From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Sat Sep 18 16:58:35 2004 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i8INucwQ010705 for <[[email protected]]>; Sat, 18 Sep 2004 16:56:38 -0700 (PDT) Received: from swan.mail.pas.earthlink.net (swan.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.123]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i8INtp1c010665 for <[[email protected]]>; Sat, 18 Sep 2004 16:55:52 -0700 (PDT) Received: from user-38lc19i.dialup.mindspring.com ([209.86.5.50]) by swan.mail.pas.earthlink.net with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1) id 1C8p3U-0005G5-00 for [[email protected]]; Sat, 18 Sep 2004 16:55:49 -0700 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v609) To: SBB <[[email protected]]> Message-Id: <[[email protected]]> From: Matthew Dodder <[[email protected]]> Date: Sat, 18 Sep 2004 16:58:15 -0700 X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.609) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252; format=flowed X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5b1 Subject: [SBB] SWPCP+Alviso 09-18-04 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 i8INucwQ010705 All, Today I led my Palo Alto Adult School Birding Class on our first fall trip to SWPCP and Alviso. What a fantastic way to begin the term! True, weather was cool and many of us got chilled on the levy trail, but the birds we saw made it all worthwhile. It was “Household Hazardous Waste Disposal Day” at the facility, so parking was a bit tricky, but after some back and forth, we began our walk. Activity was high, even from the start, where we had a dozen or so Vaux’s Swifts flying among the many Tree and Violet-green Swallows over the lot. Shortly after that, an immature Cooper’s Hawk scattered all the Starlings on the west hill followed quickly by a Red-tailed Hawk. The two raptors engaged for a moment, with the smaller bird winning the tussle and chasing the larger away. Two Green Heron were located very quickly in the small channel leading west before the main pool. Common Yellowthroat and Marsh Wren were also in the area. Numerous American White Pelicans fed further out, and were seen several times soaring overhead. A nice surprise was a single Brown Pelican flying between the two large pools at the north end of the levy. We worked through the hundreds of waterfowl on the main water, finding Canada Goose, Mallard, Gadwall, Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail and the resident exotic White-cheeked Pintail. Diving Ducks included scores of Ruddy Duck and several Lesser Scaup in the east pool. A few Eared Grebe, some still dressed in alternate plumage were found as well as an Aechmophorus Grebe. The latter unfortunately went unspecified because it was too far away and refused to raise its head. After much searching, about a ten or twelve Red-necked Phalaropes appeared on west pond, many fewer than a week before. The only other Shorebirds encountered were an occasional Least Sandpiper along the water’s edge. Gulls were numerous, with California and Ring-billed seeming to be in roughly equal numbers. We observed at least five Forster’s Terns, and two Caspian Terns, both with young following shortly behind. On the way back to the lot we heard the pumping of a Virginia Rail in reeds by the huge drainage pipe. After we had had enough of the cold, many of us chose to make a stop at State and Spreckles "SP" in Alviso. There we scanned the shallow pools for some of the recently reported rareties. We found no Stilt Sandpiper, but after some searching both Ruff and Pectoral Sandpiper were spotted and well seen by all. I managed to get some digiscope images of the Ruff, which I will post in the gallery later today. http://www.birdguy.net/gallery/index.html Other birds found here (and along the train tracks "RR") that were new for the day were two Wilson’s Phalarope, Short and Long-billed Dowitcher, Lesser Yellowlegs, Western Sandpiper, Black-bellied Plover and Burrowing Owl. Finally, before heading home for lunch, Cricket, and I stopped at the Alviso Marina "AM" to find the Greater Roadrunner. She found it within a minute or two as it walked slowly along the edge of the pavement. When I joined her, the bird had disappeared into a large bush bordering the parking area. We waited, and soon Leonie Batkin from class joined us and we waited some more. Finally, all three of us got looks as the bird perched silently and became visible through a small gap in the branches. It wasn’t the best view in the world, but at least we saw it, the famous Alviso Roadrunner. Quite cool! Matthew Dodder http://www.birdguy.net Pied-billed Grebe Eared Grebe Aechmophorus species American White Pelican Brown Pelican Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Great Egret Snowy Egret Green Heron Black-crowned Night Heron Canada Goose Mallard Northern Pintail White-cheeked Pintail (exotic) Northern Shoveler Gadwall Lesser Scaup Ruddy Duck Turkey Vulture Cooper’s Hawk Accipiter species Red-tailed Hawk Virginia Rail (heard only) Common Moorhen American Coot Black-bellied Plover (RR) Killdeer (SP) Black-necked Stilt American Avocet Greater Yellowlegs Lesser Yellowlegs (SP) Marbled Godwit Western Sandpiper (RR) Least Sandpiper Pectoral Sandpiper (SP) Ruff (SP) Short-billed Dowitcher (SP) Long-billed Dowitcher (RR) Wilson’s Phalarope (SP) Red-necked Phalarope Ring-billed Gull California Gull Caspian Tern Forster’s Tern Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Greater Roadrunner (AM) Burrowing Owl (RR) Vaux’s Swift Anna’s Hummingbird Belted Kingfisher Black Phoebe Say’s Phoebe Tree Swallow Violet-green Swallow Barn Swallow American Crow Bushtit Marsh Wren Northern Mockingbird European Starling Common Yellowthroat Savannah Sparrow (SP heard only) Song Sparrow Red-winged Blackbird Brewer’s Blackbird Brown-headed Cowbird House Sparrow --end _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. 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