[SBB] Osprey, Cancasback at Oka Ponds - Tardy report on Thanksgiving Day

["Laurie" <[[email protected]]>]

Hello, South Bay Birders

This report is a few days late because I had to join the list before I could send it. My husband and I have had T-day dinner with my cousin and his family in San Jose every year, and this year we decided to hit Oka Ponds before dinner. Our introduction to the area was last spring at the Great Blue Heron rookery in Vasona Park, and although we didn't make it to Oka at that time, we've noticed that all the posts are about Oka, and not Vasona, so we thought it must be pretty good. Understatement.

We arrived at 10:30 am. and proceeded along the north end of Pond 1 to the Los Gatos Creek Trail. Of the two islands in Pond 1, I don't know which one is Snipe Island, but we saw no snipe on either. There were Great White Egrets, Snowy Egrets, and Double-Crested Cormorants. There was a flock of Mallard  x domestic ducks at the entrance to the park, a lot of Coots, and a number of Pied-billed Grebes. 

Pond 2 had very little in it, mostly Coots. Pond 3 had 120 Coots, 48 Gadwalls, and a Green Heron attempting to hide in a tree. 

Pond 5 was wonderful! We saw 7 Ruddy Ducks, our first Herring Gull, 3 Hooded Mergansers ( 2M, 1 F), a Spotted Sandpiper, 7 Lesser Scaups, 23 Buffleheads, and 1 Greater Yellowlegs, as well as more Coots and more Pied-billed Grebes. 

Ponds 4 & 6 were occupied mostly by more Coots, and one Common Yellowthroat. I am curious about why there is a difference of attraction in the ponds, if anyone has any observations.

We crossed the bridge to the east side of Los Gatos Creek, and walked about halfway back toward Pond 1, but we didn't know if we could go all the way around, and we wanted to check the baffles, so we went back. But along the creek, we had a female Belted Kingfisher, 2 California Towhees, 5 Lesser Goldfinches, 8 American Goldfinches, 9 House Finches, a Northern Mockingbird, 24 Yellow-rumped Warblers, Ruby-crowned Kinglet(s), Anna's Hbird, and American Wigeons, as well as the usual Golden-crowned and White-crowned Sparrows, and the ubiquitous Black Phoebes. Nowhere did we see the Eastern Phoebe. We also saw many DC Cormorants on electrical wires over the divide between ponds 1 & 2, as well as a flock of Rock Doves in excess of 100. 

We crossed back over the bridge and went around the bottom of the park, and up along the west side of the main ponds, alongside the channel. There was another Spotted Sandpiper in the channel at the bottom of pond 3. We went to the baffles, where we saw the Ring-necked Ducks, 4 males, and 2 females. One of the pairs was in the baffle closest to the path, and the male's ring was very visible. Swimming with this pair was another duck, a female, and it took us a while to realize she was a Canvasback. There were 10 more American Wigeons, 5 more Buffleheads, more PBGs, California Gulls, and more Mallards.

As we turned back north along the path, we started some ducks, mostly Mallards, who jumped into Pond 2. Among them was  female Wood Duck. Along the path were House Sparrows. 

Returning to Pond 1, we scoped the islands again for any sign of Snipe. We got none, but we did get a male Belted Kingfisher, Brewers Blackbirds, and the Osprey in a skinny tree that can barely hold the bird's weight. 

After 4 1/2 hours, we needed a bathroom break. The lawns around the bathrooms hosted 60+ Canada Geese. At the casting pond, we saw 2 American Crows, a Red-tailed Hawk, and another Anna's Hbird.

Yellow-rumped Warblers and Black Phoebes were everywhere, and we also saw 7 W. Scrub Jays.

Total count will be posted on eBird, but our largest numbers were 275 for American Coots, and 28 for Pied-billed Grebes, both of which were everywhere.

Hope this was of interest.

Laurie Graham
Jeff Fairclough
_______________________________________________
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://www.plaidworks.com/mailman/options/south-bay-birds/list_fred_archives%40plaidworks.org

This email sent to [[email protected]]