[SBB] New Years Day birding

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All,

Today 1/1/2006, I spent the daylight hours starting my 2006 year list with Mike Mammoser.  The wind really hampered finding passerines, and made it difficult to scope distant birds, but we ended up with a respectable 127 species by the end of the day.

We started at 7:00am by circling the Mountain View Forebay and checking Shoreline Lake, finding 64 species in our first hour of birding.  Highlights included 4 HORNED GREBES on pond A1, 1 GREEN HERON in the Forebay feeder creek, 1 male EURASIAN WIGEON in the Palo Alto Flood Control Basin, at least 4 BARROW'S GOLDENEYES (the adult male and 3 adult females were obvious, others with this group could not be identified in the pre-dawn gloom), both SORA and VIRGINIA RAILS, and 30 BLACK SKIMMERS (1 immature) in Charleston Slough.

A quick check of Crittenden Marsh failed to turn up any phalaropes.

Along the southern edge of Salt Pond A2W were 4 ALEUTIAN CACKLING GEESE, a group of three slightly separated from the fourth bird.

The wind precluded finding much of note at the Charleston Road marsh.

In Alviso, a MERLIN was perched on a TV antenna in town, 14 RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS were on pond A12, and a WHITE-THROATED SPARROW was with the sparrow flock in the dirt parking area south of the Marina (along with the leucistic WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW).  Scoping across to pond A8 from behind the cannery added a PEREGRINE FALCON, 8+ SANDERLINGS, and 2 SNOWY PLOVERS.

We found a BURROWING OWL and 2 COMMON MOORHENS near the parking area at the Sunnyvale Water Pollution Control Plant.  A SAY'S PHOEBE, a LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE, a male BLUE-WINGED TEAL, and an ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER were over by the Lockheed marsh.

A quick stop at the Palo Alto Baylands revealed a much more modest tide than yesterday, but a CLAPPER RAIL, a CLARK'S GREBE, and 6 BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS were new for our list.

We next headed to the south county, failing to find the Ferruginous Hawk near Richmond Ave. or the Bald Eagle at Calero Reservoir.  Over by the stables at Calero we did have 5 WILD TURKEYS, 1 or 2 TRICOLORED BLACKBIRDS, and a COOPER'S HAWK.

On the way to Ogier Ponds, we located the adult FERRUGINOUS HAWK just off Santa Teresa at 3:22pm.  The good birds at Ogier Ponds were still present, with the female REDHEAD and 2 pairs of HOODED MERGANSERS in the ponds north of the skypark, along with a HORNED GREBE.  An OSPREY was perched in a tree north of here.  Mike and I split up for a bit here - he found a WOOD DUCK and I found an AMERICAN BITTERN.

We made a late stop along the Coyote Creek Golf Course entrance road at 4:22pm and took exactly 15 minutes to locate the AMERICAN REDSTART, which provided nice looks about 100 yards north of the Sycamore picnic area.  Another adult FERRUGINOUS HAWK and another OSPREY flew by here.

Parkway Lakes had 18 AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS and there was still no Bald Eagle at Calero on the way home - but a few CALIFORNIA QUAIL crossing the road at 5:04pm provided the last new species for the day.

Mike Rogers

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