From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Fri Dec 20 12:53:58 2002 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.2/8.12.2) with ESMTP id gBKKpKoM027999 for <[[email protected]]>; Fri, 20 Dec 2002 12:51:20 -0800 (PST) Received: from merlin.arc.nasa.gov (merlin.arc.nasa.gov [128.102.219.21]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.2/8.12.2) with ESMTP id gBKKogwO027959 for <[[email protected]]>; Fri, 20 Dec 2002 12:50:42 -0800 (PST) Received: from merlin.ARC.NASA.GOV by merlin.ARC.NASA.GOV (PMDF V6.2 #30665) id <[[email protected]]> for [[email protected]]; Fri, 20 Dec 2002 12:48:15 -0800 (PST) Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 12:48:15 -0800 (PST) From: [[email protected]] To: [[email protected]] Message-id: <[[email protected]]> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=us-ascii cc: [[email protected]] Subject: [SBB] - X-BeenThere: [[email protected]] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1b4+ Precedence: list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Id: South Bay Birding List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Errors-To: south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Folks: Yesterday, 12/19/2002, the winds were howling in San Antonio Valley and the birds were very quiet. In 23 years I've never seen so few ducks. I had one flock of 23 BUFFLEHEAD on all the reservoirs and stock ponds I checked. It was interesting to hear from Mike Rogers that they were plentiful on the reservoirs in Isabel Valley (which are larger). For the third consecutive winter there have been no Lewis's Woodpecker in this valley, while the population over in the Isabel Valley seems fine, I wonder why? There were few unexpected birds in the valley. The best ones for the day were an adult male MERLIN, a single SAGE SPARROW, and five LAWRENCE'S GOLDFINCHES. Few sparrows would pish up in the chaparral, but I had one spot where I could see down into a little clearing where FOX SPARROWS were feeding and one Sage was sneaking through the bushes. My Fox Sparrow total was four, so much less than in Isabel Valley. As Mike said, the best show was the weather. It was a delight to watch and listen to the wind blowing through the large foothill pines in the valley and see them sway back and forth. Onlike John Muir, I had no urge to climb into them to obtain the glad tiding of the storm. The rain became real just after noon and the birding got a lot harder. I rushed my route a bit, expecting the rain, and was glad to get back to the car by 1:30 pm. I thought I would go over the summit, as my thermometer read 40 deg, and I thought the summit might be clear. But just below the Coulter pine belt it was snowing, and I decided I would drive out by Livermore, rather than put on chains. By then the snow level was dropping and to my surprise there was an inch of snow on Mines Road at the divide between Colorado Creek and Arroyo Mocho when I got there about a quarter to four. The snow was falling by then in thick white flakes and from there until halfway to Livermore I split my time between admiring the white coverings on chaparral, blue oaks, foothill pines, and the occasional California sage, and avoiding minor floods and rock slides on Mines Road. It was glorious. Bill _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. south-bay-birds mailing list ([[email protected]]) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://www.plaidworks.com/mailman/options/south-bay-birds/south-bay-birds-archive%40plaidworks.com This email sent to [[email protected]]