From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Wed Dec 22 15:42:46 2004 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id iBMNe3lF025293 for <[[email protected]]>; Wed, 22 Dec 2004 15:40:04 -0800 (PST) Received: from mailgate02.slac.stanford.edu (mailgate02.slac.stanford.edu [134.79.18.92]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id iBMNdLYK025250 for <[[email protected]]>; Wed, 22 Dec 2004 15:39:21 -0800 (PST) Received: from flora04.slac.stanford.edu (flora04.slac.stanford.edu [134.79.16.56]) by mailgate02.slac.stanford.edu (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id iBMNdKM2022512 for <[[email protected]]>; Wed, 22 Dec 2004 15:39:20 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from [[email protected]]) Received: from localhost (eisner@localhost) by flora04.slac.stanford.edu (8.12.10+Sun/8.12.5/Submit-solaris) with ESMTP id iBMNdGbp008318 for <[[email protected]]>; Wed, 22 Dec 2004 15:39:20 -0800 (PST) X-Authentication-Warning: flora04.slac.stanford.edu: eisner owned process doing -bs Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 15:39:16 -0800 (PST) From: Al Eisner <[[email protected]]> To: [[email protected]] Message-ID: <[[email protected]]> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Subject: [SBB] Felt Lake/Arastradero area on Palo Alto 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]] This year I was very glad to have Grant Hoyt join me in my usual area on the Palo Alto CBC: the Palo Alto Hills GCC, the Santa Clara Co. portion of Los Trancos Road, Felt Lake and vicinity, and a portion of Arastradero Preserve. David Houston joined us for the latter, and covered a different portion of the Preserve earlier in the day. At this foothill elevation, the fog (very familiar to the lowland counters) played games with us: appearing to be dissipating, only to return. The Golf Course is usually a good spot for PINE SISKIN, and this year they were certainly expected: we had 14 here (probably some others were heard), another 12 down Alexis Drive, a total of 42 in the Los Trancos area, and a very conservative 5 at Arastradero -- for a total of 73 for the day. I rarely see BROWN CREEPER at the Golf Course, so 3 here (including a vocal pair) was a nice find. Another species I've not previously recorded in my count area was WILD TURKEY: we heard one calling (twice) from a wooded area close to Los Trancos Road. The water level at Felt Lake was still low, but the Merganser situation was much better than last year. There were 19 COMMON MERGANSERs (none at all last year), and 16 HOODED MERGANSERs (possibly even 17) was a new high for me at this location. Still, it was the raptors which put on the best show, despite rather poor visibility for much of our visit. Grant spotted an adult PEREGRINE FALCON dashing across the Lake -- we saw it land on the shore, and it actually was bathing at one point. The nearby ducks didn't seem at all concerned so long as it was on the ground. Then an adult (probably) GOLDEN EAGLE took up successive perches on a couple of low posts on a hillside across the lake from us -- the poorlighting made for odd colors (the obviously pale nape seemed more whitish than golden), but this big bird was still unmistakeable. As we were leaving the lake, a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK flew right by us. This in addition to NORTHERN hARRIERs, RED-SHOULDERED and RED-TAILED HAWKs and an AMERICAN KESTREL. Best of all: as we first approached the Lake, Grant spotted, and I also focused on, a largish raptor flying back and forth on bowed wings, over the far side of the lake. Despite difficult viewing conditions, Grant (by running as far forward as possible) was able to get enough details to identify the bird as an OSPREY. (What I saw of the bird was quite consistent with that, but I didn't get as good a look.) The finish at Arastradero added WHITE-TAILED KITE (at least 4) to our raptor collection and a flock of 15 CEDAR WAXWINGs to our land birds. Perhaps the most unusual total was the sparsity of AMERICAN ROBINs for the day: just 39, vs. several hundred in the last few years. We ended up with a nice 73 species for the day. Al Eisner _______________________________________________ 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]]