From: Joe.Morlan@f501.n914.z8.rbbs-net.ORG (Joe Morlan)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Bar-tailed Godwit
Date: 2 Sep 92 06:09:00 GMT

Bar-tailed Godwit
Abbott's Lagoon, Pt. Reyes
September 1, 1992

This morning I visited Abbott's Lagoon hoping to see the Bar-
tailed Godwit which was first found August 20th by Rich Stallcup.
When I arrived, the lagoon was shrouded in dense pea-soup fog
making it difficult to look for birds.  The few godwits at the
lagoon were very skittish and did not allow me to approach close
enough.  I noticed a godwit fly out toward the beach, so I
decided to check there in hopes of better visibility.  While
looking over a flock of Marbled Godwits foraging on the beach, I
noticed the Bar-tailed Godwit flying south over the ocean.  It
was fairly easy to pick out by the white belly, darker
upperparts, contrasting narrow whitish wing stripe on the outer
wing, and white wing-linings with fine barring.

The Bar-tailed Godwit continued to fly south down the beach and
disappeared into the fog.  I walked about a quarter mile south
and found the Bar-tailed Godwit foraging at the tide line with
about 20 Marbled Godwits.  It could be picked out by it's smaller
size and white belly and undertail coverts.  It was about the
size of a Willet or Whimbrel, both of which were available for
comparison.  Compared to the Marbled Godwits, the Bar-tailed
Godwit was longer winged with considerable projection of the
black primaries past the folded tertials and cloaking the tail.
The legs were also much shorter than the Marbled Godwits,
especially above the intertarsal joint.  In flight the toes
extended beyond the tail, but on Marbled Godwits the entire foot
and part of the tarsus extended past the tail.  The bill was long
with a pink base and dark tip, curving up toward the base, but
relatively straight throughout the rest of its length.

Very striking was the pattern of wing-coverts and tertials which
had very large pale-buff triangular wedges, much larger than the
comparable pattern on Marbled Godwit.  The back was fairly solid
dark brown with pale buff fringes to the scapulars forming buff
longitudinal stripes.

The head was more boldly patterned than on Marbled Godwits.  The
cap appeared blackish and contrasted with a conspicuous white
superciliary stripe which expanded behind the eye.  This strip
contrasted with a dark eye-line.  The breast, sides and fore-neck
were rich buff including the throat, but not the chin which was
whitish.  Legs and eyes were dark.  Partial webbing visible
between toes.

At close range the tip of the underside of the tail was visible.
It was white with bold black crossbars.  In flight the entire
tail and rump showed a white ground color with black barring
throughout, the bars broader at the tip of the tail.

The small size suggest this was a male, and the plumage clearly
indicates a juvenile of the race "baueri."

Observations were with 20X Bushnell Spacemaster Scope and Zeiss
10X binoculars.  This is the fourth Bar-tailed Godwit I have seen
in California.

===============================================================

Also at Pt. Reyes today, I saw the Ruff, a dull juvenile "Reeve",
at the south end of Abbott's Lagoon and saw a Lesser
Golden-Plover fly from the beach into the dunes toward the
lagoon.  From the call I think it was "dominica", the American
Golden-Plover.  Saw 4 Baird's Sandpiper and 8 Lesser Yellowlegs
at the lagoon and managed to get my feet totally soaked in the
process.  Later I check the Fish Docks and got great looks at a
Tennessee Warbler and a female American Redstart.  This was my
first trip to Pt. Reyes this Fall and I was quite happy with it.

At Abbott's Lagoon, I also had the pleasure of running into
Stuart Keith, formerly of the American Museum of Natural History
and one of the founders of ABA.  Stuart is now living in Red
Bluff, California and is doing quite well.  He says his arthritis
is essentially gone and he has completely recovered from
quadruple bypass surgery which he had last year.  I had heard bad
stories about his health, so it was wonderful to see him in such
good shape.

--Joe Morlan
Joe.Morlan@f28.n125.z1.fidonet.org.


 * Origin: SeaHunt BBS, San Francisco (415-431-0473) (8:914/501)