Blue-winged Teal at Arrowhead Marsh, Oakland
Fri, 13 Feb 2004 09:38:14 -0800
From: Terry Coddington
Dear EBBers,
Sorry for the delay, but a Tuesday walk (East Bay Regional Parks type) at Arrowhead Marsh (in Martin Luther King Jr Regional Shoreline, Oakland) yielded a new find (at least for this year, and maybe for last) of a drake Blue-winged Teal along with sightings of the southeast-corner Burrowing Owl, eight or ten different Clapper Rail sightings and Black Turnstones, along with many of the usual suspects. The Blue-winged Teal spent the afternoon napping across the channel (north) of the paved path to the long pier, but by sundown was paddling north toward Alameda along the main channel.
Good birding,
Terry Coddington
Re: Photos of mystery peep at San Leandro Marina
Fri, 13 Feb 2004 15:55:36 -0800
From: Debbie Viess
Joseph Morlan wrote:
It looks like a partial albino Least Sandpiper to me.
A slight correction: an albino has no coloration, i.e., it is all white, with pink eyes. This Least Sandpiper would be more properly called a partial leucistic. Despite the odd coloration, it screams (peeps loudly?) "Least," because of the small size, yellow legs, slightly downturned bill and hunkered posture.
Peep to me only with thine eyes, and I will bird with mine (since my binocs are still at the Bushnell Factory).
Debbie Viess
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Re: Photos of mystery peep at San Leandro Marina
Fri, 13 Feb 2004 17:19:06 -0800
From: Gary Baker
Hi All,
The bird in the photo is exactly as I sew it clearly for 5 minutes from 20 feet with a spotting scope.
I had mentioned it was solitary. No other birds around. Standing on a small rock about 3 feet out in the water. Not moving. Not the behavior of Least Sandpipers I usually see.
The main difference, though, is the bird was about 7 inches long and about twice the mass of a Least Sandpiper. I thought it was a Spotted Sandpiper with an unusual white face patch, at the time. Funny squatted posture though. Hmmm....
New word for me, "leucistic."
Cheers,
Gary
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Re: Photos of mystery peep at San Leandro Marina
Fri, 13 Feb 2004 17:20:53 -0800
From: Joseph Morlan
Debbie Viess wrote:
A slight correction: an albino has no coloration, i.e., it is all white, with pink eyes. This Least Sandpiper would be more properly called a partial leucistic.
Cf. http://www.rspb.org.uk/birds/advice/albinism/albinism.asp
Joseph Morlan, Pacifica, CA
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Re: Photos of mystery peep at San Leandro Marina
Fri, 13 Feb 2004 19:25:29 -0800
From: Debbie Viess
Gary Baker wrote:
The main difference, though, is the bird was about 7 inches long and about twice the mass of a Least Sandpiper. I thought it was a Spotted Sandpiper with an unusual white face patch, at the time. Funny squatted posture though. Hmmm....
New word for me, "leucistic."
Another theory shot to hell. Leucistic is right, tho.
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Re: Photos of mystery peep at San Leandro Marina
Fri, 13 Feb 2004 21:55:50 -0800
From: Larry Tunstall
I am forwarding the following message to the list for Mike Rogers (delayed while I checked to be sure he wanted it forwarded):
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2004 10:45 PM
Subject: leucistic shorebirdThe orange leg and bill color of that shorebird are the result of leucism, which is also evident in the bird's plumage. The identification is best made by comparing the bird to other nearby shorebirds. I seem to remember that the observer stated that it was similar in size to nearby Least Sandpipers? Certainly the "normal" parts of the plumage seem consistent with that identification.
There was a leucistic Least Sandpiper up at Marina Bay Parkway in Richmond, Contra Costa County, about a year ago (I saw it on 1 December 2002) that was misidentified as a Piping Plover because of the bill color (although the shape was obviously off).
Mike Rogers
Posted to EBB by Larry Tunstall
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