Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!sid
From: sid@jato.jpl.nasa.gov (Sid Johnson WB6VWH)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Car birding
Message-ID: <1991Apr5.134756.12564@jato.jpl.nasa.gov>
Date: 5 Apr 91 13:47:56 GMT
References: <1991Apr4.231840.5995@pimacc.pima.edu>
Sender: Sid Johnson
Reply-To: sid@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Sid Johnson WB6VWH)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Lines: 28

In article <1991Apr4.231840.5995@pimacc.pima.edu> cwilliamson@pimacc.pima.edu writes:
>There a certain birds you can only hope to find by car birding.
>
>For example, trips to the Salton Sea come to mind. If you 
>cover enough miles through the agricultural fields in the 
>winter and spring, you are bound to find a flock of MOUNTAIN   
>PLOVERS. 
>
>Chuck Williamson
>Tucson Az
>CWilliamson@Pimacc.Pima.Edu

I never thought about car birding in this vein but Chuck is absolutely
right.  That is the way we found the Mountain Plovers at the Salton
Sea in Febuary of this year, and the Burrowing Owls too.  That we
were looking for the Sand Hill Cranes and never found them is a 
different subject.  All three are car birding oriented.  Besides the
Plovers and owls this technique netted several fields with Long-
billed Curlews which we would not have seen had we stuck to the
typical sea edge habitat.

This is the same technique used when birding the Oxnard Plains in
Ventura county for Plovers, Pipits, etc.  Bout 10 miles per hour
is about right when scouting the plowed and sod fields.

-Sid Johnson
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
sid@jato.jpl.nasa.gov