[EBB Sightings] Hayward Shoreline - West Winton - Longspur?

Hanno and I went to West Winton Ave this morning - the northerly entrance  to 
Hayward Shoreline.  We walked up on Mt Trashmore, wondering if we might  see 
something interesting in all the mown straw, but there was only a single  
meadowlark.  The ponds to the east were thick with red-necked  phalaropes.  
 
We walked back down the main trail toward the shore, looking at yellow and  
orange-crowned warblers in the anise.  A sparrow-like critter popped  into 
view, description as follows -- and apologies ahead for the somewhat shoddy  
details.  
 
Overall the bird was buffy, slightly larger than a yellow warbler.   The back 
was strongly streaked, the breast mostly unstreaked.  The bill was  conical, 
pale yellowish with a darker tip.  The bird had a buffy  eyering, with a pale 
eyeline extending back from the eye.  If there was an  auricular patch, it was 
very poorly demarcated.  The throat was pale  buffy.  The greater coverts 
seemed to be a warmer (redder) buff than the  rest of the bird, and the lesser 
coverts were black centered.  The bird  took off - the tail was black with white 
outer tail feathers, but we weren't  sure of the pattern.  Hanno noted a 
paler rump vs the back.  I thought  it was a longspur.  I don't know for sure, and 
I'd sure be interested in  hearing if anyone else sees this bird.  The 
strange thing was, it was in  the anise with the warblers, not on the dusty path 
where a proper longspur  should be.  I'm suspecting a little that I had longspurs 
on the mind, but  this guy sure seemed to fit the bill.  I didn't note the 
nape, the primary  extension, whether there was really any streaking on the 
breast, or 100 other  things.
 
We walked the trail a couple of times, but failed to find the critter  again. 
 There were lots of Red Knots at the end of the trail, feeding with  many 
other shorebirds (Willets, LB Curlews, BB Plover, dowitchers, Marbled  Godwits, 
avocets, a few stilts, westerns and a Least SP).
 
Bob Lewis
_RLewis0727 at aol.com_ (mailto:RLewis0727 at aol.com) 
Berkeley, CA