[SBB] MB-Gate 5, 9/12/2005

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

Hi All,

It was quiet, calm and sunny at the little Gate 5 pond this morning 9/12/2005. One of the quietest mornings I've spent there in fact. Even so, 34 bird species were eventually detected, the most surprising being a single Pine Siskin zipping noisily up and out of the Stevens Creek watershed and northwestward toward the Skyline crest.

Other notable birds included 8 Vaux's Swifts accompanied by just 1 White-throated Swift, 2 adult Chipping Sparrows in the usual willows, one Yellow and another Yellow-rumped Warbler, and a migrant Swainson's Thrush that flushed from low cover by the pond. A single Lincoln's Sparrow was my first of the fall. 13 Acorn Woodpeckers was a high count for the location.

A sizable Garter Snake encountered near the pond was of the Coast form of the Western Terrestrial Garter Snake, and the first of its species that I had seen there (although it is common in the general area). Far more typical at the pond is the Santa Cruz form of the Aquatic Garter Snake. Recently, I observed one of the latter attempting, unsuccessfully, to devour an adult California Newt in mid-pond. I don't know if the newt successfully wriggled free or if its slightly toxic skin discouraged the predator.

--Garth Harwood
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