Observers: Justin Hite, Steve Brad, Kristie Nelson
Email: justinhiteatgmaildotcom
Date: 09/24/2008
Time: 10:20 PM -0400
I had to run some errands in Mammoth and then figured I'd go to Crowley since I was in the neighborhood. My first good sighting was Steve Brad in Vons, who I invited to join me. We had our first two good sightings at Crowley at the same time, a Sabine's Gull flying nearshore and Kristie Nelson pulling up in her truck beside us. Moments later Kristie heard a flying Pectoral Sandpiper which cooperatively landed right in front of us with a flock of 300 peeps (mostly Least, but at least a few dozen Westerns too; all together a very high number of peeps for Crowley at this time of year). Then we watched as a very aggressive Jaeger went after an Osprey out by the floating Honey Bucket...it was too far away and observed for such a short period of time, so we unfortunately weren't able to identify it to species or age class. And we did a lot of Sabine's counting, coming up with at least 11 juvs and 1 adult (there could easily have been more, and we didn't even visit the delta). Other cool birds included a Black-bellied Plover, a flock of 30 Redhead, 4 Common Loons, about 20 Red-necked Phalaropes, a male Bufflehead, and lots of Pipits. Birds we joked about but did not see included Curlew Sandpiper, Stilt Sandpiper, South Polar Skua, and Red-throated Pipit...what a pity.
