From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Sun Dec 7 20:04:29 2003 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id hB842Jou012257 for <[[email protected]]>; Sun, 7 Dec 2003 20:02:19 -0800 (PST) Received: from imo-m05.mx.aol.com (imo-m05.mx.aol.com [64.12.136.8]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id hB840xg8012192 for <[[email protected]]>; Sun, 7 Dec 2003 20:01:01 -0800 (PST) Received: from [[email protected]] by imo-m05.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v36_r1.1.) id t.102.3a60c164 (3964) for <[[email protected]]>; Sun, 7 Dec 2003 23:00:53 -0500 (EST) From: [[email protected]] Message-ID: <[[email protected]]> Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2003 23:00:53 EST Subject: Re: [SBB] Santa Clara Valley Water District Pond To: [[email protected]] MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: 9.0 for Windows sub 5100 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.2+ X-BeenThere: [[email protected]] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2+ 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]] Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by plaidworks.com id hB842Jou012257 Hi All! I went out to SCVWD today to see if I could find the American Bittern, and found Gordon and his sister Jeannie with the bittern all scoped out! I parked in the visitor parking lot, and the bittern was on the southeastern edge of the pond, visible from right behind the building. The American Bittern crept around the weeds giving us a great display, and took one short flight to show off his wings. At one point, he struck a pose skyward and swiveled his neck around, the bold stripes on his neck giving a candy-cane effect. We found the Peregrine Falcon right where Janna said he would be found: On the bare sycamore tree at the northeastern corner of the pond. He was perched there for an hour, and although many walkers (including dog-walkers) passed underneath the tree, the Peregrine Falcon remained unperturbed. As we were coming around the pond (but not before we got a good long look!) the Peregrine took off but eventually landed in the biggest tree in the north side of the pond. We came around to that side, and a Cooper's Hawk flew into the tree settling down about five feet from the Peregrine Falcon. Everything was fine for about five minutes, until the Cooper's Hawk took off. Then the two birds got into a raptor-fight, and dove screaming at each other across the pond and into the creekbed. The Peregrine returned as alpha-bird; we did not see the Cooper's Hawk again. Another exciting moment came earlier when an Osprey circled the pond a few times soaring right overhead!! It was such a great day that I had to bring my mom back in the late afternoon. I found a few more birds, bringing my day's total at SCVWD to 39! We had a Red-shouldered hawk flying from the south to the northwest. It landed in one of the tall redwoods on the west side of Almaden Expwy. As we were leaving, we had to drive back into the SCVWD parking lot to identify a Merlin who was dining on "little bird." What a great day birding! Thanks for the heads-up, Janna, and thanks Gordon and Jeannie!! Kim Blythe Santa Clara Here's what we saw: Pied-billed Grebe Double-crested Cormorant American Bittern Great Blue Heron Great Egret Snowy Egret Green Heron Black-crowned Night Heron Mallard Northern Shoveler Gadwall Ring-necked Duck Lesser Scaup Common Goldeneye Bufflehead Ruddy Duck Osprey Cooper’s Hawk Red-shouldered Hawk Merlin Peregrine Falcon Common Moorhen American Coot Ring-billed Gull California Gull Herring Gull Mourning Dove Anna’s Hummingbird Belted Kingfisher Acorn Woodpecker Black Phoebe Western Scrub Jay American Crow American Robin Northern Mockingbird European Starling Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) White-crowed Sparrow Red-winged Blackbird _______________________________________________ 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]]