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From: Justin and Bartshe
Date: 20 Nov 2006
Time: 13:55:23 -0500
Remote Name: 65.241.2.253
Yesterday (11/19) Bartshe and I went down to the Lee Vining Creek delta for some lunchtime birding. While watching the many hundred ducks – mostly Northern Shoveler, Mallard and Green-winged Teal, but also a male and female Redhead – we saw a pretty large group of Ring-billed Gulls (26) fly by. We also had a group of California Quail in the willows just northwest of the delta and a Wilson’s Snipe in the delta’s mossy backwaters. As we were leaving we wondered about a mid-sized bird far to the south that looked like it had a lot of white and dark on it. Possibilities included one of the Ring-billed Gulls, or to get a little carried away perhaps a Horned Grebe, or to get really carried away perhaps the female Long-tailed Duck that Kathy Duvall and Larry Arbanas found on October 28th at Navy Beach. But it was way too far and we didn’t have a scope and anyway our time was up. But! I went back early this morning and the mystery bird is indeed a female Long-tailed Duck, presumably the one Kathy and Larry found. White sides, black back, white head, black bill, eyes, crown strip and cheek patch. It was in the exact same spot as yesterday, about halfway between the Lee Vining delta and Lee Vining Tufa. It was swimming about with the Ruddy Ducks, diving about as often as they were. You can pick it out from the RUDUs and Grebes really easily, even with just binoculars from the road, but a scope would make things it a lot more interesting. There was also a Horned Grebe in this spot, the first living one I’ve seen at Mono Lake. Other cool birds seen recently in the basin include a Rough-legged Hawk at Big Sand Flat on 11/17 while driving to Granite Mountain with Greg Reis and Arya Degenhardt and a Short-eared Owl last night hunting on Test Station Rd after dark while driving back to town after watching the sunset with Paul and Yvette.
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