ML543454921

Observasjonsdetaljer

This bird was found by Jonathan Feenstra 6 March, 2023. It was seen by many others, including us the following day on 7 March, 2023. It was in the Lancaster Water Reclamation Plant just off of Avenue D. After driving through the gate and entering the facility, the second building on the left is where you sign in. Overall, the bird is smaller than the Canada geese with which it associated. The bill is black with a broad, irregular, bright orange patch across the top of the bill. Just below that is a black bill tip shaped like a large thumbnail. The lower mandible has a much narrower swath of yellow orange all the way across the bottom, again with a black tip. There is a slight grin patch the same color as the dark part of the bill. The rounded head is an unmarked dark brown, noticeably contrasting with a paler brown neck, and it has a dark brown eye. The breast is finely barred with alternating pale and pale gray/brown. There are some white stipples on the flanks. The lower belly and undertail coverts are white. The upper body and scapulars are gray brown, the wing coverts are gray, all with pale faint feather edges. The wings are dark grayish black. It has a dark tail with pale faint feather edges. Its legs are stout and thick and an extremely bright orange with knobby knees and large, webbed feet which it often stepped on. The right wing is drooping. Our observation was on the dirt with sparse vegetation, just north of the main administration building. We did not see the bird on or near the ponds. At the time we arrived, you could see the flock from the east side of Highway 14, but that was at some great distance. The bird spent half the time sitting with head tucked, sometimes with glossy eyes bright open, and other times with eyes closed with a pale eyelid. The other half the time it was up, walking and feeding on new rosettes of vegetation. It would drill its bill into the desert soil, (second video) sometimes twisting its bill back-and-forth to loosen the roots of the small plants. Then it would grab the entire plant, pull it up, shake it vigorously, presumably to get the dirt off the roots, and mash it up with its bill and swallow it. It found a particularly nice area of smaller rosettes, which seemed easier to pull up, and was gathering little piles of these and eating them when it got struck from behind by a running Canada Goose. (first video in media) I presume the Canada Goose thought this patch was particularly nice and wanted it for himself because it immediately began feeding right there. R. Howard