[obol] Sally's Bend Today

[Cindy Ashy]

I spent from mid-afternoon to about 7:00 at Sally's Bend today. The weather was
different from yesterday...sunny and less wind. The tide was way out with an
extensive mudflat when I first got there and about half way in when I left.

The most abundant bird by far were Bonaparte's Gulls...I counted 145, mostly
immature/non-breeding with only 11 in full adult breeding plumage. I got a kick
out of their almost constant "conversation"...their voices reminding me of a
cross between a tern and a murre...rowdy bar laughter. They were skittish and
one crow in particular had them moving around quite a lot.

There were 60 - 70 Mew Gulls for the first 2-3 hours and then they left. Mew
gulls are fun to watch when they get their boogie woogie shuffle thing going.
There were also 15 California Gulls, including some immatures and adults.

There were far fewer Whimbrels today but still about 2 dozen. I forgot to
mention yesterday how vocal they were and this continued today. They have a
resonant melodious peaceful sound and I really enjoyed listening to them.
Reminded me of a mid-sized clay ocarina. They were foraging constantly on
something squiggly and worm-like. It was interesting that they would always
shake the "worm" in water to get the mud off before they would swallow
it....and this seemed a very tempting target for the California Gulls who kept
rushing in to try to steal it. In fact, many times the Whimbrel would have to
take flight with their grub to get away from the gull. I saw the gulls win this
battle 3 times but the majority of the time the Whimbrels won. Right before I
left, it seemed like some of the Whimbrels engaged in a very vocal nuptial
flight....I'm calling it that because it was so similar to what I've seen Black
Oystercatchers do...but if anyone has another idea, please enlighten me. The
sight and sound of it was spectacular and the perfect ending to the outing.

I spotted a dowitcher foraging and had the good fortune that it was fairly
close. I studied it a long time and convinced myself it was a Long-billed
Dowitcher. They eat mud and all by the way.

Watching a Whimbrel and the Long-billed Dowitcher bathe and preen in the same
60x field of view, I got to thinking about how some beaks are designed better
for preening than others...and it must be something of a trade-off for
"specialty beaks."

The cutest thing I observed by far was an adorable downy Killdeer chick. I had
been watching 2 adult Killdeer all afternoon just down the hill from where I
had the scope set up. I watched them display their rufous feathers and make
little "chipping" calls back and forth and they copulated. Several times they
sounded their alarm calls which caused a wave of various types of alarm sounds
across the whole mudflat. They were definitely the sentries of the flat. Not
long before I left with the light fading a bit, I caught sight of the mother
Killdeer brooding her chick....all I could see were the little feet and the
cute downy tail of the chick sticking out from her breast. I tried to not make
any sudden movements or loud sounds and after a while she let junior take a
walk about...it was about half the size of Mom and as fluffy as a kitten. Cute!

There were many Great Blue Heron congregating in the distance, my highest count
being 34...and I'm betting there were more around the bend. They came in closer
following the tide before I left.

Turkey Vulures passed over numerous times but I never saw them land. The gulls
make some aerial attacks on them.

Although I wasn't really making any effort at all to see passerines, they
seemed to keep vying for my attention. Barn Swallows with their brillant
flashes of orange and blue would whiz by occasionally, sometimes close enough
for me to see their forked tails. Besides these animated suncatchers, a
brownish/whitish swallow was also quite active in the area. I never convinced
myself 100% what species it was but I am heavily leaning toward Northern
Rough-winged Swallows. One curous American Robin kept checking me out from the
safety of a nearby tree and a small flock of them foraged on the mudflat. I've
seen robins do this often enough at this spot that I'm going to let them be
honorary shorebirds. A male Rufous Hummingbird buzzed near me a few times.
White-crowned Sparrows and Chestnut-backed Chickadees sang songs to me
ocassionally giving me a glimpse. There was also a bright yellow mystery bird
but it shall remain a mystery because I could never get a good enough look at
it to even begin to look it up.

Cindy Ashy




       
____________________________________________________________________________________Give spam the boot. Take control with tough spam protection in the all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta.
http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/newmail_html.html