From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Tue Jul 27 21:36:50 2004 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i6S4Z7OR018406 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 27 Jul 2004 21:35:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mxsf20.cluster1.charter.net (mxsf20.cluster1.charter.net [209.225.28.220]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i6S4XZMR018360 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 27 Jul 2004 21:33:35 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mxip02.cluster1.charter.net (mxip02a.cluster1.charter.net [209.225.28.132]) by mxsf20.cluster1.charter.net (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id i6S4XXbj025551 for <[[email protected]]>; Wed, 28 Jul 2004 00:33:33 -0400 Received: from unknown (HELO cfu3b) (68.185.91.197) by mxip02.cluster1.charter.net with SMTP; 28 Jul 2004 00:33:33 -0400 X-Ironport-AV: i="3.83,92,1089000000"; d="scan'217,208"; a="149549786:sNHT19754352" Message-ID: <002001c4745d$77da6b00$c55bb944@cfu3b> From: "Steve and Heather Rottenborn" <[[email protected]]> To: <[[email protected]]> Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 00:43:45 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5b1 Subject: [SBB] Salt Pond Birding, 7-27-04 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]] Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by plaidworks.com id i6S4Z7OR018406 South Bay Birders: Today I took a quick tour of most of the Santa Clara County salt ponds with Laird Henkel and Larry Spear, H.T. Harvey & Associates ornithologists who (among many others) are working on the South Bay Salt Ponds restoration project. We did not cover ponds A-4 or A-18, nor did we check the Sunnyvale WPCP ponds, but we spent at least some time at the remaining salt ponds between A-1 in Mountain View and A-17 in Alviso. Highlights/interesting observations are as follows: Double-crested Cormorant: 12 nests (8 occupied) on electrical towers in pond A2W, 3 occupied nests on a tower in B2, and approximately 50 nests on the levee separating ponds A9 and A10 (525 cormorants were on this levee and the one between ponds A10 and A11) Canvasback -- 1 female in Guadalupe Slough northeast of pond A3W (no apparent injuries) Bufflehead -- 3 females and 1 male in pond A-9 Bald Eagle -- 1 first-year (1-year old) bird flying low over the grassy hills between the Shoreline Amphitheater overflow parking lot and pond A-2, eventually perching on a light pole in the overflow parking area. This species is rarely seen along the immediate bayshore in the county. Ruddy Turnstone -- 1 alternate-plumaged bird moving among several locations in pond A-16 Ruff -- 2 in New Chicago Marsh in Alviso (ad. male in the usual spot north of the RR tracks, and an alternate female along the northern edge of the marsh, as seen from the levee between A-16 and the marsh) Common Tern -- 1 (probably second-summer) foraging over pond A-10 Least Tern -- 258 counted on the boardwalk in A2E, with 18 more foraging simultaneously in pond B1; 5 seen later foraging in B2 may have been counted earlier. Approximately 1/3 were juveniles. Black Skimmer -- 13 adults and 1 juv. -- pair in SE corner of A-1; two pairs on the east side of A-2W (including one apparently incubating bird); pair on a nest with 3 eggs in NW corner of B-1; 4 on island #3 in pond A-16 (one pair apparently incubating plus a third adult with a juvenile); 2 adults on island #4 in pond A-16 Some other totals: 16 Eared Grebes 34 Pied-billed Grebes 1 Clark's Grebe 19 Brown Pelicans 1370 American White Pelicans 312 Snowy Egrets 150 Great Egrets 125 Mallards 1 Northern Shoveler (pond A-16; the only non-Mallard dabbling duck we saw) 10 Lesser Scaup (no young seen) 98 Ruddy Ducks 97 Red-necked Phalaropes 500 Wilson's Phalaropes 35 Western Gulls (30 on an island in pond A-17) 21 Common Ravens The vast majority of piscivores (e.g., herons, egrets, cormorants, pelicans, and terns) observed were roosting on levees, boardwalks, or pilings rather than foraging. Good birding, Steve Rottenborn Morgan Hill, CA [[email protected]] _______________________________________________ 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]]