From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Mon Jan 27 16:17:00 2003 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.6/8.12.2) with ESMTP id h0S0EZ50027713 for <[[email protected]]>; Mon, 27 Jan 2003 16:14:36 -0800 (PST) Received: from rtjones.nas.nasa.gov (rtjones.nas.nasa.gov [129.99.19.30]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.6/8.12.2) with ESMTP id h0S0DuSE027674 for <[[email protected]]>; Mon, 27 Jan 2003 16:13:56 -0800 (PST) Received: (from mrogers@localhost) by rtjones.nas.nasa.gov (SGI-8.9.3/8.9.3/NAS 8.9.3-5n) id QAA06981 for [[email protected]]; Mon, 27 Jan 2003 16:13:25 -0800 (PST) Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 16:13:25 -0800 (PST) From: "Dr. Michael M. Rogers" <[[email protected]]> Message-Id: <[[email protected]]> To: [[email protected]] Subject: [SBB] owls, PIWO, and WTSP X-BeenThere: [[email protected]] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1 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]] All, Thinking that the warm weather might encourage some owls to call, I decided to check Monte Bello OSP before dawn on Sunday 1/26/03. I started hiking in on the Canyon Trail at 5:15am and managed to get a response from a WESTERN SCREECH-OWL before reaching the sag pond. Persistent taping for a Northern Saw-whet Owl near the Stevens Creek Trail junction elicited little response, but eventually another WESTERN SCREECH-OWL spoke up. I headed partway down the Stevens Creek Trail toward it and heard a nearby NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL respond to the screech-owl! After that, I headed back out the Canyon Trail to the meadow and waited. I didn't have to wait long, as a NORTHERN PYGMY-OWL began calling at 6:19am and kept going incessantly until just after 7am. A second bird joined it, calling briefly at 6:32am. What was presumably the same NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL called occasionally from back where I had heard it until 6:25am. At least 5 additional WESTERN SCREECH-OWLS were also calling from the meadow edges. Finally, at 6:47 a distant GREAT HORNED OWL began hooting. Another pair directly below me across the canyon hooted from 7:01 to 7:12, ten minutes after a CALIFORNIA THRASHER had begun singing and 7 minutes after a WINTER WREN began singing loudly from the drainage below me. Guess the Great Horned Owls are too busy with nest preparation to be as vocal as usual. I stayed at the meadow until 7:45am, listening and looking for new species to show themselves. Several BAND-TAILED PIGEONS were "singing" from the tree tops and flying up the canyon. Flocks of COMMON RAVENS and AMERICAN ROBINS commuted to the northeast, the latter with an occasional CEDAR WAXWING among them. VARIED THRUSHES called from the woods. AT 7:11am, I heard a calling PILEATED WOODPECKER. Over the next half hour continual calling and drumming was heard from at least 2 PILEATED WOODPECKERS as they worked their way up the canyon, last being heard from near the Stevens Creek Trail junction. Heading further down the Canyon Trail, I located a few PURPLE FINCHES flying overhead, 3 TOWNSEND'S WARBLERS, another singing WINTER WREN (about a tenth of a mile beyond milepost 1.3), and heard several PYGMY NUTHATCHES. Hiking back, I refound both PILEATED WOODPECKERS about 0.4 miles from Page Mill Road. They flew from a wooded drainage over the scrub by the "Coyote" interpretive sign to a leafless tree at the other end of the clearing. Here I got great looks at the pair before they flew further to the sag pond; shortly thereafter I heard one calling as it flew over Page Mill Road into San Mateo County. Since so many good birds have been seen at Edenvale Garden Park lately, I decided to check some urban parks in the northern part of the county. I started with Bowers Park in Santa Clara and Fair Oaks Park in Sunnyvale, both of which have had overwintering Palm Warblers in past winters. Highlights from just under an hour and a half at Bowers Park and adjacent Saratoga Creek included a perched adult male MERLIN (apparently a pale columbarius), a female TOWNSEND'S WARBLER, 2 FOX SPARROWS, and 3 female-plumaged PURPLE FINCHES. In twenty-five minutes at Fair Oaks Park I found an adult male TOWNSEND'S WARBLER and an adult tan-striped WHITE-THROATED SPARROW. The sparrow was with a small flock of Zonotrichia near the north end of the canal on the east side of the park (where the water goes underground). In twenty-five minutes at Martin Murphy Junior Historical Park at N. Sunnyvale and Central Expressway in Sunnyvale I found two more TOWNSEND'S WARBLERS and an out-of-place BEWICK'S WREN. Mike Rogers _______________________________________________ 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]]