How Little I Know -- Moonglow Dairy, 10/8/2013

The Monterey Bay birding community has been all a..let's say buzz, about Blue-footed Boobies and Sharptailed Sandpipers recently. Since I have a penchant for absurd-looking animals, and there few birds as absurd-looking as a Blue-footed Booby, I did my best to locate one in the several places people have seen them. No joy.

The Sharptailed Sandpiper I was less excited about, mainly because sandpipers, like sparrows and gulls, seem to exist primarily to confuse me. It's not like they all look the same...really. Nonetheless, when a friend asked if I was game to tag along while he looked for it, I went eagerly. There have been several ST Sandpipers in the area recently, but the one we wanted to find has been hanging around Moonglow Dairy in Monterey Co. That this is a spot that I've been eager to see for a while added to my interest. Moonglow is adjacent to Elkhorn Slough, and shares many features with the Research Reserve, but also has two ponds, one fresh water, and one brackish. The place is pretty famous among birders, but I've never been clear how to access it.

The Sharptailed Sandpiper has been keeping company with a number of Pectoral Sandpipers, which it looks very much like. This actually worked to my advantage, as I've never knowingly seen a Pectoral, either, and so even if we couldn't pick the ST out of the pack, I'd still see at least one new bird.

Moonglow didn't disappoint. There were hundreds of birds, of many different species. We saw American Avocets, Red-necked Phalaropes, Black-bellied Plovers, Least Sandpipers, Killdeer, Long-billed Curlew, Yellow Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, Savannah's Sparrows, and many ducks that I couldn't get a clear look at. The bit of the Slough accessible from the property had Clark's and Western Grebes, CA Brown Pelicans, and what I thought was a Pacific, but turned out to be a Common, Loon. There were also a couple of Southern Sea Otters visible, although they were too far out for a photo. One stretch that was pockmarked with little pools had many dead or dying Pacific Sea Nettles.

The Pectoral Sandpipers turned out to be easy to pick out of the crowd, as they were bigger than any of the Sandpipers near them. Mixed in with the Pectorals were a number of Western Sandpipers, another new species for me. Both birds were exciting to see, but I was really impressed with the marbling on the back of the Pectorals. Very beautiful birds.

We weren't seeing the Sharptailed, though. Or at least, we didn't know if we could see it. We zeroed in on a number of Pectorals that we thought "looked a little different" but which all turned out to be Pectorals. Finally, some better equipped birders turned up with a scope, and managed to pick out the Sharptailed pretty easily. We were looking in the wrong spot. I got to observe the bird several times through the scope, and even pressed my lens up to the eyepiece to get the rather awful voucher shot in the iNat record. The owner of the scope turned out to be an employee of one of the Sierra National Parks, and while he's furloughed he's traveling around the state, seeing interesting birds. So I owe my Sharptailed Sandpiper sighting to a very friendly, helpful, and above all patient federal employee, and to the childlike intransigence of the nitwits in Washington. Strange world.

Julkaistu lokakuu 11, 2013 04:17 IP. käyttäjältä jmaughn