From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Thu Feb 10 13:38:01 2005 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id j1ALYiGo022777 for <[[email protected]]>; Thu, 10 Feb 2005 13:34:44 -0800 (PST) Received: from mailgate02.slac.stanford.edu (mailgate02.slac.stanford.edu [134.79.18.92]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id j1ALX5Af022726 for <[[email protected]]>; Thu, 10 Feb 2005 13:33:05 -0800 (PST) Received: from flora01.slac.stanford.edu (flora01.slac.stanford.edu [134.79.16.29]) by mailgate02.slac.stanford.edu (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id j1ALX4uk012971 for <[[email protected]]>; Thu, 10 Feb 2005 13:33:04 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from [[email protected]]) Received: from localhost (eisner@localhost) by flora01.slac.stanford.edu (8.12.10+Sun/8.12.5/Submit-solaris) with ESMTP id j1ALX4iI023089 for <[[email protected]]>; Thu, 10 Feb 2005 13:33:04 -0800 (PST) X-Authentication-Warning: flora01.slac.stanford.edu: eisner owned process doing -bs Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2005 13:33:04 -0800 (PST) From: Al Eisner <[[email protected]]> To: [[email protected]] Message-ID: <[[email protected]]> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Subject: [SBB] Palo Alto CBC Summary (and quiz answers) X-BeenThere: [[email protected]] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5b1 Precedence: list List-Id: South Bay Birding List-Unsubscribe: , List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Errors-To: south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Hi, folks: I thought there might be some interest in having an electronic version of the summary for the Palo Alto CBC which I've submitted for the Avocet. Here it is, followed by the somewhat overdue answers to the "quiz" I had posted here. The Palo Alto CBC on December 20, 2004 was a highly successful enterprise, in spite of widespread fog at lower elevations. (The mountain parties, on the other hand, were reported quite pleasant conditions.) A total of 95 observers found 169 species on the count, plus two more during count-week, and 101708 individual birds. Most notable were the numbers of irruptive finches. We already knew that there were many Pine Siskins about, and the total of 845 (including 107 in bayside or valley regions) was second only to the 1058 found in 1987. In addition, the higher elevations were home to 130 Red Crossbills and 28 Lawrence's Goldfinces (a species seen only 5 out of the previous 44 years of this CBC, and never in as high a number). Also in record numbers were Red-breasted and Pygmy Nuthatches, with 45 of 58 Red-breasted from Wunderlich Park, and 50 of 60 Pygmy from the Lost Trail in upper Windy Hill. On the other hand, American Robin, another highly variable species, had the lowest numbers in 35 years, with only 398 tallied! We didn't get any first-evers for the count this year, but we did get two second-time-evers: the Pelagic Cormorant found on Shoreline Lake on count day by Bill Bousman, and the (presumably same) Osprey seen at Searsville Lake in the morning and Felt Lake in the afternoon. Also outstanding was the returning Northern Waterthrush at the Charleston Road Marsh, a bird very reluctant to reveal itself; we knew enough to send Richard Jeffers there to find it, as he had the previous year. A Hermit Warbler (found by David Suddjian in Los Trancos OSP, fourth time ever on this CBC) and a Snow Goose (seen by a Shoreline Park employee, and confirmed the next day) rounded out the most unusual species. Also of note were seven Greater White-fronted Geese, three different Eurasian Green-winged Teal (plus one hybrid), a male Tufted Duck on salt pond A1, a continuing Yellow Warbler at Geng Road in Palo Alto, two Swamp Sparrows (at the Palo Alto Baylands and the Stevens Creek tidal marsh), and, for count week, 14 Tree Swallows over Moffett Field. Last year I noted that Wild Turkey and Pileated Woodpecker were becoming regular on this count. This year we had 44 Turkeys, found by five different parties. And we surpassed our "usual" (recently) single Pileated Woodpecker with a whopping 4 this time. Going the other way, Tricolored Blackbird, which has been dropping precipitously in the past few years, was not found at all this time. The only other misses among expected species were of Green Heron and Red Knot. We hung in with a single Wilson's Snipe (we've had 0 or 1 each of the last six counts) and just 3 Common Moorhens. Thanks are due for the success of this count to all the participants, to the region coordinators, and especially to Jack Cole, who organized the whole thing. Let's do it again next December! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The quiz didn't draw much interest, and I doubt if I'll do it again. But I do owe you the answers.... After mentioning that Golden-crowned Sparrow was again the species most widely distributed among parties on the count, and that the highest abundance for entry on the count summary was for "peep, sp.", I asked: (1) Four species were found by 32 or more of the 37 parties. What were the other three, and which one came in second behind Golden-crowned Sparrow? [Note that we had 7 bayside parties, 6 in the valley, 10 in the foothills, and 14 in the mountains.] (2) The next two highest totals after "peep, sp" are actual species. What were they? The answers: (1) In order, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Anna's Hummingbird, and Western Scrub-Jay. Several replies mentioned the Anna's, none got the others. (2) High numbers of identified species were 11172 Western Sandpipers (if one assumes that a high percentage of the 12340 "peep, sp." were also Westerns, that makes for quite an impressive total) and 10322 Ruddy Ducks. Almost all the replies got one of these two species. Al Eisner _______________________________________________ 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/south-bay-birds-archive%40plaidworks.com This email sent to [[email protected]]