From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Tue Dec 21 18:25:16 2004 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id iBM2MnlG005275 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 21 Dec 2004 18:22:50 -0800 (PST) Received: from pony1pub.arc.nasa.gov (pony1pub.arc.nasa.gov [128.102.31.41]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id iBM2LMYK005231 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 21 Dec 2004 18:21:26 -0800 (PST) Received: from [129.99.140.17] (HELO mail.arc.nasa.gov) by pony1pub.arc.nasa.gov (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 4.2.6) with ESMTP id 15771068; Tue, 21 Dec 2004 18:21:21 -0800 Message-ID: <[[email protected]]> Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 18:21:11 -0800 From: Mike Rogers <[[email protected]]> User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: birders <[[email protected]]>, Mike Rogers <[[email protected]]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Subject: [SBB] Alviso Salt Ponds/Fremont Lagoons - San Jose CBC X-BeenThere: [[email protected]] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5b1 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, On Sunday 12/19/04, I birded the salt ponds north of the Alviso Marina and the Fremont Lagoons area for the San Jose CBC. There was no Barn Owl at the SFBBO box when we met at 6:30am (but Mike Mammoser and I had one later in the nest box near the Environmental Education Center, so we did get the species for the count). I spent until just after 8:00am working the area around the Alviso Marina, hoping to catch sight of the roadrunner (last reported by Dave Weber on 5 Dec). That failed, but I did find many sparrows for my efforts, including 8 FOX and 9 LINCOLN'S SPARROWS. I also heard at least 7 VIRGINIA RAILS and 2 SORAS. Nearby Salt Pond A12 had a notable 51 RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS (out of 61 for the morning) and a surprising 54 FORSTER'S TERNS (we have been close to missing this bird in the past). Pond A15 had 291 BONAPARTE'S GULLS and 66 MEW GULLS were nearby on pond A14. At 9:21am, I heard the calls of GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE. Looking up, I managed to find the flock high up heading south over pond A15, I counted the group several times and got 26 each time. The uncovering mudflats on Coyote Creek/Slough were good for shorebirds, with 115 BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS and 8 DOWITCHERS, at least one of which was a SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER. Pond A11 had surprisingly many ducks (it is normally mostly empty, with the ducks preferring nearby A10), with both SCAUP, 73 BUFFLEHEAD, 6 COMMON GOLDENEYES, and an immature male SURF SCOTER. At 11:34am, I again heard GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE. After even more determined searching, I finally was able to pick them out way high up heading northeast over pond A12. Repeated counts resulted in at least 28 birds, and I even came up with possibly 29 once or twice - presumably this was the same group of geese, having recruited a couple new members to the flock. At 11:57am, I again heard geese from the northeast, but this group was too far off for me to locate visually. Kirsten (the compiler) should have fun deciding how many birds are involved in the various sightings of this species on the count :) Among the diving ducks on pond A10 were two female REDHEADS, one within the count circle, the other outside it. After returning to the Marina, I spent another 25 minutes not finding the roadrunner :( Gull numbers roosting on the Alviso dikes were down, with only 3830 HERRING, 730 CALIFORNIA GULLS, and 1400 "GULL, SP" being estimated. I had no luck finding either Glaucous or Lesser Black-backed Gulls. After this, I met Mike Mammoser at the EEC and we headed off to nearby Alameda County to cover the Fremont Lagoons area since the people assigned to this section were unable to do it at the last minute. We had a great raptor exit from the EEC, with a MERLIN and an immature RED-SHOULDERED HAWK perched along the slough, a PEREGRINE FALCON on one of the towers, and a subadult GOLDEN EAGLE landing on a pole at Arzino Ranch. A later visit here to pick up Mike's car also added a single male TRICOLORED BLACKBIRD in the middle of the hundreds of RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS commuting to roost. We found no real surprises at the Fremont Lagoons, but 11 VIRGINIA RAILS and 9 SORAS were surprisingly vocal and 638 EARED GREBES (on Salt Pond A19), 167 BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERONS, 1072 NORTHERN SHOVELERS, 784 AMERICAN COOTS, 437 AMERICAN AVOCETS, and 205 LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS kept us busy counting. One final check of the Alviso Marina again failed to produce the roadrunner. 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]]