From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Tue Oct 14 11:31:26 2003 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h9EIQvFx014116 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 14 Oct 2003 11:26:57 -0700 (PDT) Received: from rtjones.nas.nasa.gov (rtjones.nas.nasa.gov [129.99.19.30]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h9EIPtJl014061 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 14 Oct 2003 11:25:56 -0700 (PDT) Received: from rtjones.nas.nasa.gov (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by rtjones.nas.nasa.gov (SGI-8.12.5/8.12.5/NAS-6n) with ESMTP id h9EIPtc8220575 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 14 Oct 2003 11:25:55 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from mrogers@localhost) by rtjones.nas.nasa.gov (SGI-8.12.5/8.12.5/Submit) id h9EIPsGe220397 for [[email protected]]; Tue, 14 Oct 2003 11:25:54 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 11:25:54 -0700 (PDT) From: "Dr. Michael M. Rogers" <[[email protected]]> Message-Id: <[[email protected]]> To: [[email protected]] Subject: [SBB] East of Mt. Hamilton - LEWO, ROAD, CCSP 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]] All, Yesterday 10/13/03, I continued my fruitless quest for Pinyon Jays. I had decided to try the Diablo Range this time, and this decision was further strengthened by Matthew O'Brien's report of a single Pinyon Jay in southern San Antonio Valley. I started at the Mt. Hamilton summit, hoping that the 360-degree vista and great ability to hear vocal jays might turn something up. WESTERN SCRUB-JAYS were all over the place, but no Pinyon Jays were hanging out with them; not a single hawk was seen either. So I headed east down towards the valley, stopping and listening from many pullouts as I went. From a gravel pullout overlooking a vast canyon 1.1 miles east of the summit I saw at least 7 LEWIS'S WOODPECKERS. These birds were foraging for acorns in the oaks both near the road and well down the canyon. Excitement built when I saw a short-tailed bird flying away from me way down across the canyon that appeared to be blue! After following it in flight to the ridge all the way across the canyon it suddenly flew up and the color changed to the expected black of another LEWIS'S WOODPECKER. Strange lighting on that bird! Twice I heard a chattering call that sounded like a White-throated Swift without the final flourish - it wasn't until I got to San Antonio Valley later and heard this call again that I realized it came from the Lewis's Woodpeckers! Most vocalizations were their typical scratchy calls though. Another 0.8 miles down the road I saw 3 more LEWIS'S WOODPECKERS and then 3 more flying high overhead to the northeast that may have come from the other group. In any event, there were very conservatively at least 10 birds between miles 1 and 2 east of the summit! These birds are part of this year's invasion, as they do not normally occur in this area. I finally managed to find some raptors riding the thermals between 2 and 3 miles east of the summit, including 2 GOLDEN EAGLES (1 immature and 1 adult), 1 immature SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, 2 RED-TAILED HAWKS, and an AMERICAN KESTREL. WILD TURKEYS gobbled just before the bridge over Isabel Creek. Somewhat surprising was a small flock at least 5 or 6 EUROPEAN STARLINGS about 7.5 miles east of the summit - these birds normally depart from the Diablo Range interior after breeding. A GREATER YELLOWLEGS and a KILLDEER were at a small stock pond (one of the few with any water left) at mile 10.5. A mile later a GREATER ROADRUNNER ran across the road in front of the car. This was right at the green milepost marker 12 (these green signs do not match the white signs with small black numbers or my odometer). I stopped just as the road enters the San Antonio Valley and managed to find at least 7 more LEWIS'S WOODPECKERS. These may be our resident birds, but there was a lot of territorial chasing going on, so there may be a few interlopers there as well. All the way up the valley I was amazed at the number of WESTERN SCRUB-JAYS. These birds were literally harvesting acorns from some of the big oaks. I had at least 16 in one tree and at least 14 in another, with birds continuously streaming from the oaks to some other location, presumably where the acorns were being cached. It was amazing to watch the birds leave with an acorn and return empty, ready to find another! Of course I have never counted this species in past years (in fact I'm not sure that I have ever birded this area in October before) so I have no way of knowing whether this is an annual phenomenon or not. A flock of about a dozen LARK SPARROWS south of the houses near the Gehri bridge had no rare sparrows with it. After reaching the San Antone Junction, I decided to head down Del Puerto Canyon to the area between mileposts 8 and 10 in Stanislaus County, where Pinyon Jays have been found in November of two prior falls. I was surprised to find that the habitat here was not what I expected. Rather than steep-sided juniper/gray pine-covered rocky canyon (as much of upper Del Puerto Canyon is), this spot was a wide, flat, open area with widely spaced oaks across the grassland. The creek was a wide dried out gravel bed at this point. In general, this location looked a lot like San Antonio Valley rather than the steep sides of Mt. Hamilton, where I had thought the birds would be more likely based on the locations of other coastal sightings this year. I continued past milepost 8, looking for a place to turn around and saw a LARK SPARROW flock at the green metal corral near mile 7.2. This area looked at lot like the Panoche Valley and I thought I might find a Vesper Sparrow or Lark Bunting with the flock and pulled over. A quick scan of the smaller sparrows turned up a Spizella perched on the back gate, so I pulled over and got the scope out. The bird had hopped down into the vegetation, but soon came out where I could identify it as an immature CLAY-COLORED SPARROW! I was able to study the bird over the next ten minutes as it preened, snoozed in the shade of the corral, and then began foraging again, eventually moving off into the vegetation where it was hidden from view. The bird had completely unmarked buffy lores and an unmarked brown rump. The brown auriculars were outlined in dark brown, with the lower border being just as prominent as the upper border behind the eye. A prominent brown malar stripe set off a white submoustachial. The broad unmarked supercilium was the same warm buff color as the lores. A contrasting clean gray collar marked the sides of the neck to the rear of the auriculars. The bird had a narrow gray median crown stripe and no notable eyering. It was much smaller and slimmer than the nearby Lark Sparrows (about 80% of the length and half the bulk) with a notched tail. According to Jim Gain this is the first record of this species for Stanislaus County. On my way back out I saw another GREATER ROADRUNNER at about mile 9.8. On my way home over Mt. Hamilton, I had LEWIS'S WOODPECKERS in the same locations as on the way out: 2+ at the south end of San Antonio Valley, 2 flying to the south 1.6 miles east of Mt. Hamilton summit, and at least 6 birds from the pullout 1.1 miles east of the summit. Also, at this last pullout was a HOUSE WREN, surprisingly late for 4000 feet elevation! 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]]