ML30688641

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Media notes

Hudsonian Godwit, Piute Ponds, Edwards Air force Base, Los Angeles County, California, 16 May 2010, Tom M. Edell

Observation details

Maggie Smith, Kaaren Perry and I were told that the godwits were at the ponds and that access had been arranged by Stan Gray. We followed Steve Sosenski to the ponds. Thomas Miko was there when we arrived and Curtis Marantz arrived while we were there. We found these long-legged waders standing next to each other when we arrived. They immediately took flight as we arrived, but settled down into the same approximate location and we were able to study them until we decided to leave. We observed another short flight before leaving. We all felt that a male and female was present. The female was duller overall and larger than the male. Both had a long bill that turned slightly upward about 2/3 of the way to the tip. The base of the bills was a reddish orange that blended to black at the distal third of the bill. The face, crown, and neck to upper breast showed fine dark streaking, a pale supercilium, and a dark lore line from the eye to the bill. The faces were slightly paler than the rest of the head and neck. The bellies were rusty colored with dark and white scalloping (presumably white feather tips) that gave the appearance of baring. The undertail coverts appeared barred with black and white. When the wind blew these feathers away from the body cinnamon was seen thought I don''t remember the exact position in the feathers. The backs appeared mottled due to dark feathers with white tips. The wings, which extended beyond the tip of the tail, also showed wing coverts feathers with the same pattern, however the female had only a few of these feathers while the male had many more. At the time we thought that we were looking at second year birds, but references suggest that this is typical in adult females and males. In flight the under wing coverts were mostly black. I did not hear the bird call. These birds were first found on 15 May and were still present on 19 May.

Technical information

Model

Canon PowerShot A590 IS

ISO

80

Focal length

23.2 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/5.5

Shutter speed

1/500 sec

Dimensions

2340 pixels x 1566 pixels

Original file size

223.48 KB