Northern Shoveler - Anas clypeata

In September the ducks return to the San Francisco Bay Area in good numbers, but most will be starting molting from their cryptic eclipse plumage into the bright breeding plumage they wear most of the year. Juvenile ducks and male duck in eclipse plumage often strongly resemble the adult female, so identification can be a challenge.

The Shoveler shown here was seen on Sept 17 at Las Gallinas. I figured it was a female Northern Shoveler, but several features suggest it may well be a male in eclipse plumage. The yellow-orange iris is similar to the bright yellow in the adult male, whereas juveniles and females have a browner iris. The head is a dark gray, while females and young shovelers would be more brown. The chest, breast and flanks on this birds have an attractive rufous wash, unlike the muted browns seen on females and youngsters. Bill color much like a female's, but the male's bill will only become black in full adult breeding plumage. So I'm going the an adult male in eclipse plumage.

Here's an older shot of a female. Note the brown iris and pale brown head.

Male Shovelers go through a more variable and prolonged molt than most other dabbler species, so most of them won't display the deep green-black head, rich chestnut flank color and striking white breast until late November.

Seaside Dragonlet - Erythrodiplax berenice

When in Connecticut we do most of our walk along Long Island Sound (Milford to Madison), rather than inland. In past  years we've spotted the small Seaside Dragonlet, Erythrodiplax berenice, but usually just the black male. This year, along the trail to Meig's Point at Hammonasset State Beach we saw a number of female Seaside Dragonlets, and were taken with their striking colors. Here's a "striped" female:

The brown wash at the mid-wing  apparently a clinal variation. Toward the end of the abdomen you can see the ovipositor, an extension of what is called the subgenital plate.

This view shows the brown wash a bit better:

The striped thorax and bright orange abdomen really stand out, but we learned that as the females age many of them will get quite dark, both on the thorax and abdomen, in the manner of the male. Here's a shot from late July 2012, at an East Haven salt marsh along Cosey Beach Avenue, showing a black female in tandem.

Males are usually easier to find, as they are the only small black dragonfly seen in seaside locations:

Another male:

And lastly:

Some taxonomy -

Family: Libelluidae - Skimmers and allies. Biggest dragonfly family, with 1,000+ species.

Genus: Erythrodiplax - Dragonlets. Large genus of mostly tropical new world skimmers, small to medium in size, with about 60 species. Only about 6 dragonlet species seen in the U.S.

Species: Erythrodiplax berenice - Seaside Dragonlet. They fly from mid-May to mid-September. Eat small insects and even small damselflies. Lay eggs only in salt water, even hypersaline alkaline lakes. Couldn't find any other U.S. dragonfly that oviposits in salt water.

Clapper Rail - Rallus crepitans

Back east we are stay at my cousin Rich's beach home in East Haven, along a road that parallels the beach and borders a rich salt marsh fed by the tidal flow from Carolina Creek. On a walk in early August we had some expected sightings. Along the muddy shore I saw a large dark gray rail chick, which was quickly joined by a sibling.

When Patti arrived she quickly spotted an adult Clapper Rail, now Rallus crepitans. I quickly caught a Fiddler Crab (there must be 100,000 of them along this creek!), which it promptly swallowed. 

The precocial chicks were left to forage for themselves along the exposed mud, sometimes venturing into the shallow water, while the adult kept a watchful eye.

Based on DNA studies and disjunct ranges of the subspecies, the AOU has split the Clapper Rail into 3 separate species. Ours on the West Coast and in Nevada and Arizona has been christened Ridgeway's Rail, Rallus obsoletus. East Coast and Gulf Coast, and Central American birds keep the name Clapper Rail, Rallus crepitans. The 3rd rail emerging from the split is the Mangrove Rail, Rallus longirostris, seen in coastal salt marshes of South America. 

The AOU also opted to split the King Rail, a similar large rail found in fresh water marshes, has also been split, with the species to the south now known as the Aztec Rail.

Semipalmated Plover - Charadrius semipalmatus

The Semipalmated Plover, Charadrius semipalmatus, is a long-distance migrant, nesting well up in the arctic and subarctic before heading back to winter along both coasts. Here in CA we see them often on the mudflats of Bodega Harbor (Doran Beach is best). Back east in early August we saw these Semipalmated Plovers at the end of Cosey Beach Ave. in East Haven, as well as at Hammonasset State Beach.

This small "single-banded" plover is perhaps the easiest plover to identify, with the single complete dark band breast band (adult Killdeer has 2 bands), dark back, yellow-orange legs and bicolored bill. In breeding plumage the dark colors intensify, especially the bands on the forecrown and chest. Female similar to male, but dark bands are less prominent. Note the thin yellow orbital ring, often missed when viewing at a distance. Male in foreground, and the one behind is likely a female.

"Semipalmated" refers to the incomplete webbing between the toes, which helps it when walking on the mud, sort of like wearing snowshoes. We don't usually notice the webbing in the field, but a cropped of the above  photo hows it pretty well. The second photo feature a male Semipalmated, and the blurred bird in the background may be a female.

Piping Plover - Charadrius melodus

As we walked along the New Haven shoreline at Sandy Point we spotted a young Piping Plover foraging along the rack line. The chick was quite confiding, seemingly oblivious to our stares, and sometime approaching quite close. Since we were near the water, well below the high tide line, we had a birds-eye view. Further up in the dunes the breeding area has been roped off. Habitat there seems to good area for the plovers, as there are few people and almost never any dogs. Still, the local population seemed sparse, and both Piping Plovers and Least Tern numbers were less than we've seen on in previous years. Piping Plovers remain an endangered species, and widespread efforts are under way to enhance their numbers, as with out Snowy Plovers out west.

Piping Plover has orange legs and a short stout bill, setting it apart from our similar Snowy Plover. I'm guessing that the chick seen here is about 20 days old, still in "juvenal" plumage. The large bill and eyes are certainly impressive, helping the precocial chick find and capture prey. 

Osprey - Pandion haliaetus

Most birders enjoy the challenge of identifying the species of the bird they are viewing. No such pleasure here, as the Osprey ranks high among the species least likely to be confused with any other bird.

The sexes have the same appearance, although the female is larger. The juvenile Osprey (aabove) is quite distinctive, with pale fringing on the wing coverts and back feathers easily setting it apart from the dark brown adult Osprey. Also note the eye color (more orange in the youngster, yellow in the adult) and the buffy patch on the neck.

The juvenile also has more streaking on white areas of the head, especially the crown.

Check out the talons in the 3rd photo:

These Ospreys were all seen in August along Cosey Beach Ave. in East Haven, CT, near my cousin Rich's beach home. The platform nest nearby fledged 3 chicks this summer. Both chicks and adults often brought their catch back to the platform, in part to avoid disturbance by the local gulls. Here the adult has returned with a large fish:

The youngster looked for a handout, but the parent jumped to the roosting spot and enjoyed an undisturbed lunch:

American Black Duck - Anas rubripes

Soon after entering Connecticut's Hammonasset State Beach there is a pond on the right that often has good birds, and on our recent visit we watched a group of about 9 dark Mallard-type ducks foraging together. We hoped that they were American Black Ducks, Anas rubripes, as indeed they looked darker than your average Mallard. Local birders there assured me they were Black Ducks, and the olive bills suggest adult female, or maybe juveniles. We didn't see the feet well. "rubipes" = red feet, which would have helped (red-orange, actually). Here some are loafing along the shore.

A subtle mark that may be a clue that they are not Mallards if the color of the speculum, violet in the Black Duck and blue in the Mallard, but this feature can vary. This shot is a crop from the first photo:

The Mallard Complex, besides the Mallard, includes U.S. birds such as the Mexican Mallard (a subspecies), Mottled Duck, and the American Black Duck. Hybrids confuse the issue, and are especially threat to the gene pool of the Mottled Duck in Florida and the Gulf Coast. A dozen or more Anas species outside the U.S. are also considered part of the Mallard Complex. Here we see the olive bill, quite different from a Mallard's.

The Black Duck is an Eastern Species, breeding in Canada and the Northeast, with a winter range down to the Southeastern states above Florida. Their population was historicaly as high as 1,000,000, but they experienced a steady decline from hunting pressure to a level of about 300,000. Daily limits may have halted the decline, but it remains one of the main duck species taken in the northeast. Here's a better shot of the cryptic dark plumage.

You may know that I am particularly fond of ducks (easy targets, for sure), and wrote "The Duck Family", available from my Dropbox account. The download is over 200MB, so it may take a few minutes. It views very well on a tablet such as iPad, or even an iPhone. You may have to decrease the viewing size when you view it on a desktop (controls for size appear when the cursor is near the bottom of the PDF screen). Will add the Black Duck to a future edition.

Check it out at: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16484239/DUCK%20BOOK/DUCK%20BOOK%20MAR%202013.pdf