[SBB] Monte Bello & Foothills Park 5/9, 5/10

["Garth Harwood" <[[email protected]]>]

Hello All,
On Monday AM 5/9/2005 I visited the little pond at Monte Bello's Gate 5 (big surprise there, I know). Between rain and hail events there were a few sunny moments, during which it was obvious that migrant activity was pretty high. I saw just one Western Tanager (male), Hermit Warbler (also male), three Townsend's Warblers, a Wilson's Warbler and a minimum of three Black-throated Gray Warblers (the latter were flitting around a lot and highly vocal, so they sounded like more). There were also a couple of Warbling Vireos and a pair of Orange-crowned Warblers.

While I was watching a Sharp-shinned Hawk soar over, I had the real surprise of the morning about 10 AM when a Peregrine Falcon followed the line of Page Mill Road up to the Skyline crest where it turned south (possibly landing in the tall trees near Alpine Pond). That Sharpie disappeared instantly!

In the late afternoon I visited my nestbox trail at Foothills Park. At the park entrance a Black-throated Gray Warbler and a Warbling Vireo were in song and an Orange-crowned Warbler was carrying food. Four nestboxes held Western Bluebird nests with hen bluebirds sitting on three of them - in the fourth the youngsters are ready to fly and need less care. Two boxes of Oak Titmice had recently fledged, while a third had had a bluebird nest built atop the 7 OATI eggs, much to the frustration of the nearby titmouse parents (Ranger Lisa Myers - the other Lisa Myers - saw some of this interaction and I also had a glimpse a couple of weeks ago. It's hard to know what to do in these situations but I decided to let nature take its course.) An Ash-throated Flycatcher had 2 eggs on a nest built on the remains of another of the titmouse nests, this one having been vacated already.

Back by the maintenance shop, things were pretty lively; I saw two female Selasphorus hummingbirds, one obviously an Allen's and acting quite relaxed on several perches there. A Wilson's Warbler was singing and a Pacific-slope Flycatcher was carrying nest material to the pole shed where they store lumber and such.

This morning 5/10 I made a quick stop at the sag pond at Monte Bello. It was relatively quiet, although there was a calling Swainson's Thrush and three Wilson's Warblers sang from different parts of the pond area. A Lazuli Bunting put on a nice show, singing in bright sunshine from a willow top.

--Garth Harwood

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