Ornithology 2A Summary (Fall 2011)
If you miss a class, please check this page and study the listed topics in your field guide. Click here for last year's calendar.
Class notes by Elisabeth Koster are here. (Plumage and molt terminology here. )
Please register at eBird and email me your eBird ID. I can then offer to share field trip lists with you.
Click here for a summary of bird name changes from the 52nd AOU supplement. Click here for my first impression review of the 6th edition of the National Geographic Guide. I recommend everybody upgrade to this edition as soon as possible.
We completed and reviewed the Snow and McKay's buntings on page 432 (page 422 in 6th ed.). Snow Bunting photos are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Click here and here for photos and discussion of Snow Buntings in San Leandro and Byron. A photo of the Pribiloff McKay's Bunting from 31 May 1999 is here.
This was the last class of the semester. Please preregister if you plan to enroll in the Spring. Click here for details.
Robbie and I will be doing a free program for Sequoia Audubon on Belize at 7pm January
12th. Details here. Directions
here.
Click here for photos of an Eastern Yellow Wagtail at Fort Bragg. Click here for photos and my notes on a Black-backed Wagtail in Alviso and click here for a photo of Black-backed Wagtail in Los Angeles. Click here and here for additional photos and discussion of wagtails in Monterey county. Additional California photos of White/Black-backed Wagtail are here, here, here, here, here, and here. See also: Morlan, J. 1981. Status and identification of forms of White Wagtail in Western North America. Continental Birdlife 2:37-50. (Click here for an online pdf of this paper)
Recommended Reading:
This was the last class of the quarter. Please click here to register for part B. Course numbers, dates and descriptions are here.
Click here for photos of a Sage Thrashers in Montara.
My Mariposa County Sage Thrasher photos and notes are here
and here.
Click here for a photo of a Bendire's Thrasher in California
along with notes on identification.
Click here, here,
and here for photos of Curve-billed Thrashers
in California. My descriptions of Curve-billed Thrashers in California are here
and here. Click here
for my photo and notes on a Curve-billed Thrasher in Texas and here
for my recent photo and notes from Arizona.
Click here for my photo and notes on
a California Thrasher.
Gray catbird images here, here,
here, and here.
My accounts of Gray Catbirds in Moss Beach and Mount
San Bruno (including photo and sound recordings).
Click here and here
for my photos of Northern Mockingbirds in Texas and California.
Click here for photos and discussion of the Blue Mockingbird
in Long Beach.
Click here, here,
here, and here
for photos of Brown Thrasher in California.
Click here and here
for my photos of Long-billed Thrasher in Texas.
Click here for photos and my notes on a controversial Veery at Point Reyes. An accepted California Veery is here.
My Swainson's Thrush photos are here, here and here.
A Hermit Thrush image from one of our field trips in Golden Gate Park is here.
We completed and reviewed the bluebirds and solitaire on page 354.
Click here for discussion and photo of a problematic female Western Bluebird. Click here, here, here and here for my photos of male Western Bluebirds. Female and juvenile Western Bluebirds are here and here. Click here (Tree Swallows using bluebird nest box) for discussion of management for Western Bluebirds. Western Bluebirds photographed in San Francisco are here and here. Pair of Western Bluebirds at Point Reyes are here.
Click here for my photo of a male
Mountain Bluebird near the Salton Sea. Click here for a photo of a Townsend's Solitaire
in Tilden Regional Park.