From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Mon Dec 30 17:23:35 2002 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.6/8.12.2) with ESMTP id gBV1LMPL009725 for <[[email protected]]>; Mon, 30 Dec 2002 17:21:23 -0800 (PST) Received: from e32.co.us.ibm.com (e32.co.us.ibm.com [32.97.110.130]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.6/8.12.2) with ESMTP id gBV1Kp3Y009689 for <[[email protected]]>; Mon, 30 Dec 2002 17:20:52 -0800 (PST) Received: from westrelay02.boulder.ibm.com (westrelay02.boulder.ibm.com [9.17.194.23]) by e32.co.us.ibm.com (8.12.2/8.12.2) with ESMTP id gBV1Kp0I015936 for <[[email protected]]>; Mon, 30 Dec 2002 20:20:51 -0500 Received: from d03nm036.boulder.ibm.com (d03av02.boulder.ibm.com [9.17.193.82])gBV1Kovj150074 for <[[email protected]]>; Mon, 30 Dec 2002 18:20:50 -0700 Importance: Normal Sensitivity: To: [[email protected]] X-Mailer: Lotus Notes Release 5.0.6 December 14, 2000 Message-ID: <[[email protected]]> From: Richard Herder <[[email protected]]> Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2002 17:20:31 -0800 X-MIMETrack: Serialize by Router on D03NM036/03/M/IBM(Release 6.0 [IBM]|December 16, 2002) at 12/30/2002 18:20:49 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Subject: [SBB] Calero-Morgan Hill CBC: Coyote Ridge X-BeenThere: [[email protected]] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1rc1+ Precedence: list List-Id: South Bay Birding List-Unsubscribe: , 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]] Peggy Don, Roland Kenner, Patricia Kenny and Kris Olson joined me in slogging to the top of Coyote Ridge on Saturday, Dec. 28. In spite of the blustery weather and having to walk to the top because of the muddy road, we had a good day. We didn't see large numbers of birds, and we missed a few species we hoped to see, but we also had a few pleasant surprises. This is the third year that the Kirby Canyon Landfill management has allowed a CBC party on the property. Thanks to the diplomacy of Don Mayall, Mary Simpson and other members of the California Native Plant Society, who visit the property several times a year, management now expects us and has been cooperative. We do have rules to follow - we're only allowed to be on the property between 7AM and 1PM - and if you can't drive to the ridge that makes for a very tight schedule. There are two small and very artificial-looking ponds near the landfill offices, the only spot to find waterfowl and shorebirds on this section of the count. We found a COMMON GOLDENEYE and some BUFFLEHEAD and MALLARD. We also had a LINCOLN'S SPARROW near the ponds. We usually find at least one shorebird here on the count, and just before we left the ponds a GREATER YELLOWLEGS flew in to keep us from being disappointed. This turned out to be the only yellowlegs spotted on the count, at least as reported at the countdown dinner. Since we knew we had a long hike ahead of us and rain was threatening, I decided to get the group up to the top quickly and postpone counting some easy birds on the way down. This turned out to be a bad decision. We moved quickly past a small canyon that runs beside the road, picking up ROCK WREN and typical brush species such as OAK TITMOUSE and WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW. However, this is a good spot for rufous-crowned sparrow, and we ran out of time looking for this bird when we came back down as the clock approached 1pm, so we missed it. Similarly, halfway up to the ridge there are several spots overlooking the huge landfill, which is invisible from the valley. We saw hundreds of gulls and blackbirds here, but only stopped long enough to count relatively small numbers of CALIFORNIA GULL, RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD, STARLING, AMERICAN CROW, COMMON RAVEN and BREWER'S BLACKBIRD. When we came back down the hill a few hours later, there were still thousands of swirling white figures in the air - but instead of gulls they were thousands of white plastic bags! The gulls had left - maybe headed for the Ogier Ponds across the freeway. The path to the ridge also had AMERICAN KESTREL, WESTERN MEADOWLARK, BLACK and SAY'S PHOEBE, NORTHERN HARRIER, RED-TAILED HAWK and TURKEY VULTURE. When we got to the top we had great views of an adult GOLDEN EAGLE just overhead, and we think we spotted this same bird half a dozen times during our 3 hours at the top. The top of the ridge had the expected HORNED LARKS and SAVANNAH SPARROWS as well as Kestrels, Meadowlarks, more of both Phoebes, Redtails and the Golden Eagle. Best birds were a LARK SPARROW on the barbed wire fence, and a GRASSHOPPER SPARROW that gave Roland and me a hard time, but finally offered us great views. We found a Grasshopper Sparrows near this spot last year, and this year there were several other sparrows that eluded us and I suspect were more Grasshopper Sparrows. We also had a small flock of WESTERN BLUEBIRDS near the south end of the ridge where a few trees appear. In other years we were allowed to continue south onto the O'Connell Ranch, where we found Mountain Bluebirds two years ago, but that property was off limits this year. Coyote Ridge (and the landfill) isn't the birdiest place but it is a special spot and it's probably a good idea that we keep covering it in the count just to let people know we consider it important. It's a great spot in other ways too - at one point I could see both San Bruno Mountain and Gavilan Peak in one gaze, a great view. Rick Herder [[email protected]] 408-779-3985 _______________________________________________ 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]]