[SBB] Skyline Ridge OSP 6/3/06 (Palo Alto SBC)

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

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Hi All,

I returned to Horseshoe Lake at Skyline Ridge OSP yesterday, 6/3/2006, with
team members Craig Cummings and Maryann Boeger, to cover that area (along
with the rest of Skyline Ridge OSP and parts of Monte Bello OSP) for the
Palo Alto Summer Bird Count. 

The biggest surprise of the day may have been the Osprey found en route to
our starting point. It was perched on a dead-topped pine above Alpine Pond
at 5:25 AM (just light enough to see details at that point). Our team had to
pass this point more than once later in the day and found it consistently in
place until 4:15 PM, when it flew off to the northeast (and into Santa Clara
County.)

At Horseshoe Lake we found: 1 Hermit Warbler, 1 Cassin's Vireo, 1 Western
Tanager,
1 Black-throated Gray Warbler, 1 Pileated Woodpecker (on the Lambert Creek
Trail),  several Lazuli Buntings, and a very good turnout of Chipping
Sparrows (one group of 3 deep pished up in the Xmas tree farm near the
cutoff between the farm and the Ridge Trail; another pair flying past us at
lakeside while still another sang near the outlet.) Total CHSP count was 8
individuals, only one of which was on the Santa Clara County side of Hwy 35,
among more Xmas trees just across from the preserve entrance. Three Winter
Wrens were down on Lambert Creek as well.

In Monte Bello OSP we walked the Canyon Trail to Indian Creek Trail almost
to the backpack camp on Black Mountain, finding a pair of Lawrence's
Goldfinches midway up the ICT, as well as several Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. We
heard another Pileated Woodpecker while down beside the creek along the
Stevens Creek Nature Trail. We also stopped in at the top of the White Oak
Trail where it turns down canyon, locating one singing Grasshopper Sparrow
there. Also found from that location were two Pileated Woodpeckers, one of
which was probably the one heard from the canyon below. At the time of this
observation, however, these 2 were somewhere east of the canyon, perhaps
near the sag pond at the top of the Canyon Trail. One called loudly as
another flew well below us, toward the canyon. (For the day, we tallied 3
PIWO, assuming the Lambert Creek Trail bird to be a separate individual -
especially as it had been in the same area the day before,)

We finished our day with a trip down the Old Page Mill Trail below Alpine
Pond during the afternoon doldrums. It was hot and the birds were taking a
siesta. The trip was not wasted though, as team botanist Craig found us many
interesting grasses (really!) Bird-wise, we had at least one Red-breasted
Nuthatch among the pines right beside the Nature Center at the pond, and a
Vaux's Swift that flew over the pond a few minutes later, among the usual
suspects. A Western Tanager sang a short distance below the pond (we had 3
singing WETA over the course of the day, including one along the Canyon
trail).

Bug highlight was a Leanira Checkerspot among the many Chalcedon
Checkerspots along the Indian Creek Trail at Monte Bello.

--Garth Harwood


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