From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Sat Oct 11 19:53:13 2003 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h9C2oYI6025674 for <[[email protected]]>; Sat, 11 Oct 2003 19:50:34 -0700 (PDT) Received: from hawk.mail.pas.earthlink.net (hawk.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.22]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h9C2n3ZP025636 for <[[email protected]]>; Sat, 11 Oct 2003 19:49:03 -0700 (PDT) Received: from user-vcauslv.dsl.mindspring.com ([216.175.114.191] helo=pavilion.earthlink.net) by hawk.mail.pas.earthlink.net with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1) id 1A8WI1-00042w-00 for [[email protected]]; Sat, 11 Oct 2003 19:49:02 -0700 Message-Id: <[[email protected]]> X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.2.1 Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2003 20:02:05 -0700 To: [[email protected]] From: Bill Bousman <[[email protected]]> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Subject: [SBB] Mt. Hamilton Transect 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]] Folks: When I got home this evening I saw Matthew O'Brien's e-mail about a Pinyon Jay in San Antonio Valley on Friday and Mike Feighner's e-mail on his Saturday visit. I also made a visit today, 10/11/2003, thinking that the drive from the county border on Mines Road over Mt. Hamilton might give me a chance at a Pinyon Jay. No luck with that, but otherwise a nice trip. I reached the county line about a half hour before sunrise and things were fairly quiet until I reached the culvert where Colorado Creek passes beneath Mines Road. Here and all along my trip I noticed a good fruiting crop of smooth, black berries on what looks to be a _Vaccinium_ species (sorry I don't know the name; it must be some sort of huckleberry, but not the red one). At Colorado Creek I had a flock of 40+ WESTERN BLUEBIRDS feeding on the berries (I had 90+ for the transect). Also feeding on these berries were HERMIT THRUSHES, FOX SPARROWS (both SOOTY and SLATE-COLORED), and the crowned sparrows. While there I heard a NORTHERN PYGMY-OWL calling, giving its accelerated call and then dropping off to slow-cadenced 'tooks.' A male PHAINOPEPLA and a RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER were also nearby. Dropping into San Antonio Valley, I also had two female PHAINOPEPLAs at the pond across from the Digger Pine Ranch. Mike Feighner has already described the damage from the August fires set off by lightning storms. These burned the grass west of San Antonio Valley Road all the way south to the dog-leg at San Antonio Creek. Larger valley and blue oaks look fine, but some of the smaller trees were damaged quite a bit--we'll have to wait until spring to see if they sprout from their trunks (they generally do, unless they are charcoal). Just south of the junction I found a winter-plumaged CHIPPING SPARROW by the road accompanied by what appeared to be a juvenile. Rising mentions that the juvenile plumage is held to October, so these two were probably resident birds (they are believed to breed in this area). Many LARK SPARROWS were nearby. I didn't find much in most of the valley, although a PRAIRIE FALCON overhead was a treat and 5+ TREE SWALLOWS seemed late, but may have lingered because of the mild weather. Then at the south end, in the last grove of valley oaks before the road turns west before going up hill and crossing into Arroyo Bayo, I found four LEWIS'S WOODPECKERS. This is the same grove described by Matthew O'Brien where he had seen the Pinyon Jay and the Lewis's Woodpeckers the day before. The Lewis's Woodpeckers are probably local. On the same transect at the end of March this year I counted seven birds. On that trip I had 14 Acorn Woodpeckers and on today's transect I had 20. This is a very limited amount of data, but these data suggest that our Diablo Range birds are not the source of the irruptive woodpeckers seen in other parts of California. Bill _______________________________________________ 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]]