[EBB Sightings] a rare day in june

I too was surprised at all the long-billed curlews
along the Hayward shoreline this weekend, my first
time at that spot - I probably saw at least two dozen
in several small groups.  Lots of avocets too.  Didn't
see any stilts for some reason.  The apparently very
low tide on Sunday morning surely helped invite the
curlews and avocets to forage close to land.  This
little guy made quite a spectacle when he plucked a
small crab out of a shallow tidepool in the mudflats.

http://www.pbase.com/zeiler/image/44708070
http://www.pbase.com/zeiler/image/44708071

--- Phila Rogers  wrote:

> Dear Friends:
> 
> Black-bellied plovers, marbled godwits, dowitchers,
> willets, curlews, canvasback duck, scaups, cinnamon
> teal, gadwalls -- a nice sampling of winter birds at
> Hayward Shores?  No, a fine day in June with a light
> breeze, in the mid-70s.  Emilie Strauss, my
> companion for the morning, noted that we were seeing
> more curlew (four?) than one often sees in the
> winter.
> 
> We didn't see the grackle taking swallow chicks as
> Terry Coddington reported, or any grackles at all. 
> Emilie noted that because the weeds have taken over
> the islands previously used by terns for breeding,
> our tern sightings were restricted to one distant
> least tern and a few Forster flybys.
> 
> For someone like me who thinks of Bay marshes and
> mudflats as being mostly deserted this time of the
> year, it was a heartening experience.  Add in mild
> weather, good visibility, and the broad exhilarating
> stretches of a south bay tideland and one couldn't
> have hoped for a pleasanter morning.
> 
> Phila Rogers
>   



		
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