From [[email protected]] Tue Oct 8 15:39:37 2002 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.2/8.12.2) with ESMTP id g98Mcc19008866; Tue, 8 Oct 2002 15:38:38 -0700 (PDT) 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 g98McOhh008820 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 8 Oct 2002 15:38:24 -0700 (PDT) Received: from merlin.ARC.NASA.GOV by merlin.ARC.NASA.GOV (PMDF V6.1 #46498) id <[[email protected]]> for [[email protected]]; Tue, 08 Oct 2002 15:38:22 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 08 Oct 2002 15:38:22 -0700 (PDT) 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] Common Moorhens and the Mountain View Forebay X-BeenThere: [[email protected]] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1b3+ Precedence: list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Id: South Bay Birding List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: [[email protected]] Errors-To: [[email protected]] Folks: Al had an interesting question about Common Moorhens in the Mountain View Forebay--are there fewer of them there now or are they just harder to see as the cattails grows ever thicker? I have ridden past the forebay once or twice a week since May 1996. The fraction of days when I've seen Common Moorhen are shown here: YEAR TRIPS FRACTION 1996 38 0.58 1997 50 0.62 1998 41 0.66 1999 67 0.76 2000 76 0.25 2001 73 0.33 2002 52 0.75 Note that 1996 and 2002 are partial years and the fraction applies to my trip, not just the forebay. Thus, if I see birds along Adobe Creek, in the frontage ponds, or in Matadero Creek, I mark the spreadsheet. Nonetheless, most birds I see are in the forebay. My two conclusions are: (1) they were hard to find in 2000 and 2001 (only a quarter or third of my trips), (2) this year they have been relatively easy to see (three quarters of my trips), vegetation or not. So, my conclusion is there is no clear trend in frequency of occurrence, but I do not address the issue as to whether there are more or fewer birds. Bill P.S. At a time when there were still natural freshwater marshes on the Santa Clara Valley floor, moorhens bred in the vicinity of San Jose as there are three egg sets from the county from a collector, Harry Painton, who lived in San Jose (late 19th century). These could have been from a large marsh where Lake Cunningham is today or smaller marshes along the Coyote or Los Gatos creeks. It seems likely that they have always been found at San Felipe Lake in San Benito County, at least when it did not dry up completely, but they mostly disappeared from Santa Clara County for the first half of the 20th century. They started to be found again in the 1950s along Coyote Creek south of the urban areas. The first nesting along the Bay was in 1977, as far as I know, when they began nesting in the Palo Alto Flood Control Basin. The forebay was excavated in 1981 and cattails started growing almost in the first year. The first moorhens seen there were found in about 1983, I believe. This species is an indicator of suitable freshwater marsh (almost all man made and controlled now), and hence its breeding range expansions and contractions over the long term remain of great interest. _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. south-bay-birds mailing list [[email protected]] http://www.plaidworks.com/mailman/listinfo/south-bay-birds