From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Sat Jan 3 22:43:01 2004 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i046fA2t027078 for <[[email protected]]>; Sat, 3 Jan 2004 22:41:11 -0800 (PST) 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 i046dj1l027030 for <[[email protected]]>; Sat, 3 Jan 2004 22:39:46 -0800 (PST) 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 i046dj78080349 for <[[email protected]]>; Sat, 3 Jan 2004 22:39:45 -0800 (PST) Received: (from mrogers@localhost) by rtjones.nas.nasa.gov (SGI-8.12.5/8.12.5/Submit) id i046djxi080086 for [[email protected]]; Sat, 3 Jan 2004 22:39:45 -0800 (PST) Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2004 22:39:45 -0800 (PST) From: "Dr. Michael M. Rogers" <[[email protected]]> Message-Id: <[[email protected]]> To: [[email protected]] Subject: [SBB] the start of 2004 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, Like many others, I couldn't resist starting out a new Santa Clara County year list on 1/1/04, so I dragged two of the kids with me for just over two hours, stopping quickly at Geng Road, the Palo Alto Baylands, the Palo Alto Flood Control Basin, the Mountain View Forebay, Shoreline Lake, and Charleston Slough. We ended up with 86 species before it got dark. Highlights included 4 CLAPPER RAILS and a hunting PEREGRINE FALCON at the Palo Alto Baylands, 120+ SURF SCOTERS on Shoreline Lake, 5 REDHEADS in the Palo Alto Flood Control Basin (visible from the Charleston Slough dike), and 16 BLACK SKIMMERS roosting on the island in Charleston Slough. On Friday 1/2/04, I birded the Isabel Valley for the Mt. Hamilton CBC, as Mike Mammoser has already described. The best birds came right at the start of the day. While Mike scoped the runway telephone poles for raptors (finding an immature PRAIRIE FALCON) I worked the junco flock in the willows along the dam of the reservoir, finding a cooperative VESPER SPARROW that eventually dropped down to the dike and allowed nice scope views. This bird was not seen in the county during 2003 - how quickly the new species show up! This bird's tail and tertials were covered with frost, evidence of how rough the winters are up in the Diablo Range! (it was snowing on top of Mt. Hamilton when we left in the afternoon). The edge of the big reservoir also provided our other "write-up" bird, a HOUSE WREN, and the willows in the back corner of the reservoir had a small group of WOOD DUCKS (3 males and 1 female) with a brilliantly colored, wary, adult male MANDARIN DUCK. After finding this bird, I told Mike to hurry because I had a new bird for the count - I'm not sure that he was completely satisfied with this uncountable exotic though :) As reported by Bill Bousman, most of the FOX SPARROWS up there this winter are birds that tend toward "SLATE-COLORED" FOX SPARROWS. Of the 34 Fox Sparrows we encountered, only a couple were typical "SOOTY" FOX SPARROWS. The others had red wings and tails, mostly gray heads and backs, and small yellow bills. Unlike the illustration in Sibley, however, most of these birds did have some brown in the auriculars and nape, suggesting either a different subspecies than the one depicted or introgression with another race of Fox Sparrow. On Saturday 1/3/04, I had a couple of hours to kill in the morning, so I decided to try for the Calero Reservoir Bald Eagle. Nine AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS were flying south near the junction of Highways 85 and 101 near Bernal Road; three minutes later they were landing with three others at Parkway Lakes. Heading west on Bailey Road, I noticed a goose flock in the plowed field to the north. Pulling over to scope the birds, I found the 2 adult GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE with 104 CANADA GEESE. The CANADA GEESE included 2 small form birds with white neck collars that appeared to be "ALEUTIAN" CANADA GEESE. This is clearly the same group of geese that is also being found at the upper end of Calero Reservoir. I arrived at Calero Reservoir at 8:39am, which was apparently already too late for the Bald Eagle, probably because of the many boaters already out on the lake. Seven more AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS were at the upper end of the reservoir and the two GOLDEN EAGLES were on adjacent towers below the reservoir. A quick stop at the SCVWD pond off Almaden Expressway turned up an OSPREY perched on the dead tree with cormorants and two THAYER'S GULLS on the pond (one second winter bird and one fourth winter bird that was adult-like but with a dusky interior to the uppermost right tertial). The immature PEREGRINE FALCON made a pass at a low-flying DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT!, pulling away only at the last second when the cormorant grunted at it. Duck species included many scaup, all of which were LESSER SCAUP. A SPOTTED SANDPIPER was in the nearby Guadalupe River. Later in the day, I stopped by the Ogier Ponds, spotting another OSPREY over Parkway Lakes on the drive south. Birds at the ponds were similar to those reported in the recent past, including two BARN SWALLOWS over the southern pond, a pair of REDHEAD in the next pond to the north, and a GREEN HERON and 2 WILSON'S SNIPE east of this second pond. A 5-minute stop at the Coyote Creek Golf Course clubhouse on the way home turned up a single female GREAT-TAILED GRACKLE among the blackbirds. 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]]