boys" who I
refer to.  Why don't I name names?  Lots of reasons.  First, I have no
desire to start a cat fight.  Second, it won't change anything.
          I have said this to you (K G) off-line in the past, and let me say
it in public: there is an interesting correlation that I have noticed: the
further away from the biological sciences in education and professional
training a big-name birder is in California, the more likely he is to be
rude, arrogant, and conceited. This is pure speculation on my part, but is
this because they are insecure about their status, and have to make
themselves feel better by putting down people like me?
          Hey, I'm no angel.  I remember a couple of times when I stuck my
foot in my mouth, BUT I never deliberately set out to hurt peoples'
feelings. Never.  That's not the kind of person I am.  When I meet someone
for the first time, I always assume that they are a decent, nice, honest
person, until they prove me incorrect.  However, I have had exactly these
kinds of unpleasant, painful experiences at the hands of these various men
(I've never met a rude female birder, and have been able to reconcile with
any female birder that I have ever had a difference of opinion with. This
is not the case with some of the male birders, who hold grudges for long
years.)
          Now, when I make these above accusations and generalizations, it
will be tempting for several people to answer on or off Calbirds to perform
some amateur psychoanalyses, and explain to me that the real problem is
that I'm an immature insecure obnoxious moron, and that my deep-seated
feelings of inferiority lead me to make these kinds of
accusations.  Um..there's a little hole in that theory:  I have met
strangers over the years who have repeatedly done the same thing over the
year:  I'm standing out in public somewhere, and this new person that I met
says, "Oh, there's John Smith.  He's so arrogant.  He thinks he's God's
gift to birding."  Wow! People who I've never met before, saying things
like that about people that I didn't know that they knew, who I also think
are arrogant? What are the odds of that???
          The thing that bothers me the most is that I still don't perceive
myself to be in an electronic virtual environment where learning is
fostered.  There is so much testosterone in birding ("My list is bigger
than yours, I'm a better birder than you are!") that when anybody
misidentifies a bird, or makes a statement that is not facually correct,
than this is perceived as an opportunity that must not be missed to let the
lower caste birder know that this is further proof of what a nincompoop he
is.  I don't see the friendly hand extended from older birders to my
generation, saying, "We will mentor you and share our knowledge."  Bill and
I were telling Bob Barnes yesterday about the possible Curlew Sandpiper at
Lancaster Sewage ponds, and those identification points that roubled
us.  He warned us with something close to "God help you if you ever
misidentify a bird."

>Birders should work on their documentation skills, because it is true
>that somebody with a long history of poorly documented or undocumented
>claims will not inspire the "big boys" (or others) to go and check out
>their sightings.

Moi? I won't take that as an arrow flung in my direction, as I've had a
decent number of "good" birds refound by others. True, I don't submit
enough rare bird write-ups, and I'm still learning how to write better
quality rare bird reports, but the best birds that I have found have been
during the spring and fall semesters, when getting an A in school is far
more important to me than getting my name into North American Birds.

Thus spoke Methuselah

We hit the big time, as NBC tv sent a crew to follow us to the Farallon
Islands.  Actually, they came along with the Executive Director of the
Oceanic Society to publicize the abundance of Blue Whales.  Of the 2000
remaining Blue Whales in the North Pacific, 1000 come here to feed, where
the upwelling brings plankton and euphasids (krill) in phenomenal numbers
- enough to provide the 1.5 tons of daily food intake a Blue Whale needs.


I hope I got these facts straight, as we botched a couple of earlier
identifications.  Our Marbled Murrelets turned out to be young Common
Murres, a fact that became crystal-clear as we left the Golden Gate and
began seeing single parents with single chicks.  Our
naturalist/interpretor also pointed this out, telling us that it's the
fathers that raise the young in this species.  Our other blown (or at
least highly questionable) call was Bell's Vireo in Solano County this
time of year.  We'd already seen Warbling and Hutton's Vireos, and I
thought our "Bell's" had a shorter/thinner bill than those of the
Warbling Vireos we'd been seeing, but we didn't document our reasons, and
have to withdraw that bird.  So Mike lost two, bringing his California
lifer list down to 30.

We got into SF early, to go to Crissey Field to look for Elegant Terns,
and didn't find a single bird.  Then we drove to Fort Mason expecting the
boat to leave from where it's always departed, only to find they depart
from the SF Yacht Club now.  Arriving late, we parked in the first
available spot, only to be told by the trip leader that we'd be
ticketed/towed for parking there.  It was an opportune way to meet Susan,
our leader, as she was a wealth of information and an outstanding guide.
She told us the Elegant Terns are hanging out near the north tower of the
Golden Gate Bridge, a fact we confirmed as we saw Mike's 31st CA lifer,
Elegant Tern, flying directly under the bridge as we cruised by on our
vessel, the Superfish.

We saw Blue Whales feeding near the surface, plowing through the water
with snouts, then pre-nostril protuberances, nostrils, backs, dorsal
fins, and flukes showing.  We saw their ventral throat fluting/pleats as
they turned sideways to maximize swallowing vertical columns of krill.
We could visualize the sonar patterns of krill to 35 feet down, in 3'
wide, 6' deep clusters.  We enjoyed seeing 11 Blue Whales (and a later
California Gray Whale seen at the islands), to the detriment of getting
Cassin's Auklets and Black-footed Albatross, which are seen in the deeper
water beyond the islands.  We simply ran out of time, spending the
majority in the Blue Whale feeding areas between the Farallones and the
coast.

Mike did add 3 other lifers, Rhinocerous Auklet, Sooty Shearwater, and
Tufted Puffin, on the trip.  Initially, Heerman's Gulls followed our
boat, to be replaced by Western Gulls as we approached the Farallones.
Other trip birds on the trip included Caspian Terns, Pigeon Guillemots,
all three cormorant species, Brown Pelicans, and Black Oystercatchers.
No other shearwaters or alcids and no phalaropes.  It's the price you pay
to go on mammal trips instead of bird trips.  We saw all the expected
pinnipeds, and added a Harbor Porpoise to the cetaceans list.

NBC/KRON/SF Channel 3 (I think, as I don't watch tv) will air its footage
in about two weeks.  Expect good Blue Whale footage and interviews with
some of the people on the boat (I especially enjoyed meeting Bobby, a
visitor from New Orleans, who offered chocolate chip cookies and chips to
everyone, and even made me a ham sandwich when he thought I looked
hungry.  We brought our own food, but who can turn down such infectious
hospitality?).  Guy Oliver, Exec. Dir. of the Oceanic Society, will also
appear on the footage.  I learned from a private discussion from him that
a mutual friend, Bill Perrin, has been recently honored by the naming of
a new beaked whale (perrini) after him.  I also learned from Guy that a
recent issue of Science (within the past two months) contains
exciting/revolutionary speciation information about Galapagos finches
interbreeding with a mexicanus finch, and the hybrid male young learning
the Galapagos finch songs.

Darrell Lee
Alameda, CA
snorkler@...


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Birders

This morning around 2 am on San Clemente Island myself and Anne Condon were
treated to excellent views of a Long-eared Owl perched just 5-10 feet off the
road in the town of Wilson Cove.  The bird was actively hunting rats and
peromyscus and we were able to illuminate it well using two 750000
candlepower spotlights.  The observation lasted about 10 minutes.  The bird
approached the vehicle several times within a few feet and did not seem
bothered by the "extra" light.
        We have seen Long-eared Owl here before (there are now 5 island
records, but only during the winter months and early spring).  The bird
appeared to be a juvenile based on the fact that it had no molt in the
remiges; in stark contrast to the adult Barn Owls at this time of year that
appear tattered with actively molting remiges.  It is likely that the bird
has been in this location for over a week.  A friend told me he saw a small
"dark" owl pass in front of his vehicle in that location about a week ago.
Rather than go check it out, I brushed it off as a bad look at a Barn Owl or
an early Burrowing Owl.  It was most likely this bird.
        I was wondering if others had noted Long-eared Owls turning up in
unusual locations at this time of year?  It is possible that this bird is a
wandering individual that got way off track during post-breeding dispersal.
The status of Long-eared Owl is unclear on Catalina Island, and it is
considered a vagrant there.  However, I would not be surprised if it breeds
there sporadically based on what I've seen of the habitat available.  Does
anyone know of the closest breeding Long-eared Owls to SCI?
        There are some interesting possibilities here for breeding LEOW.  We
have extensive stands of oak in some areas of the east side, as well as thick
stands of island cherry and rhus (lemonade berry) along some canyon bottoms,
particularly on the east side.  There is no precedent for the birds to breed
here, however, and I would assume this to be just an unusual occurrence.  Any
thoughts or information would be much appreciated.

thanks

Brian Sullivan
Institute for Wildlife Studies
SCE/NRO/NALF/SCI
PO Box 357054
San Diego, CA
92135

HeraldPetrel@...
blsullivan71@...
bsullivan@...


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi, Tom!

Unless I overlooked it in your description, isn't one of the key field marks
separating Curlew Sandpiper from Dunlin the white rump?  My only Curlew Sands
have been in places where they're supposed to be (e.g., Australia, South
Africa, and Central Asia), and frankly, Dunlin would be my first confusion
species, I would think.  So was the rump white?

Mary Beth Stowe
MiriamEagl@...
San Diego, CA