From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Sat Jun 5 22:14:19 2004 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i565Cwim026956 for <[[email protected]]>; Sat, 5 Jun 2004 22:12:58 -0700 (PDT) Received: from grebe.mail.pas.earthlink.net (grebe.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.46]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i565BYcu026893 for <[[email protected]]>; Sat, 5 Jun 2004 22:11:34 -0700 (PDT) Received: from user-vcauq8h.dsl.mindspring.com ([216.175.105.17] helo=pavilion.earthlink.net) by grebe.mail.pas.earthlink.net with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1) id 1BWpwQ-00046v-00; Sat, 05 Jun 2004 22:11:30 -0700 Message-Id: <[[email protected]]> X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.2.1 Date: Sat, 05 Jun 2004 22:15:41 -0700 To: [[email protected]] From: Bill Bousman <[[email protected]]> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Cc: "Clyde A. Morris" <[[email protected]]> Subject: [SBB] Salt Ponds A1, A2W (Palo Alto SBC) 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]] Folks: Today, 6/5/2004, I participated in the 24th Palo Alto Summer Bird Count, covering Shoreline Lake, the Mountain View Forebay, Salt Pond A1, Salt Pond A2W, and the Stevens Creek Tidal Marsh. It was a clear, moderate day, although the wind started to pick up about ten or eleven and, along the Bay, reached 20 or 25 mph by early afternoon. At Shoreline Lake I had single adult GREEN HERONS at a number of spots and at one time I had two birds interacting. It was hard to be sure of the actual total, but probably it is best to suggest that there were at least two birds present. Seven SURF SCOTERS were on the lake. Two are adult males and the others females/immatures. All that raised their wings showed a fairly severe loss of feathers and appear to be incapable of flight. In the early morning CANADA GEESE appeared to be largely concentrated near the boat house area (they had all moved to the golf course later). I estimated 355 adults (birds showing at least some white chinstrap) and 56 goslings. A 1st-summer GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL here was quite washed out as expected. Salt Pond A1 has two nesting islands, one in the northwest that is accessible only on the SBC or the CBC and one in the southeast which can easily seen from the Shoreline bike path. The northwest island has been used by CALIFORNIA GULLS for years and I estimated 390 adults present, about 202 precocial young of all ages, and about 10 gulls still on nests incubating (not brooding). AM. WHITE PELICANS and DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS use the island for roosting. A single BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON was working through the colony, but I did not see any predation. The southwest island has many FORSTER'S TERNS and AMERICAN AVOCETS. I saw many precocial young of Forster's Terns but none of American Avocet (I believe the avocets leave the colony within hours of their young hatching). I also saw a pair of BLACK SKIMMERS on the island with the female appearing to be incubating, while the mate was actively "mate guarding", that is, chasing away avocets and terns that got too close. Other birds in A1 included a pair of apparently healthy AMERICAN WIGEON and a pair of PEREGRINE FALCONS (I later saw the same pair on the outer towers when I did my A2W loop). A pair of TREE SWALLOWS was again at the bird house near the bike path, but although I watched for 15 min, I didn't see any evidence of breeding. After lunch I did a loop of A2W. Certainly the most interesting bird was a male EURASIAN WIGEON with an injured right wing (a similar injured bird was in Guadalupe Slough last summer). This wigeon moved off the west levee towards the center and later I got very good looks as it was blown towards the east levee. Also of interest was an injured female/immature BUFFLEHEAD (bad left wing) and 3 EARED GREBES in alternate plumage. It was hard to get a good count of nests on the power tower on Long Point--I guessed at least 5, but at one point I counted 38 adults present on this tower and the next one over. Bill _______________________________________________ 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]]