[SBB] Buff-breasted Sandpiper in Alviso

[[[email protected]]]

All,

This morning 9/5/05, I started out at the Palo Alto Baylands looking for migrants. At the fennel patch and nearby ranger station I had 1 adult COOPER'S HAWK, 5 VAUX'S SWIFTS, 1 WILLOW FLYCATHER, 7 YELLOW WARBLERS, and 8 COMMON YELLOWTHROATS. SNOWY EGRETS were still feeding young in the palm trees by the duck pond.

Over by the Palo Alto Water Pollution Control Plant on the wires near the entrance to Byxbee Park were 120 VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS, 70 BARN SWALLOWS, and 1 immature NORTHERN ROUGH-WNIGED SWALLOW. VGSW have been scarcer than usual in Alviso and Sunnyvale this fall, so it was good to find these birds in Palo Alto. In the trees here and near the end of Embarcadero Way I had an immature COOPER'S HAWK, 2 VAUX'S SWIFTS, 2 ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS, 14+ YELLOW WARBLERS, 1 COMMON YELLOWTHROAT, and a LINCOLN'S SPARROW.

After this, I decided to check the Environmental Education Center in Alviso for Steve's Blackpoll Warbler. The gate was locked, so I had to bike in - many other birders had walked in earlier. Along the slough and near the buildings were the adult PEREGRINE FALCON, 6 VAUX'S SWIFTS, 1+ "WESTERN" FLYCATCHER, 1+ WILLOW FLYCATCHER, 1 ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER, 3+ YELLOW WARBLERS, and 23+ COMMON YELLOWTHROATS. There were 12 BROWN PELICANS in Salt Pond A16 and 19+ more way out near Salt Ponds A9 and A10. An OSPREY flew over to the west at 9:20am.

Since I had my bike with me, I decided to bike along the southern edge of Salt Pond A16, hoping that perhaps the Ruff might be along this side of New Chicago Marsh. I had made it almost to the southwest corner of the pond where the dike curves to the north along the railroad tracks, when a juvenile BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER flew up right in front of me on the dike. I had scope-filling views of this beautiful bird for four minutes (10:56am to 11:00am) until it flew behind me and landed on the dike again. Eleven minutes later, it flew back past me and I took the opportunity to bike quickly back to the EEC and alert the other birders there, and then later others at the railroad crossing of the entrance road. I then headed to the Alviso Marina and biked out to the dried out impoundment north of the Marina. I had seen 4 SNOWY PLOVERS in here from the A16 dike (in addition to 2 more in the northwest corner of New Chicago Marsh) and wanted to get a better count. There were 9 SNOWY PL!
 OVERS here at this point. I then crossed the railroad tracks and joined the 9 birders looking for the Buff-breasted Sandpiper. We found 3 more SNOWY PLOVERS in the northwest corner of New Chicago Marsh but no Buff-breasted Sandpiper :(.  Several birders left, but Dean Manley and three others walked several hundred yards north on the western A16 dike with me before giving up. I went back and got my bike and then continued biking north along the western edge of A16. Incredibly, the Buff-breast flushed up again from the top of the dike at 12:57pm. I biked quickly back and yelled for the others to return, which they did. But by the time we got back out there - no Buff-breast again. I biked all the way out and partway along the northern edge of A16, then back down the western edge of A16. Finally, at 1:36pm, I found the bird again, close to its original location. But four people on a family bike ride flushed it. This time it headed north towards the other four. I biked back towa!
 rds them yelling and pointing and the bird landed just across the rail

road tracks along the eastern A13 dike just opposite from them. We enjoyed nice looks at the bird over there and on the A16 levee after it flew back across to us. A train flushed the bird and we watched it again fly back to its original location at the southwest corner of A16 at 1:45pm.

I then decided to bike out to Salt Ponds A9 and A10. 38 EARED GREBES were in western A15 (3 were in northern A16 earlier). There were tons of pelicans, cormorants, and egrets out at A9. There were also 415 FORSTER'S TERNS out there, mostly roosting on the A9/A10 dike. But other than 13 CASPIAN TERNS I could find no other terns among them (but many were too far away to study carefully). There were also 25 BROWN PELICANS out here and an adult PEREGRINE FALCON on the A10/A11 dike. PIED-BILLED GREBES are starting to gather on the ponds, with 80+ in A9 alone.

Mike Rogers
_______________________________________________
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]]