great blue heron, san joaquin wildlife sanctuary, irvine, ca
Look, you can see right through the side of its cornea. It was pretty spectacular to see this through the bins, much brighter than here. I was hoping to get one photo where the bird was looking away, and this is it. I had spent a day birding with Amy of WildBird magazine in Orange County, cruising the Back Bay in a remarkable 1972 BMW and feeling about as cool as one can be when you are pulling over constantly to look for birds hiding in the mud. Highlights were a Clapper Rail and a Eurasian Green-winged Teal (got a photo, but this one’s a lumper splitter lumper so it doesn’t does count? still cool). The egrets and herons were being odd, with many of them land-hiking and peering dimly into reeds and bushes, necks swaying uneasily but a little too purposefully to be described as drunken. We surmised, to the best of our abilities, that they were after insects, or perhaps were intoxicated by the 80+ degree weather and were thinking about nests, etc. Day list:
Upper Newport Bay & San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, CA, Feb 1, 2009
Canada Goose
American Wigeon
Mallard
Cinnamon Teal
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal (1 Euarasian, many American)
Greater Scaup
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Ruddy Duck
Pied-billed Grebe
Eared Grebe
Western Grebe
American White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
Clapper Rail
American Coot
Black-bellied Plover
Killdeer
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Long-billed Curlew
Marbled Godwit
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Dowitcher sp.
Ring-billed Gull
Western Gull
California Gull
Forster’s Tern
Royal Tern
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Anna’s Hummingbird
Allen’s Hummingbird
Rufous/Allen’s Hummingbird
Black Phoebe
Say’s Phoebe
American Crow
Common Raven
swallow sp. (prob. Tree)
Bushtit
Marsh Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Spotted Towhee
California Towhee
Savannah Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow (Belding’s)
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Blackbird sp.
House Finch
House Sparrow
Nice list Catherine and great phots.
COMMON TEAL (A. crecca) is an accepted split and should be listed as such as separate from GREEN-WINGED TEAL (A. carolinensis). If you list Cackling Goose as a separate species (and you should), you really should list COMMON TEAL under a separate heading. That species is yearly in MA (typically a handful every year), most often in spring and have even been recorded in Worcester County: as have HYBRIDS!
Mark
Thought it was lumped? I’ll look it up.
It was one of those cases of first: (1)separate species; then (2) lumped; now (3) split again. Like Wilson’s Snipe.
Mark
OK, but:
lumped or split in Clement’s?
lumped or split according to AOU?
Let’s get into the nitty gritty. And which do you prefer to follow if they disagree? nobody’s reading this now anyway…
Can of worms=this discussion. Discussing taxonomy and cladistics is like arguing quantum theory: lots of heat, dangerously little solid ground. Though I use BirdBase, which is Clements-based , most other folks I deal with use other taxonomies. Like MAS. Push comes to shove, I depend on AOU as the bottom line, though typically the Brits are always ahead of the curve even compared to them. It pays to subscribe to BRITISH BIRDS BTW. I end up getting more useful info there than I do from BIRDING. (general statement). The Common/Green-winged Teal split has been in the works for years, as have Wilson’s/Common Snipe. I first learned how to tell Wilson’s from Common Snipe in British Birds, where soem birders were already looking for the vagrant (Wilson’s) and found and photo’s one.
Sometimes trends in species naming leap ahead of the research: Here in MA, most folks don’t even use the name: ICELAND GULL anymore, but instead use KUMLIEN’S to refer to the birds we see here. People are actually on the look out for ICELAND GULLS (which are much, much rarer than Kumlien’s). A mega-serious British trip leader I know who lives nearby uses the same language. But I think that is a case of really jumping the gun. Even in Howell’s latest GULLS book, it’s practically admitted that Larus taxonomoy is in the state of a ruggers scrum. It can go in any number of ways dependant on future field and lab research. This is why in birding there is so much emphsis now on recognizeable ssp>I think hardcores are just hoping they will have a leg up on the next split. It’s also a classic way to get one up on birding compatriots by seeming more erudite.
BTW: I have had ORNITHOLOGISTS tell me they really don’t have a clear idea of what a species is anymore when it comes to birds like gulls: it’s more a moving target. With herps and mammals it’s more straightforward: mountains and islands pose real lasting barriers. But butterflies are even in more of a taxonomic disorder, especially Rocky Mountain species.
RE: WATERFOWL: don’t even start me in a discussion about the natural or captive origins of vagrant waterfowl. The stories I could tell you would make your eyes bleed. All I can say is this: in MA there are MANY waterfowl collectors. They own all species including stuff like Smews, Stellar’s Eider et; Though adults are typically banded or/and pinioned, free flying young are often traded AND GET AWAY frequently. In all honestly, I can’t tell if any one duck is really wild. I just go with the flow.
Practical question: In SoCal: are both dowitcher species equally common coastally in winter? ie: equally expected? I thought Long-billeds were by far more common inland.
Mark