[SBB] Alviso - 4/21/05

[Mike Rogers <[[email protected]]>]

All,

Over lunch today 4/21/05, I checked out a few spots in Alviso.

Arzino Ranch is drying out, but there are still lots of LEAST and 
WESTERN SANDPIPERS about, as well as a scattering of LONG-BILLED 
DOWITCHERS and GREATER YELLOWLEGS. I did manage to find 1 LESSER 
YELLOWLEGS, 1 SEMIPALMATED PLOVER, and one alternate-plumaged DUNLIN 
among them. There were still 5+ AMERICAN PIPITS about, but these were 
invisible until they flew and called. KILLDEER and BLACK-NECKED STILTS 
had both eggs and recently hatched precocial young. A single WESTERN 
KINGBIRD was perched on the fenceline.

Along the slough by the EEC were a pair of TREE SWALLOWS (breeding again 
this year?) and a brood of young MALLARDS. At least one BARN OWL was in 
the box and 3 GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWS and a BEWICK'S WREN were by the 
visitor center. Well over 100 EARED GREBES were on pond A16 and at least 
20 HERRING GULLS were on the islands and dikes of that pond (most on the 
second island). BURROWING OWLS and singing SAVANNAH SPARROWS were 
visible from the boardwalk. Two broods of AMERICAN AVOCETS had already 
hatched.

On the way back, I stopped at the Alviso Marina to scope the nearby salt 
ponds. There were many shorebirds on pond A8 (high tide) but the only 
notable ones I could identify looking into the sun were 4+ RED-NECKED 
PHALAROPES. A raft of 105 SURF SCOTERS on pond A12 was a surprise, both 
so late in the year and so far down the bay.

Mike Rogers

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