[SBB] Alviso Salt Ponds - San Jose CBC 12/18/05

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

All,

Here's my belated report on coverage for the San Jose CBC on Sunday 18
Dec 2005.

The weather was not good for birding out on the South Bay salt
ponds. It was raining most of the time (especially in the morning) and
the wind was constant, in sustained gusts of up to 30 mph. Driving or
biking the dikes was impossible, which meant walking my 8-mile loop
around the various ponds in "mud slippers". Thanks to these slippery
conditions, I ended up falling 3 times and had to wash off myself and
my mud-coated scope and binoculars in the salt ponds. Despite the
pretty miserable conditions, I was able to find some decent birds that
weren't seen elsewhere in the count circle. Better birds included:

EURASIAN WIGEON - Two males on Salt Pond A9. The count circle only
includes the southeast corner of this pond, but hundreds of wigeon
were taking shelter from the southeast wind in this corner, including
one of the Eurasian Wigeons.

REDHEAD - 68+ (roughly equally split between males and females) in the
southeast corner of Salt Pond A9.

SURF SCOTER - 13 (5 adult males) on Salt Pond A11 and one more
female-plumaged bird on Coyote Slough north of Salt Pond A15.

HOODED MERGANSER - 1 adult male along the eastern edge of Salt Pond
A10.

RED-BREASTED MERGANSER - 188+ inside the count circle.

Other ducks inside the count circle on the various ponds included 302
CANVASBACKS, 448 GREATER SCAUP, 224 LESSER SCAUP, and 260 SCAUP, SP.,
91 BUFFLEHEAD, 56 COMMON GOLDENEYE, and 860 RUDDY DUCKS.

HORNED GREBE - 1 in eastern Salt Pond A10.

72 WESTERN GREBES, 9 CLARK'S GREBES, and 10 AECHMOPHORUS, SPS.

16+ BROWN PELICANS roosting with a big group of AMERICAN WHITE
PELICANS on Salt Pond A9 were outside of the count circle.

AMERICAN BITTERN - Two birds were flushed from near the dike at
Triangle Marsh during the high tide at 2:15pm and 2:21pm.

Both VIRGINIA and SORA RAILS were calling at the Alviso Marina.

SNOWY PLOVER - One in the impoundment north of the Alviso Marina.

SANDERLING - One in the impoundment north of the Alviso Marina and at
least four more seen in northern Salt Pond A8, scoped from the dike
behind the old cannery building.

GULL numbers were way down. Instead of the usual 10,000+ HERRING
GULLS, I counted just 185 - clearly they must have been roosting
elsewhere that day.

TREE SWALLOW - Two winging their way west over southern Triangle Marsh
at 2:29pm.

Upon completing my loop just after 3:00pm, I was able to enjoy the
juvenile SHARP-TAILED SANDPIPER east of the railroad tracks.  Heading
back to the SFBBO trailer to wash off my boots in the various deep
puddles back there proved to be a good decision, as I found the only
HOUSE WREN reported at the countdown dinner, working the small grassy
edges at the immediate base of the old cannery walls.

A quick check of the gulls in New Chicago Marsh turned up around 3000
birds, about 80% CALIFORNIA GULLS.  Four MEW and 15 THAYER'S GULLS were
of note though.

Mike Rogers
Sunnyvale


_______________________________________________
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://plaidworks.org/mailman/listinfo/south-bay-birds_plaidworks.org