[SBB] PA- CBC along Skyline

Hi All,

Monday 12/19/2005 started out slightly rainy and very windy during the owling hours. In upper Monte Bello OSP, virtually nothing was vocal during more than 3 hours and almost 4 miles of owling coverage. All Josh Bennett and I could turn up was a pair of Great Horned Owls perched side by side on a sheltered treetop in the lower canyon, and after Josh split off I had a single Western Screech Owl. Thankfully, the rain slackened at about 6AM.

The wind increased at daybreak in my exposed count area, keeping bird numbers very low, although most species expected up there turned up eventually (at the countdown, Bill shared the fact that there is no statistical correlation between weather on CBCs and species totals, although the numbers of individual birds drops substantially in foul weather.)

An adult Peregrine Falcon was westbound at 8:30 AM over Monte Bello - perhaps the same individual seen at 8 by Grant Hoyt, which was headed off in the right direction. Bob Reiling and team, covering the eastern half of Monte Bello, also encountered PEFA of unreported age or timing. Could we all have seen the same bird as it streaked over?

As usual this fall, a Sora rail was at the MB Gate 5 pond. I have seen as many as 3 adults there this fall, though they have been harder to find since the recent rains brought the water levels up to cover all the exposed mud around the pond. A Lincoln's Sparrow was there as well.

Ten Varied Thrushes were feeding on fallen Madrone berries at ground level in Stevens Creek canyon along the Skid Road trail.

Just across the San Mateo County line in Skyline Ridge OSP, a patient search of mixed flocks in the treetops on the hill just southeast from Horseshoe Lake turned up a small group of Golden-crowned Kinglets and a couple of Red-breasted Nuthatches among the more typical chickadees, kinglets, warblers, and creepers. My only Winter Wren of the day was in the willows at the lake's edge.

After the countdown dinner, where it became apparent that owling had been poor everywhere, I went out at Hidden Villa after Pygmy or Saw-whet owls, both of which were missed entirely (although Saw-whet was reported as a Count Week bird earlier.) I encountered neither in more than 2 miles of forested trails where I'd had them recently, and despite much more encouraging conditions. Another Great Horned Owl was heard, however, as were a couple more W. Screech Owls.

A third Screech provided my biggest thrill of the day, at the very end of my travels. This silent owl appeared suddenly in my headlamp beam on a low-hanging horizontal branch just over my head on the Hostel Trail. When I encountered it it was only 4 feet away and only slightly over my head. I was tempted briefly to think it was one of the smaller owls, as its "ears" were entirely tucked down out of sight, so that it had an uncharacteristically round-headed look. Perhaps that missing element helped it to appear extra small as well. But at that range there was no mistaking the plumage of a grey-form Western Screech. It let me move even closer, to under 3 feet before finally moving to another nearby branch (I had to pass under it to continue my walk.) Cool as a cucumber, it even looked around and away from me at rustlings in the brush during the 5 minute encounter, though I could've reached out to touch it. I had a great view of the needle sharp talons though, and that was enough to quell any temptation along those lines!

--Garth Harwood