Ornithology 3 A&B Summary (Spring 2013)
If you miss a class, please check this page and study the listed topics in your field guide. Click here for last semester's calendar.
Note: Please park in the Hayes Street Parking lot. All spaces are available except disabled and reserved drop off for the child care center. If the lot is full and you park in the Grove Street lot you will likely get a parking ticket unless you display the temporary parking passes which have been emailed to all registered students. These passes must be stamped by the John Adams office!
Note: Revised field trip schedule is here.
Class notes by Elisabeth Koster are here. (Plumage and molt terminology here. )
Click here for
field trip information. Please check this site before the trip in case of last minute changes!
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 53rd AOU supplement.
Selected photos from our recent visit to Thailand are here.
This was the last class of the semester. We will resume in Spring 2014. Fall 2013
class details are here.
Click here for a photo of Common and Thick-billed
murres in Alaska.
Thick-billed Murre photo is here
and here.
Parasitic Jaeger is here.
Note that Europeans call the Parasitic Jaeger, the Arctic Skua.
Comparison of South Polar Skua and Pomarine Jaeger is here.
Long-tailed Jaeger photos are here,
here, and here.
Details and photos of a controversial Long-tailed/Parasitic Jaeger are here.
South Polar Skua photo is here.
Steve Howell's article
on possible Brown Skua off California.
Comparison of South Polar Skua and Pomarine Jaeger is here.
David Sibley's essay
on the subject.
My photo of an immature Elegant Tern is here.
My photo of a Texas Black Skimmer is here.
Other Black Skimmer photos are here, here
and here.
My Gull-billed Tern photos are here and here.
My Sandwich Tern and Royal Tern photo is here.
David Sibley's essay on
bill color variation in Sandwich Terns.
A Common Tern photo with detailed ID discussion is here.
My photos of Common Terns are here and here.
Click here for a photo and ID discussion of Arctic Tern.
My photos of Forster's Terns from Bolsa Chica are here
and here
Additional Forster's Terns are here.
My photos of Least Terns (with eggs) from Bolsa Chica are here,
here and here.
Additional Least Tern photo is here.
My account of the White-winged Tern at Moonglow Dairy (with photos) is here.
Click here for a photo of a Bridled Tern
in California.
Sooty Terns in California are here and here.
Click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here for photos and notes on Lesser Black-backed Gulls in California. Additional Lesser Black-backed notes are here. A 1st cycle Lesser Black-backed Gull is here.
Photo of an adult Yellow-footed Gull is here.
My Slaty-backed Gull photos and details are here,
here, here
and here. Click here,
here, here,
here, here,
here, here
and here for additional Slaty-backed Gull photos
from California. Slaty-backed Gull photos from Alaska are here.
My notes on a possible Slaty-backed Gull at the Salton Sea are here,
but I now believe that the bird was likely a Lesser Black-backed Gull or hybrid. Click here
for photos and notes on another possible Slaty-backed Gull from Davis. I now believe this bird was a probably a
hybrid between Herring Gull and Glaucous-winged Gull. Click here
for photos and notes on another possible Slaty-backed Gull from the Salton Sea. I now believe that the bird was
not a Slaty-backed, but probably some other Asiatic species or hybrid.
Click here, here,
here, and here
for photos of Glaucous Gull in California. Click here
for a photo of an adult Glaucous Gull in Alaska with identification discussion.
Click here, and here
for photos of controversial Glaucous-like gulls in California, which are arguably hybrids between Glaucous and
Herring, or Glaucous and Glaucous-winged gulls.
Accepted Iceland Gull photos from California are here and here. Photos of an adult Iceland Gull from Washington state are here. Photos of possible Iceland Gulls (all rejected by the California Bird Records Committee) are here, here and here. It is possible these are pale examples of first cycle Thayer's Gulls although all would probably be identified as Iceland Gulls if seen in the East.
The "Morlan Method" gull identification key with full text is here.
Adobe acrobat reader required. An abridged html version is here.