From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Tue May 13 13:35:44 2003 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h4DKUeIu008500 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 13 May 2003 13:30:41 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mail07a.vwh1.net (mail07a.vwh1.net [209.238.9.57]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with SMTP id h4DKSGvn008409 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 13 May 2003 13:28:37 -0700 (PDT) Received: from www.hiddenvilla.org (209.238.206.251) by mail07a.vwh1.net (RS ver 1.0.80vs) with SMTP id 0237677689 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 13 May 2003 16:28:13 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <003901c3198d$ea7dc520$[[email protected]]> From: "Garth Harwood" <[[email protected]]> To: "SBB" <[[email protected]]> Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 13:26:16 -0700 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2615.200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2615.200 X-Loop-Detect: 1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.2+ Subject: [SBB] HV, Arastradero,Byrne Park nestboxes, migrants 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 h4DKUeIu008500 All, Migrant activity seems to be slowing down with the improving weather at my usual spots. Yesterday, 5/12/03, a single Hermit Warbler sang from a tall pine next to the Hidden Villa goat pen for at least three hours. A B-T Gray Warbler along upper Adobe Creek and a singing male Lazuli Bunting rounded out the migrants found along a 5-mile route through the HV backcountry trails. Along the way I encountered two Orange-crowned Warbler breeding sites, at one of which I was able to observe the fledged young accepting food deliveries among low poison oak shrubs. Today at HV, Ash-throated Flycatchers have begun nest-building in a box behind my office. At all of my north county nestbox trails they are building this week also, in remarkable synchronicity. I hope the same holds true for Violet-green Swallows, as a pair resumed building at the HV poolhouse today after first being seen with straw 'way back on 3/29! I have had no VGSW nest starts at any of my other locations until this week, despite as many as 7 at Arastradero alone at this time last year. I'm sure that others have also noticed circumstantial evidence that many breeding birds have been struggling through the lousy spring weather up til now. Many of the nests I've been following appear to have failed; one pair of American Robins has built 3 nests that I know of so far (the first blew down altogether, but I don't know why #2 was abandoned. In each case they've built just a few feet away from the previous attempt.) This pattern has been borne out in my nestboxes (I maintain about 75 at 5 locations). At Byrne Park in Los Altos, for example, I have Western Bluebirds with a clutch of only 2, with only 1 hatched; another WEBL clutch there had only 1 of 5 eggs hatch. I lost one entire clutch of well-fed Oak Titmice young just prior to fledging age, apparently to hypothermia. In other nests through the north county I have had small clutches, poor hatching rates, and some post-hatching mortality as well. Clearly, this will not be one of the better seasons for avian breeding success in this area. Let's hope for mild weather from here on out! --Garth Harwood _______________________________________________ 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]]