[SBB] CCFS Sunday - LEFL, BRSP, SWSP

["Steve and Heather Rottenborn" <[[email protected]]>]

South Bay Birders,

Today (8 Oct) I birded CCFS in Alviso.  This area is accessible to birders 
who are members of SFBBO (see http://www.sfbbo.org/ for membership info).

I birded the west side of the creek from the waterbird pond near Dixon 
Landing Road south to the southern crossover (where the overflow channel 
crosses from the east to the west side of the creek) about 1/4-mile north of 
Highway 237.  Numbers of neotropical migrants were down from last weekend, 
but there were still decent numbers of migrants around.

The highlight was a LEAST FLYCATCHER, seen for about 60 seconds  from 
distances of 7-15 m at about 11:40.  To reach the area where this bird was 
seen, starting at the entrance gate near Highway 237, go north along the 
gravel levee road.  After about 1/4-mile, the lower gravel road splits off, 
and there is a concrete spillway along the lower road.  Just east/northeast 
of this spillway, there are several planted sycamores along the edge of a 
grove of cottonwoods and willows.  The LEFL was in a cottonwood next to the 
largest of the sycamores.  The bird did not call, but was identified by 
virtue of its relatively small size (compared to the Western Flycatchers I 
had been seeing earlier in the day); large-headed, short-tailed appearance; 
bold, complete white eyering contrasting strongly with the dark head; short 
primary projection; overall dull gray-brown upperparts; off-white throat, 
dingy grayish breast, and pale yellowish wash on the belly and undertail 
coverts; very dark, blackish wings contrasting strongly with pale buff wing 
bars and white tertial edging; and relatively short, broad, convex-edged 
bill, mostly pale with a slight darker suffusion near the tip.  Mike 
Mammoser showed up later, but we were unable to refind the bird.

A large sparrow flock spread throughout the overflow channel starting about 
100 m north of the LEFL spot had single BREWER'S and SWAMP SPARROWS around 
mid-day; again, Mike and I were unable to relocate these birds later.  The 
other highlight was a female YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD that flew over the 
banding trailer heading east early in the morning.

Other birds seen at CCFS today included the following:

2 Wood Ducks
1 ad. Peregrine Falcon
4 Western Wood-Pewees (Mike M. had 2 additional birds later)
6 "Western" Flycatchers
1 Ash-throated Flycatcher
2 Warbling Vireos
2 Violet-green Swallows
3 Oak Titmice
7 House Wrens
1 Winter Wren
3 Golden-crowned Kinglets (my first of the fall; vs. 32 Ruby-crowns)
14 Hermit Thrushes (no Swainson's)
12 Orange-crowned Warblers
29 Yellow Warblers
5 Black-throated Gray Warblers
11 Townsend's Warblers
90 Yellow-rumped Warblers (all Audubon's)
34 Common Yellowthroats
2 Wilson's Warblers
2 Dark-eyed Juncos

Good birding,

Steve Rottenborn
Morgan Hill, CA






_______________________________________________
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