[SBB] Felt Lake/Arastradero area on Palo Alto CBC

[Al Eisner <[[email protected]]>]

    On Monday Dec. 19 I covered a Santa Clara Co. foothills area on the
Palo Alto CBC:  Arastradero Preserve, the Palo Alto Hills Golf and Country
Club, Felt Lake and vicinity, and a portion of Los Trancos Road (in Santa
Clara, although I don't think anyone covers the San Mateo portion).
    Pre-dawn owling companions were Tex Houston and Janet Keller.  Tex
obtained permission for us to enter Arastradero Preserve at that time,
and we walked upstream beyond the Lake to the next pond.  Temperatures
were mild, and the moon was shining through generally overcast skies,
but the wind (10 to 15 mph with some higher gusts) was a bit high for good
owling.  Nonetheless, we heard 4 WESTERn SCREECH-OWLs (2 together) and
1 BARN OWL on the walk -- better luck than those at higher elevations had.
   Grant Hoyt joined me for most of the daytime birding (while Tex and
Janet checked out a separate portion of Arastradero).  As we were driving
down Alpine Road, we saw a large WILD TURKEY foraging by the road-side
(Grant termed it "likely road-kill").  A little later, while at the golf
course, we saw a flock of 32 feeding over at Arastradero.  The golf course
itself is usually a good spot for finches (including siskins), but all
were virtually absent.  A highlight there were a vocal RED-BREASTED
SAPSUCKER.  As we were leaving, Grant saw an adult PEREGRINE FALCON,
heading west (and possibly uphill).  Later in the day, we had two further
sightings of an adult of this species at the Stanford property near Felt
Lake -- possibly one bird "coming" and later "going".  We conservatively
decided to count only a single Peregrine for the day.
    At our Los Trancos Road spots we found a good number of HERMIT THRUSHes,
but missed Varied Thrush.  Grant spotted two WHITE-THROATED SWIFTs, a nice
find, and I managed finally to get onto one of them.
    The water level at Felt Lake continues to be low, and with one
exception duck numbers were low; only 4 HOODED MERGANSERs was well below
last year's number.  But a feeding (then resting) flock of 75 COMMON
MERGANSERs was by far the largest I've ever seen here.  The real story,
however, was of GOLDEN EAGLEs.  We had seen one adult flying not very
high over the golf course at 8 AM (the first I can recall seeing there).
At about 9, scoping Arastradero from the golf course, we saw one of
unknown age perched in the distance.  At 11:45 we had another sighting of
an adult in flight as we walked toward Felt Lake.  Then at 1:20 we saw
two perched in adjacent trees across Felt Lake, and finally at 1:45 three
in a single tree in that area.  This was probably a first for both of us.
One bird nicely showed its juvenile tail pattern while perched; the other
two appeared to be adults.  Again conservatively, we are only claiming a
total of 3 individuals for the day.
    At the end of the day Tex and Janet briefly rejoined me near the
Arastradero entrance, and Tex pointed out a daylight (4:30) hunting
BARN OWL (our second of the day).  A nice conclusion to a reasonably
productive effort.  No rarities, but some very nice highlights.

                                                             Al Eisner

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