[SBB] Palo Alto Baylands and Duck Pond, 4/28

[Chuq Von Rospach <[[email protected]]>]

two and a half days locked in conference rooms at the MySQL  
conference was more than enough... I hauled myself out to Palo Alto  
for the afternoon and spent it seeing what I could see, and grabbing  
pictures of what I could.

It was extreme high tide, so the shorebirds were either up in the  
weeds or elsewhere. Not much going on at the boat dock but swallows  
laughing at my feeble attempts to get a decent photograph of one. I  
did distinctly hear a raven calling from somewhere on the other side  
of the slough, but didn't see it at any time. I did take some shots  
of the gulls in that area, but none of the reported Franklin's  
(ohwell). As I was leaving, I had a male northern harrier fly by into  
the marsh, low enough that he disappeared behind the bushes right at  
the end of the boat dock walkway. By the time I got over there to  
look, he was nowhere to be seen, so I assume he found something and  
landed; he didn't re-appear for the 15 minutes or so I waited and  
watched, but at some point, something fairly large and loud yelled at  
me once from inside those bushes (didn't recognize the bird, but it  
was definitely a good size, a bird, and I'd call it vaguely egret- 
like...). one double-crested cormorant flew by while I was waiting  
for the hawk. So did, much to my amazement, a B52 superfortress,  
which had taken off from Moffett, did a loop out onto the bay, then  
circled back and landed again. I think that's a new one for my life  
list... sandpipers, primarily mid-sized ones (willet's and marbled  
godwits, I think), hanging out in the weed waiting for the tide to  
change.

Wandered back to the parking lot for the nature center. About that  
time a number of docent-led groups of kids showed up (all pretty well  
behaved, I might add) for classes; across the street from the lot the  
avocets and stilts were doing the normal avocet and stilt things. One  
Forster's Tern was intermittently fishing the ponds and flying off to  
the boardwalk to sit (also on the boardwalk various gulls; it was the  
only tern I saw). Out by the boardwalk was a feeding snowy egret, also.

going back to look at the pond/flat (at that time, pond) where the  
scout building is, it was pretty empty, but I went to the edge of the  
parking lot and looked into the newer marsh areas out to the left,  
and I was rewarded with my first chicks of the summer -- mom (I'm  
pretty sure it's a Northern shoveler hen, but I'll upload a photo for  
the experts) and three little ones.

after that, wandered out the path past the nature center; everything  
was flooded. The tern kept fishing, I kept taking pictures of the  
ripples caused by a tern that's gone under water. Another snowy egret  
hunting down the path, and more sandpipers -- 2-300 westerns, which  
flushed a few times and made for a beautilful view. song and white- 
capped sparrows. While I was there, another American Raven flew by  
from the north, headed towards the direction of the one I'd heard  
calling earlier, so I believe it wasn't the same one. I also in the  
distance saw a Harrier again, but it never came close. (bah, humbug).  
Also red-winged blackbirds (many), and the one obligatory black  
phoebe. also one cinnamon teal (and a second seen later in the duck  
pond).

Off to the duck pond and herons and egrets. There were at least 30  
snowy egrets visible on the palms today; today was the first time  
I've seen paris co-building nests; sticks were being enthusiastically  
sought after everywhere. The egrets are amazingly noisy right now.  
The girls are clearly here, and they're setting up housekeeping. Saw  
about 8 black-necked night herons, heard a few more. not much  
interesting in the duck pond, unless you count 4,000,000 mallards and  
one ruddy.

after using up the last of my cards on my Rebel and the battery on my  
other camera, I did a quick tour of Bixby park. From the lot, I saw a  
Cooper's hawk hunting; other than that, not much else but avocets.

I'll roll photos when I get them processed -- I actually have some  
nice shots of the tern; I just have even more shots of tern parts,  
fuzzy terns, and sheets of water with terns hidden under the  
surface... and maybe even some new and interesting egret photos.

The big change I noticed from being there last week was the larger  
number of egrets (and the new ones are smaller, clearly female), and  
that the blackbirds are now everywhere (and want you to know it). the  
first chicks are a really nice. And since I forgot my hat, I got  
sunburnt up there (but I refuse to complain about it... I'll take the  
sun!)


-- 
Chuq Von Rospach, Architech
[[email protected]] -- http://chuqui.typepad.com/

IMHO: Jargon. Acronym for In My Humble Opinion. Used to flag as an  
opinion
something that is clearly from context an opinion to everyone except the
mentally dense. Opinions flagged by IMHO are actually rarely humble.  
IMHO.
     (source: third unabridged dictionary of chuqui-isms).



_______________________________________________
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://plaidworks.org/mailman/listinfo/south-bay-birds_plaidworks.org