[SBB] Felt Lake/Arastradero area on Palo Alto CBC

[Al Eisner <[[email protected]]>]

  On Monday I covered my usual area on the Palo Alto CBC.  This includes
Felt Lake, part of the Arastradero Preserve, the Palo Alto Hills Golf
and Country Club and an area near Los Trancos Road.  I was joined for
the daytime counting by Hugh McDevitt.  David "Tex" Houston got the two
of us into Arastradero for early-morning owling, and joined us again late
in the day in Arastradero; in between, he covered another part of that
Preserve as a separate party.

  We started at 5:15 and, apart from frozen fingers, had a pleasant
walk up the creek trail.  We were rewarded by hearing a pair of
WESTERN SCREECH-OWLs calling to each other.  Tex saw (and I got just
a poor glimpse of) a silent BARN OWL near a known nest site.

  The golf course proved quite birdy, with hoped for species such as
RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER (1), WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH (4), WESTERN BLUEBIRD
(4, a bit low) and AMERICAN GOLDFINCH (4).  The highlight was a
RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, probably the first time I've had one here on
count day.  On the other hand Junco numbers were low and Sparrows
almost nonexistent.  Pine Siskin was a miss, true also I think of the
entire count.  Golf course ponds had 10 RING-NECKED DUCKs.  Looking
over to Arastradero, we saw 3 WHITE-TAILED KITEs (seen again on our PM
visit there).  The Los Trancos Road area gave us a variety of oak-woodland
birds, but not the hoped for Varied Thrushes.

   The water level at Felt Lake is way down -- it is to be drained
entirely for cleaning next year -- and the number of waterbirds was
extremely low.  There was one lone female COMMON MERGANSER (we had over
30 last year), only 5 RING-NECKED DUCKs, and no Hooded Mergansers (which
have been routine here).  One WESTERN GREBE was the "best" non-duck
waterbird.  But the highlights here were on land and in the air,
including LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE(1), SAY'S PHOEBE (1), and WESTERN BLUEBIRD
(about 8).  On at least two occasions an adult GOLDEN EAGLE was seen in
flight.  Finally, we had PEREGRINE FALCONs.  When we entered the property
we saw one perched on a snag.  We later saw one rapidly fly in and land
by the Lake.  We assumed it was the same one, but when we got back to
the entrance just a little later, one was (still or back?) on its
original perch.  Might be just one bird, but I'm inclined to say 2.

   Finally, at Arastradero Preserve, there was a nice mix of ducks
on the pond:  one RING-NECKED DUCK, one COMMON GOLDENEYE, two BUFFLEHEAD,
and a pair of HOODED MERGANSERs (making up for our earlier miss).
Overall a good day, and my thanks go to Hugh and Tex for their many
contributions and their company.
								Al Eisner



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