From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Sun May 9 17:27:13 2004 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i4A0OfUx003566 for <[[email protected]]>; Sun, 9 May 2004 17:24:41 -0700 (PDT) Received: from smtp811.mail.sc5.yahoo.com (smtp811.mail.sc5.yahoo.com [66.163.170.81]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with SMTP id i4A0NGD6003527 for <[[email protected]]>; Sun, 9 May 2004 17:23:17 -0700 (PDT) Received: from unknown (HELO ?192.168.1.100?) ([[email protected]]@63.193.245.244 with plain) by smtp811.mail.sc5.yahoo.com with SMTP; 10 May 2004 00:23:16 -0000 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v613) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <[[email protected]]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed To: [[email protected]] From: Karen DeMello <[[email protected]]> Date: Sun, 9 May 2004 17:23:58 -0700 X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.613) Subject: [SBB] Life and Death at the bay 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 afternoon (Sunday, 5/9/04) Jan Hintermeister and I visited the Palo Alto Baylands. The palm trees in the bird sanctuary across from the duck pond looked like they were decorated with Snowy Egret ornaments. We had great close looks at several Snowy Egret nests. Unlike their parents, the young Snowy Egrets have yellow bills, and they were so cute with their mouths open begging for food. We had good looks at the adult and juvenile Black-crowned Night Herons nearby, and saw a couple of their nests and young. Much to our horror, we watched a large juvenile gull on the ground below the palm trees attempting to eat a not-so-tiny Black-crowned Night Heron chick. Periodically the gull would drag the mangled chick to a little watering hole in the corner behind the palms, dip it in the water for a bit, then bring it back to the land and try to take bites, not too successfully as it doesn't have any teeth. It looked like the poor chick was being gummed to death. The gull repeated this sequence of going to the little watering hole many times in the half hour we were there, with nearby Mallards not seeming to mind at all. It was a gruesome sight. The ranger said that they periodically look for chicks that have fallen and take them to Wildlife Rescue, but sometimes the gulls get them first. The number of heron and egret nests at Palo Alto Baylands surprised me. It is well worth a visit to see these beautiful birds so close to the parking lot. There were a couple of Black-crowned Night Heron nests tucked away in the palm trees on the other (left) side of the pond too, as well as in the trees between the parking lot and the rangers house, and on the other side of the rangers house near the picnic area. We heard these birds before we saw them, and they were hard to see through the leaves in the trees. We didn't want to get too close and disturb them. Then we walked out to the Nature Center and down the boardwalk towards the bay. In the brief walk (20 minutes?) that we were on the boardwalk we saw 8 instances of a Common Raven fly over the salt marsh, descend briefly, then depart with an egg in its mouth. The Black-necked Stilts tried to spar but didn't have much effect. According the "The Birder's Handbook", the Black-necked Stilt lays 4 eggs in the nest, meaning that we effectively saw 2 nests destroyed. I only saw 2 or 3 ravens at any given instant, so I think they were the same ravens that grabbed the egg (from about the same spot), then flew to a power for a light meal, then flew back for seconds. At least that's my supposition. Although I know that Common Ravens are predators, I never expected to see so much carnage in such a short period of time. Does anyone have an estimate of how many Black-necked Stilt nests there might be at Palo Alto Baylands? Thank you, Karen DeMello ([[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]]