Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!olivea!oliven!mjm
From: mjm@oliven.olivetti.com (Michael Mammoser)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: vagrants
Message-ID: <50204@olivea.atc.olivetti.com>
Date: 23 Jan 91 02:46:51 GMT
Sender: news@olivea.atc.olivetti.com
Lines: 124


	While attending the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society
membership meeting last Wednesday, a friend informed me that a
Yellow Billed Loon had been found at the entrance to the Moss 
Landing Harbor on Monterey Bay. Also a Gray Catbird was seen at
a place called Pajaro Dunes, a little north of the harbor. I needed
the loon for my life list and the catbird for my state list, so
I decided to go after them on Saturday.

	Early in the morning I arrived at Moss Landing Harbor. A
small channel connects the harbor with Monterey Bay, each side of the
channel bounded by a jetty that is about 30 yards long. I drove to
the base of the south jetty and found a couple of other birders
already there. Unfortunately, they hadn't found the loon, so I started
to scope out the water outside the harbor mouth. There were plenty
of birds foraging close in to shore: Surf Scoters, Western Grebes,
Clark's Grebes, Red Necked Grebes, Horned Grebes, Common Murres, a 
horde of Red Throated Loons, a couple of Pacific Loons, and a handful 
of Common Loons. I checked the Commons over carefully, but couldn't find 
any that I could stretch into a Yellow Billed. Northern Fulmars skimmed
low over the waves further out and a small flock of Bonaparte's Gulls
foraged on the water, leap-frogging over each other as their prey
moved along.

	After an hour or so, I decided to try the harbor itself.
As I walked to a spot that overlooked the harbor, I was pleasantly
surprised by an immature Peregrine Falcon flying by. The birds were
surprised as well, but not as pleasantly as I. Some old pilings in the
water were "piled" with gulls (Western, Glaucous Winged, Herring,
Heermann's), cormorants (Double Crested, Brandt's, Pelagic), and a few
Brown Pelicans. The water had the same birds as outside the harbor,
plus Eared Grebes, Common Goldeneyes, Red Breasted Mergansers, and
some Sanderlings poking around the edge. Still no loon, however.

	I returned to the harbor mouth and walked out to the end of
the jetty, where a couple of birders had gathered. We spent some time
talking and scanning the water. A Sea Otter floated on its back in the
harbor channel, a rock sitting on its stomach, and a crab firmly
grasped in its front paws. It alternated between smacking the crab on
the rock and chewing on it.

	Finally, I spied a large loon just off the north jetty that
seemed lighter in color, with a larger bill than the Commons. As I
swung my scope towards it, however, it dove. I said nothing to the
others; not being sure of the identification and not wanting to
embarass myself if I was wrong. I scanned the water out in front of
the jetty for what seemed like an eternity. When the bird surfaced,
I tried again to get my scope on it; only to have it dive again. This
happened a couple of times before it stayed up long enough to get a
look through the scope. It was a brownish color, lighter than the 
Common Loons, and had a distinct pattern of dark barring on the back.
The dark eye stood out on the pale face, and there was a dark spot on
the side of the face behind the eye. The bill was longer than that of
the Common Loons, light yellow in color, and had an upturned look to it.
I yelled out that I had the bird; just as it dove again.

	Now, instead of directing the others to a bird sitting on the
water, I had to direct them to a spot on the water where the bird had
gone down. The loon was staying down for a long time, and I'm sure that
they were beginning to doubt me (I would say "look about 30 yards out
from the jetty". They would say "I see a Common Loon there". I would
say "that's not it, it's still under water"). Then, as the bird resurfaced,
it played the same game as before; diving again before they could get
their glasses on it. However, the bird stayed here for some time and
everyone finally got good looks at it (it eventually stopped diving and
sat up on the water preening itself). 

	I headed out for Pajaro Dunes, which is a housing subdivision
near the mouth of the Pajaro River. The subdivision is fenced off and
has a gate at the entrance with a small gatehouse. I stopped at the
gatehouse and received permission to look for the catbird, which was
being seen in the hedge near the gate. I only had to wait for a couple
of minutes before the catbird jumped up onto the fence (I had been told 
that it was being very cooperative; for a catbird). It then flew into a
group of cypress trees and started acting more like a typical catbird;
staying out of sight and not moving.

	Having found the two birds that I was after, I figured that I
would check out a couple of other vagrants that I had seen about three
weeks before. One was an alleged White Wagtail that was spending its time
at the Moon Glow Dairy, a dairy co-op that was situated along the edge
of Elkhorn Slough. It was supposed to be found either at a diked-in pond
along the slough or at a row of manure piles just outside the veal pens.
As I pulled up to the manure piles, I spotted a friend, who informed me
that a Rusty Blackbird had also been seen in with the flocks of blackbirds.
As we talked, we watched a car come by driven by Guy McKaskie, followed
by Shawneen Finnegan, and a little later Jon Dunn; a veritable who's who
of west coast birders. We figured that this was good company to keep and
joined them in a Rusty Blackbird hunt through the flocks of Starlings,
Red Winged, Tricolored, and Brewer's Blackbirds; all to no avail. As we
moved to a point that overlooks the slough, a Merlin made a low fly-by,
scattering blackbirds; while three Sandhill Cranes circled overhead.

	The pond we were overlooking contained well over 1000 Green
Winged Teal and a few Northern Pintail, but little else. However, someone
in the group of people finally found the wagtail working along the edge
of the water and we all trained our scopes on it. It was quite interesting
listening to Jon Dunn and Guy McKaskie debate the field characteristics
of this bird. Finally, they determined that it was an immature bird and
could not be identified to species (White and Black Backed Wagtails look
virtually alike as immatures).

	After this I, and almost all the others at the dairy, headed for
Santa Cruz, where a Brambling has been hanging out at a vacant lot next
to a small park. We kept watch on the dense undergrowth, trying to pick
out the Brambling from the Hermit Thrushes, California Towhees, Bushtits,
House Finches, White Crowned, and Golden Crowned Sparrows. After a couple
of hours of this, I was getting ready to call it quits when Guy McKaskie 
went to check out a bird that had just flown into a tree. As he got into 
position, the bird flew and gave a goldfinch-like call. He yelled "there
it is" and we watched as it flew down the draw at the back of the lot
and out of sight. We all filed down a trail in the direction that the
bird had gone until it ended at a small marsh, bordered on one side by
a street with a house at the end and the other by a dense growth of
pussy willows. Someone found the bird sitting in the pussy willows eating
the willow buds and we spent the next half hour watching it from as
little as 30-40 feet. It finally flew off over the houses, bringing my
birding day to an end.

	It's always nice to be able to spend the day birding, but it's
an extra special treat to find such a group of rarities in the same
area to add some spice to the trip.

Mike