Observers: Justin Hite
Email: justinhiteatgmaildotcom
Date: 09/11/2008
Time: 08:48 PM -0400
Crowley this afternoon was spectacular. Moments after arriving I spotted a juv Parasitic Jaeger (a bit of overall rufousness, and white windows above and below in the wings) giving the Avocets some grief. It divided it's time between tranquil repose on the water and half-hearted attempts to coax food out of 2 Common and 3 Caspian Terns. Then all of a sudden it flushed up a group of 5 Sabine's Gulls (1 adult, 4 juvs) and chased them around. Something I've always wanted to see...a Jaeger attacking a Sabine's in the eastern sierra. 3 Sanderling and 5 Short-billed Dowitchers were the only other shorebirds. And this morning at Deep Springs, there were 8 species of warblers (all western species), the coolest being a male Townsend's and a Yellow-breasted Chat.
