Re: Dancing Mew Gull on Albany mudflats
Sun,
15 Feb 2004 11:15:24 -0800
From: Kathy Robertson
Rusty Scalf wrote:
In Albany Tim Molter spotted a Mew Gull that was in a shallow pool on the mudflat. The bird was doing a Snowy Egret-like dance, moving its feet up and down quite rapidly, stirring up the mud. It then quickly picked small prey items out of the stirred water. This behavior continued for several minutes. Has anyone on this list observed such behaviour?
Rusty (& all):
Funny you should ask. I witnessed just that behavior yesterday (Friday, 13 February) in a group of about half a dozen Mew Gulls at the Oakland Estuary, adjacent to Embarcadero Way just across from Coast Guard Island.
Regards,
Kathy Robertson
Hayward, CA
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East Bay birding
Sun, 15 Feb 2004 11:19:43
-0800
From: Jim Rowoth
All,
Frances Oliver, Liz West and I traveled from the Central Valley to look for some East Bay "goodies" on Saturday, February 14. Our first stop was San Leandro's Marina Park - nothing unusual, but we were pleasantly surprised by the number of close-up Horned Grebes.
From there, to the Lake Merritt outlet at Laney College, where Liz almost immediately found the male Tufted Duck amidst a couple dozen scaups between 7th St and the freeway. The light breeze and the bird's frequent head-shaking made it a snap to see its tuft. From here, we headed to Children's Fairyland. Not knowing just where the park was at Lake Merritt, we paid our $2 parking fee (you can park on the street outside for free), we quickly found the park. We weren't sure if we had to pay the $6.50 entry fee for the park itself (don't!), but decided to check the perimeter first for the previously described purple mushrooms. Just to the right of the entrance just inside the fence, we found the mushrooms and began our search for the Black-and-white Warbler. A very vocal Hutton's Vireo, shouting to be heard over the traffic, gave good looks. Then, off to the northwest(?) in a small grove, I espied a small nuthatch-type bird low on the trunk of a live oak. We immediately headed over there and had our target bird, in the company of several chickadees, bushtits, one Townsend's Warbler, one Orange-crowned Warbler, one titmouse. Also in the vicinity were several Lesser Goldfinches. The tail end of Joe Morlan's birding class with Lillian Fujii showed up as we were leaving; I'm not sure if they refound the bird. As we left, a Black-throated Gray Warbler announced his presence and gave us satisfactory looks. We walked over to the visitor's center in search of Cattle Egret but missed it. The vast numbers and close proximity of city pigeons and other freeloading birds and the accompanying smell was a real turn-off for me anyway. However, we got excellent close up looks at a variety of gulls and ducks (no Barrow's Goldeneyes).
We moved on to Tilden Regional Park, where we found the sapsucker tree with little effort, but no Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. We had only 3 Buffleheads on Jewel Lake and Allen's Hummingbirds zipping around us on the boardwalk. On the utility road behind the nature center, we had Golden-crowned Kinglets and the two species of Red-breasted you would expect here. We heard the soft hoot of a Great Horned Owl off in the woods.
Our final stop was the San Pablo Reservoir, where we had several dozen Common Mergansers and a smattering of dabblers (Gadwall, American Wigeon, Mallard), Pied-billed Grebe, Eared Grebe, and Western Grebe.
Jim Rowoth
Stockton
Coyote Hills Regional Park, Fremont
Sun, 15
Feb 2004 14:22:19 -0800 (PST)
From: Bob Power
Hi all:
The Oakland Bird Club had a great outing at Coyote Hills Regional Park this morning. We were delighted that Chris Garcia, outstanding ranger-naturalist for the Park District was able to lead our group.
Highlights were:
Good birding,
Bob Power
Albinism versus leucism
Sun, 15 Feb 2004 16:52:21
-0800 (PST)
From: Floyd Hayes
The comments on albinism versus leucism piqued my curiosity. Here are some terms and definitions that I gleaned from some of the classic literature on abnormal plumage in my files:
Sage, B. L. 1962. Albinism and melanism in birds. British Birds 55:201-225. "Albinism in its various forms may be defined as the complete or partial absence or suppression of the normal coloured pigments" (p. 204). No mention of leucism.
Sage, B. L. 1962. The incidence of albinism and melanism in British birds. British Birds 56:409-416. "The records were also classified under partial or complete albinism. Pure or incomplete albinism, in the strictest sense, involves a complete lack of pigment in the soft parts as well as the whole plumage" (p. 411). No mention of leucism.
Ross, C. C. 1963. Albinism among North American birds. Cassinia 47:2-21. "I am following Pettingill (1956), who recognizes four degrees of albinism: (1) Total albinism, when the pigment is completely absent from plumage, irides, and skin (2) Incomplete albinism, when the pigment is completely absent from the plumage, or irides, or skin, but not from all three (3) Imperfect albinism, when the pigment is reduced or diluted in any or all three areas but never completely absent, and (4) Partial albinism, when the pigment is completely or partially absent from parts of any or all three areas" (p. 3). No mention of leucism.
Rollin, N. 1964. Non-hereditary and hereditary abnormal plumage. Bird Research 2:1-44. "Where part of the melanin pigment is missing resulting in a pale feather, or where all the melanin is missing resulting in a white feather. The latter condition in the present paper is termed abnormal white, but is frequently referred to as albinism. Only a very small proportion of abnormal white birds are true albinos" (p. 4). No mention of leucism but the author is obviously reluctant to use the term "partial albinism."
Gross, A. O. 1965. The incidence of albinism in North American birds. Bird-Banding 36:67-71. "Albinos may be classified into four groups: 1. total or pure, 2. incomplete, 3. imperfect, 4. partial." (p. 67). No mention of leucism. Buckley, P. A. 1982. Avian genetics. Pp. 21-110 in M. Petrak (ed.), Diseases of cage and aviary birds, 2nd ed. Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia. "Perhaps more loosely and improperly used than any other term relating to color in birds, albinism is, no more and no less, the complete absence of all pigmentation, resulting in white feathers (for the reasons just discussed), pink eyes (no melanin obscures blood circulation, cause of the pink color) and light bills and legs/feet. Albinism is all or nothing, and a bird can no more be a 'partial albino' than a female mammal 'partially pregnant.' ... What is most frequently termed albinism by the layman is properly called leucism. It may be complete or partial, bilaterally symmetrical or asymmetrical, and may affect melanins, carotenoids and porphyrins differentially. Leucism is simply the complete loss of a particular pigment, or all pigments, in feathers but not in soft parts. It may be as slight as a single white primary feather on only one wing, or as pervasive as an all-white bird with normal eyes, bill and legs" (p. 65).
For years I assumed that Buckley�s terms and definitions were generally accepted by the ornithological community--but perhaps I�m mistaken. Frank Gill's 1st edition of Ornithology ignores the subject (I don't have the 2nd edition). I�m left wondering who coined the term leucism to replace partial albinism and when it was first proposed. And I�m wondering if a consensus even exists on terms and definitions for abnormally plumaged birds. If anybody could enlighten me further I'd be delighted.
Floyd Hayes
Angwin, CA
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Green Heron at Antioch Marina
Sun, 15 Feb
2004 17:22:08 -0800
From: Terry Coddington
Dear EBBers,
We did a recent Delta boat trip (February 8) with the California Academy of Sciences, and I just realized that part of that trip was EBB territory: A tip for those needing a Green Heron fix is that there is a resident Green Heron at the Antioch Marina - we saw him perched on a large motor yacht as we waited to enter the gate to the mooring docks and were told that he is a regular there. Common Moorhens were visible on the channel just outside the marina, which is off State Hwy 4 at the north end of L St.
Good birding.
Terry Coddington
Surfbirds on Berkeley waterfront
Sun, 15 Feb
2004 18:26:15 -0800
From: Michael Butler
Pamela Llewellyn spotted 3 Surfbirds this morning on the Berkeley waterfront while on a training run for a 26-mile AIDS marathon. They were still there this afternoon at about 4:00 PM when she showed me where they were. If you park at the Seabreeze Market at the corner of University Ave and the frontage road west of Hwy 80 and then walk south on the new pathway under the pedestrian overpass towards Ashby Ave for about a quarter-mile or so, they are working the exposed rocks near a group of Willets and Marbled Godwits.
Michael Butler
Re: Albinism versus leucism
Sun, 15 Feb 2004
19:16:17 PST
From: Bob Lewis
Floyd Hayes wrote:
Frank Gill's 1st edition of Ornithology ignores the subject (I don't have the 2nd edition).
Floyd, Gill's second edition also ignores the issue.
Bob Lewis
Berkeley, CA
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Re: Albinism versus leucism
Sun, 15 Feb 2004
19:51:39 -0800
From: Larry Tunstall
Just to add a bit more evidence of confusion of terminology.
The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds by John K. Terres, Random House (1956-1980), has the following under Albinism:
...an albino ... bird has white feathers instead of the usual colors of its species (e.g., black or brown), and the white feathers may cover the bird wholly or in part, as there are various degrees of albinism....
The various degrees of albinism, classified by two geneticists, Mueller and Hutt (1941), and adopted by Nero (1954) and Pettingill (1956; 1970) are:
(1) Total Albinism: The rarest form, in which the bird has a complete absence of melanin (dark coloring pigment) from the eyes, skin, and feathers.
(2) Incomplete Albinism: Pigment is completely absent from either eyes, skin, or feathers but not all three.
(3) Imperfect Albinism: Pigment formation is partially inhibited (reduced) in eyes, skin, or feathers but pigment is not toally inhibited in any.
(4) Partial Albinism: The commonest form; complete or partial albinism within local parts of the body which may involve certain feathers only; it is often symmetrical and each side of the bird may show white feathers in the same pattern....
Under the subheading Abnormal Colors under Colors of Feather:
Another abnormal color phenomenon of birds is called schizochroism, a term applied to an abnormally pale, washed-out bird whose paleness results from an absence of one of the pigments normally present in its plumage.... See also leucism in Harrison, J. M. (1964b), a condition closely allied to albinism.
The latter reference is:
Harrison, J. M. 1964b. Plumage: Abnormal and aberrant. In A New Dictionary of Birds, ed. A. L. Thomson. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.
Sounds like a careful description of the bird is the only way to avoid confusion about what you mean.
Good birding, Larry
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA
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Jordan Pond, Garin Regional Park, Hayward
Sun, 15 Feb 2004 21:35:55 -0800
From: Debbie Wong
Now that you have mentioned it, Jordan Pond in Garin Regional Park (Hayward) has some nice ducks in winter. There was a pair of Hooded Merganser there on Saturday 7 February. Also on 7 February was a single Ring-necked Duck. I also recorded one male Ring-necked Duck on January 8, 2004.
On January 20, 2004 there was one Canvasback. I checked my records, there was
Who knows what else is there when we are not looking.
Debbie