>Al Jaramillo wrote:
>
>>The presence of Parasitics is related to the
>>presence of terns, Elegants in this neck of the woods as Commons are
>>offshore pelagic birds. Long-tails are only seen of in deep water, almost
>>never from shore here as is true of Arctic Tern. Its amazing how common some
>>of these things can be a few km. out but how rare they are on shore.
>
>So Commons are only offshore there? Are they with Arctics offshore or in a
>belt inshore from the Arctics? I've seen Common Terns from shore in
>California, although they're much less common than Forster's, and I didn't
>realize they weren't supposed to be onshore. Obviously very different from
>Washington, where the Commons are onshore and Arctics off. Arctic Terns
>seem to be blown to shore at the outer coast more often than their
>attendant Long-tailed jaegers, but maybe that's just because they are a lot
>more common.
>
Dennis,

Yes Commons are offshore, but like you suggest they are found along a belt
inshore of the Arctic Terns. Still, Commons are observed from shore and even
roosting on beaches sometimes, but it is not common and appears to occur at
specific places. I found one in SF Bay last week which was unusual and I
have seen a couple here on the beach at Half Moon Bay, however they are
regular on the beach north of Monterey.

A question about Aeshna. Do female A. multicolor vary in their eye colour? I
have seen males in tandem with blue eyed females and brown eyed females, is
this normal? I have been having a bit of trouble with these non blue-eyed
females, trying to make sure that they are not A. walkeri or A. palmata
females, any tips on how to identify them when they don't have blue eyes?
This summer I realized that the things I thought were A.palmata are actually
A. walkeri, in fact they can be downright abundant in certain places such as
Mount Diablo on the east side of the Bay. So far I have not observed A.
walkeri on the coast side of the Santa Cruz mountains. As well, all
identifications are still tentative as I have been able to secure only one
specimen of A. walkeri. Usually they are common in parks where collecting is
not allowed without a permit and I am not about to break that law and feel
good about it. By next year I may be able to get all the required permits
and being thinking about a Bay Area Odonate checklist. That will take me to
the collections and kick start some systematic learning of the local
odonates. I finally got a hold of William's paper and got some insight on a
few places to check next spring for gomphids, sounds like fun.

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