ML352845121
投稿者
日付
場所
- 年齢と性別
- 成鳥、性別不明 - 2
- 音声
- 地鳴き
- プレイバック(音声の再生)
- プレイバック(音声誘引)不使用
観察結果の詳細
Lifer! I first saw a couple of them in low flight over the lake. After walking over to the southwest side of the lake where I could be closer to the island, I saw several resting, preening, and stretching on the small island's sandy banks. My first impression was that everything about these birds is much larger compared to terns. It turns out that first impression is a little off since Caspian Terns are actually larger, but proportionally, skimmers have longer wingspans, longer necks, and longer, taller bills. I was struck by how jet black their dorsal side is, especially compared with the pure white of their ventral side, tail (besides the middle), and edges of secondaries and maybe the first few primaries. Their black-ended orange bills are such an amazing shape. I knew the upper mandible was shorter, but I didn't realize how razor thin they are. Of course it makes sense, but it's just one of those things I hadn't bothered to look up beforehand since I wasn't very worried about being able to recognize them. The white underside creeps up on the head just up to the eyes and bridging over the bill. Their calls were pretty simple individual yips, but distinct enough not to be confused with anything else nearby. They didn't seem very low-pitched, but they were certainly much lower than the Forster's Terns and even the Canada Geese's honks. I've had pretty bad luck with chasing rarities in Santa Clara County. Of five different trips down there looking for specific birds, this is the fifth time I've dipped on what I was primarily hoping to find (this time, the immature Common Tern that's been spotted on the island with all the Forster's). A huge reason for that is I've never been able to give myself as much time as I needed. Almost every time I've been with my young family, and as much as I love birds, they have to come first. That said, the past two trips I've made down here have both come with awesome lifers, despite missing out on the rarities. No offense to the Common Tern, but Black Skimmers definitely seem like the more interesting bird of the two. Sadly I didn't get to actually see any skimming, notice any of the nestlings, or laugh at the hilarious way they sometimes lie flat on the ground, almost as if dead, but it was still cool to see as much of them as I did. Plus those things I missed were all fun things to learn about them. It so happened that my kids really weren't as excited about the boat playground as I was hoping they'd be, so we ended up leaving before I could look as much as I wanted to for the Common Tern. Still, random Surf Scoter on the side of the lake, excellent views of beautiful, low-perched Violet-green Swallows, and a really cool and unique life bird all shared with my family more than makes up for missing a bird that shows up in a bunch of Bay Area spots every year.
追加される種
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- レコーダー
- マイク
- アクセサリ
- オリジナルのファイルサイズ
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