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Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2002 10:08:00 -0700 (PDT)
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Folks:

      Yesterday, 9/15/2002, I went to Alviso to catch up on some of the 
exciting birds in the New Chicago Marsh.  I walked north from the EEC entrance 
road along the railroad tracks.  At the first set of ponds I found the female 
RUFF preening in a small flock of dowitchers east of the tracks and the basic 
STILT SANDPIPER with a large flock of dowitchers west of the tracks.  I didn't 
find the molting golden-plover.  I walked further, to the last pond on the 
left (southwest) before the tracks join, and here I saw the second PACFIC 
GOLDEN-PLOVER, found previously by Jay Withgott.  At least I think that this 
is a _fulva_, but I found some field marks slightly disconcerting.  My 
description doesn't jibe exactly with Jay's, but that may just reflect two 
observer's different perceptions.  This bird seemed to show a warm brown wash 
on the head and throat and I felt this included the supercilium as well.  
There was a prominent auricular spot.  The scapulars and wing coverts were  
tan with white spots--I could not discern any gold speckling.  This bird did 
not hold its primaries close to the tail (unlike the molting adult I saw 
later), which makes comparisons difficult, but it appeared to me that the 
primaries extended about half a bill width beyond the tail, which may well be 
in the range of _fulva_.  It was hard to see the number of primaries extending 
beyond the tertials, the best I could do was see at least two or three.  I 
agree with Jay that this is basic _fulva_, but the primary projection and 
coloration of scapulars and wing coverts seemed slightly towards _dominica_.  

      Walking back, I ran into Don Starks and a friend and they had the 
molting adult PACIFIC GOLDEN-PLOVER east of the railroad tracks so I had some 
comparative looks.  This bird has been well described by others in previous 
e-mails, and all characters appeared the same to me.  For my walk, I counted 
10 LESSER YELLOWLEGS (24 GREATER) and 10 WILSON'S PHALAROPES.

      I then went over to the Alviso Marina, but I was unable to find any 
Snowy Plovers.

      This morning, 9/16/2002, I found a few migrants along Stevens Creek 
above Crittenden Lane.  At the lone euc I saw a WILLOW FLYCATCHER, a HOUSE 
WREN, and 7+ YELLOW WARBLERS.  A hundred meters or so along the creek I saw an 
immature WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW, which is the first I've seen this fall.  I 
then noted a Roland Kenner further up the creek and figured that something 
good must have been found this weekend.  I went to my office, checked my 
e-mail, and noted Mike Rogers American Redstart.  I then walked out and joined 
Roland, Al Eisner, and later Bob Reiling and Frank Vanslager.  There was no 
redstart by the time I left, but Frank and I did see another WILLOW 
FLYCATCHER.

      					Bill

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From: "Mike Mammoser" 
To: SBB 
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2002 11:45:21 -0700
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Late Sunday morning, 15 Sep 02, I checked Stevens Creek north of L'Avenida
for Mike's American Redstart. Chris and Claire Wolf were there when I
arrived and hadn't seen it. Roland Kenner arrived before I left and hadn't
seen it up to my departure. While there, I had 4-5 YELLOW WARBLERS, 2
WILSON'S WARBLERS, 2 "WESTERN" FLYCATCHERS, and a SWAINSON'S THRUSH.

Mike Mammoser

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From: "R. Strait" 
To: "South-bay Bird List" 
Subject: [SBB] Red-shouldered Hawk and Say's Phoebe
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2002 11:47:09 -0700
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Hello,

During a morning walk at Sunnyvale Baylands Park, I was a bit surprised to
find a RED-SHOULDERED HAWK perched on one of the 404(?) line demarcation
poles at the southeast corner of the main park.  The bird moved one pole at
a time ahead of us as we walked giving me excellent views of the bird in
flight.  This bird had the solid reddish breast of a mature bird as shown in
Sibley.  It eventually flew out of sight through the eucalyptus grove along
the Wave Walk.  This is the first time I've seen this species in this park.

Another nice surprise happened just after we passed the observation platform
and walked toward the walkway entrance.  A SAY'S PHOEBE was perched on the
fence between the trail and the walkway.  I got closeup views before this
bird headed out toward the levee.  I've seen this species here during
winter.  I wondered if this was early for seeing this species.

Rosalie Strait

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Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2002 12:10:50 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: [SBB] Say's Pheobe
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Folks:

	Wintering Say's Phoebes turn up sometime in September in most
years.  We also have a very small population of breeding birds in the
the Diablo Range.  It's not certain that they are resident or move
out after breeding.

				Bill

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Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2002 11:50:03 -0700
To: "Tiwari, Vivek" ,
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From: Alvaro Jaramillo 
Subject: Re: [SBB] Id' ing Willow Flycatchers in fall
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At 05:21 PM 9/11/2002 -0700, Tiwari, Vivek wrote:
>We have been seeing reports of migrating Willow Flycatchers.
>I assume none of the birds are calling.
>
>How much confidence can one have wrt a visual id?

Vivek et al.

    In my experience you can have a great deal of confidence making visual 
identifications of Empidonax flycatchers. However it takes a great deal of 
practice, studying calling birds or birds of known species in the hand. 
Even so, you do need a superb look to see all the features you need to see 
to make a confident ID.


>a) Shape of the eyering - tear-shaped and more prominent in "Western"
>b) Color of the upperparts (brownish for Willow vs. olive greenish for
>"Western")
>c) Color of the underparts (whitish throat for Willow contrasting with the
>breast vs. a uniform dirty greenish/yellow
>    throat and breast for "Western")
>d) Difference in the head shape
>e) Difference in bill shape
>f) Difference in size

There is another feature which is not mentioned in field guides and that is 
the wing formula. The wing formula compares lengths of primary feathers, 
and it differs in various Empidonax flycatchers. What you look for is how 
the folded primaries stack up, and mainly if the gaps between primary tips 
are even or there are wider gaps. What the wing formula describes is 
actually the shape of the wing tip, species with short rounded wings look 
quite different than those with long and pointed wings, even when the wing 
is folded. A component to look at is the primary extension, which is the 
length of the visible primaries beyond the longest tertial. Species with 
long wings have long primary extensions, those with short wings have 
shorter primary extension. Generally long-distance migrants tend to have 
longer and more pointed wings, while residents or short distance migrants 
have shorter and more rounded wings. In Willow Flycatcher the primary 
extension is relatively long, and the spacing of primary tips on the folded 
wings is very even. Our other common Empidonax, the Pacific-slope (Western) 
Flycatcher has a shorter primary extension, and there is a larger gap 
between the second primary (counting from the wing tip on the folded wing) 
and the third primary. This gap is even more prominent on Hammond's 
Flycatcher, and their primary extensions are very long. Figuring this stuff 
out takes some practice, but once you know to look for it, it can be really 
enlightening. To practice a bit I would suggest starting to look for 
patterns in common birds. At a feeder try and spot the long-winged 
"Gambell's" White-crowned SParrow in the flock of shorter-winged 
"Puget-sound" White-crowned Sparrow. You can use plumage to confirm your 
identification based on wing length. Also you can compare with the 
long-winged Golden-crowned SParrow to give you some reference. I think 
their primary spacing is all similar, but I have not looked at that feature 
carefully in sparrows.

regards

Al


>Are any of these diagnostic on their own or do we need to check off a
>combination of these features (some of which
>would only seem safe in a side-by-side comparison)?
>(Or am I being too paranoid and old-school here wrt fall Empids?)
>
>Thanks,
>
>Vivek
>email@hidden
>_______________________________________________
>south-bay-birds mailing list | email@hidden
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>http://www.plaidworks.com/mailman/listinfo/south-bay-birds
>Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.

Alvaro Jaramillo
Biologist
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory
P.O. Box 247
Alviso, CA 95002
(408)-946-6548
http://www.sfbbo.org/
email@hidden

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Subject: [SBB] No American Redstart
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All,

This morning Frank Vanslager and I failed to refind the American Redstart 
seen yesterday in Stevens Creek by Mike Rogers.  Roland Kenner, Al Eisner and 
Bill Bousman, who were there ahead of us, also failed to find the bird.  The 
area of "the sighting" was very slow birding (except for HOUSE FINCHES), 
Roland indicated that the birding had been quite a bit better. We did find a 
GREEN HERON in the open portion of the creek near L'Avenida, a PEREGRINE 
FALCON on a power tower in Salt Pond A2W and two BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS joined 
the SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS, LONG-BILLED CURLEWS, WHIMBRELS, both "peeps" and 
mostly eclipse plumaged ducks in the Stevens Creek Mitigation Pond.  Several 
calling VIRGINIA RAILS near the bridge over the southern portion of the pond 
became county year bird # 232 for me (bad record keeping on my part).

Take care,
Bob Reiling, 1:55 PM, 9/16/02 

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Subject: [SBB] Weekend birds
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This last Saturday, 9/14/02, two of my daughters (Shawn and Kim) flew up from 
Riverside County to join me in their first Pelagic Bird trip out of Monterey.  
(See http://www.montereybaywhalewatch.com) We observed Elegant, Arctic, and 
Common Terns, a Sabine's Gull, great looks at one gorgeous Tufted Puffin, a 
dozen or more Black-Footed Albatrosses (seven together at one time), several 
Buller's Shearwater's and Pink-Footed Shearwaters among thousands of Sooty 
Shearwaters, and two Cassein's Auklets.

A pod of four Killer Whales put on quite a show as two of the three females 
shared a Sea Lion lunch, on-board 'experts' estimated a school of Northern 
White-sided and Right-Whale  dolpins numbered between two and three thousand, 
and a young Blue Whale Dolphins.  A very impressive sight.

Then in my own backyard on Sunday, we were watching a squirrel hang by its hind 
legs from the top of my large 'squirrel-proof' sunflower feeder eating 
sunflower seeds, an adult male Cooper's Hawk (COHA) exploded into view to 
capture a Mourning Dove (MODO) feeding on the ground directly below the thistle 
feeder.  The squirrel never moved, didn't stop feeding or even appear to notice 
the hawk.  The COHA kept looking up at the squirrel until the MODO finally 
stopped struggling.  He spent about 5 minutes on the ground then finally flew 
off with its breakfast.  Shawn and Kim found it awesome. I belive we have a 
couple of new birders in the family.  What a week-end.

Karl

--
American Kestrel - Falcon 
Sparverius - The tiny but 
mighty falcon.	

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From: "Mike Mammoser" 
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Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2002 15:05:08 -0700
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This afternoon, 16 Sep 02, I again visited the Sunnyvale fennel patch with
much the same results as previously - 15 YELLOW WARBLERS, 2 ORANGE-CROWNED
WARBLERS, and 6 COMMON YELLOWTHROATS.

Mike Mammoser