>A half hour ago, while sitting at the computer, I heard an airplane and
>looked out the window. A lifer!
>
>A huge B-2 Stealth bomber moved majestically over, its batlike silhouette
>bringing thoughts of Halloween. Then 10 minutes later, there it was again.
>What a bird!
>

That's neat.

I must admit that as a little kid the first type of "listing" I did was
planes. I would never miss the Toronto Air Show and even skipped off school
one day to go see the Space Shuttle piggy back on a 747, before it had gone
to space. My dad would take me to the airport and I would tick off the
different types of airliners. Eventually, I would go to the air show and
count hawks rather than planes, then I stopped going. Its unfortunate that
so many of these planes are made to kill people, they really are amazing and
sometimes even beautiful machines.

I did see a nice avian lifer today though. The Plumbeous Solitary Vireo
(Vireo solitarius plumbeus) which I found in a mixed flock just north of
Half Moon Bay. This Great Basin bird is a vagrant here on the California
coast. The results of genetic work on this form show that it is
substantially different from the other two Solitary Vireos and will likely
be split by the AOU in the future. In any case, subspecific lifers are still
lifers- a new and exciting experience. Also in the flock was a nice Prairie
Warbler! Is California really on the West Coast??

Al.

Alvaro Jaramillo Where there's smoke doesn't mean
Half Moon Bay, CA there is fire.
alvaro at quake.net Just means there's smoke.


http://www.quake.net/~alvaro/index.html