27 October 07
Local Rarity?
I met up with birding buddies Kevin, Sid, Rick, and Greg to look for reported sharp-tailed sandpipers (2) and a female garganey out at the Yolo Bypass, not five miles form home. We looked for the sharp-tailed first without luck.
The “garganey” was easier to see, out on a pool with some shovelers. It was quite far away and hard to draw but I did a few sketches, these at right and some in colored pencil I wasn’t happy with.
This bird may not be a garganey, and there’s quite a discussion going on about it on the local bird list. Discouraged by my lack of ability to render the bill (or indeed the bird in such rudimentary form as to make a later ID possible), I resolved to go to the Arboretum to draw duck bills…
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