4 November 2006 - Coyote Point, San Mateo, California. This morning I took my ornithology class to the Coyote Point Yacht Harbor. The very high tide forced most of the shorebirds to seek shelter at confined roosts where they formed dense masses of birds. As the tide started to recede, the birds began staging at favored places anticipating the exposed mudflat where savory worms and shrimp would be exposed. The generic name of the Willet was recently changed by the AOU who merged it into Tringa. It was formerly known as Catoptrophorus semipalmatus. During the high tide we saw large flocks swimming on the water. Olympus D-550z / Nikon FieldScope 3 / 30XWA (hand-held - no adapter).