[SBB] L'Avenida and elsewhere - 9/16/06

[[[email protected]] (Mike Rogers)]

All,

As already posted, I started out birding today 9/16/06 along Stevens Creek at the end of L'Avenida in Mountain View. The first bird that I put my binoculars on after getting out of the car was a calling sparrow that had just flown into a small oak right at the end of L'Avenida (7:33am). Remarkably, it turned out to be a CLAY-COLORED SPARROW: a small sparrow with a notched tail, pale unmarked lores, pale gray median crown stripe, obvious eyeline behind the eye setting off a pale supercilium, a cream colored malar offset below by a moustachial streak, and an umarked warm gray collar. The bird hopped around in the tree a few times and after about a minute flew south along the creek, calling as it went. I followed it, but was unable to get any more looks at it. After about 100 yards, I saw movement in an alder just off the dirt path and, fully expecting to see one of the Yellow Warblers I had been hearing, located a bird in my bincoulars. It was a NORTHERN PARULA! (county "life" bird n
umber 348). The bird foraged cooperatively in the same tree for seven minutes (7:41am to 7:48am) before I lost track of it, providing excellent views. Identification was straightforward. This was a small, short-tailed warbler with bluish upperparts (except for a green triangle in mid-back), white underparts, and a yellow throat. Two broad white wing bars were readily apparent, as were white eye-arcs above and below the eye. A pale supraloral stripe extended forward from the upper eye crescent to the bill. No rufous or black was evident in the yellow breast, which, combined with the greenish secondary edgings suggests a hatch-year bird. From below, the short tail was largely covered by white tail spots, with a narrow dark tip beyond them.

After this, I headed to a payphone to have my wife post a report to SBB for me and call a few people. A half hour later, I was back at the parula spot, but failed to refind the bird. Initially it had been loosely associating with CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADESS and YELLOW WARBLERS, so that may be what to listen for when searching for this bird.

I then continued on my normal loop up to the Crittenden Lane bridge and back, finding a cooperative and vocal MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER just north of L'Avenida at 8:45am. This bird was still present when I returned at 10:27am and was seen again by several other birders even after this. Other birds of note on my loop included WESTERN FLYCATCHER-3, WARBLING VIREO-1, YELLOW WARBLER-19+, COMMON YELLOWTHROAT-5, WILSON'S WARBLER-1, SAVANNAH SPARROW-4+, LINCOLN'S SPARROW-3+, and WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW-1 imm. Also well seen was the pair of ORANGE BISHOPS. I watched this pair foraging together in the streambed grasses just north of the lone eucalyptus for ten minutes but never saw any carrying of food or additional begging birds, so no breeding confirmation today.

I next headed to Sunnyvale Baylands Park, where I saw a subset of what Pat Kenny has already reported, along with 2 WESTERN FLYCATCHERS. The swallow flock near the Alviso Marina had 130 BARN, 6 VIOLET-GREEN, and 3 TREE SWALLOWS. Over at State and Spreckles was a single WILSON'S PAHALROPE.

At the Sunnyvale WPCP ponds I found more swallows, including 21 VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS and a single hatch-year NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW. Seventy RED-NECKED PHALAROPES were on the "west pond" and biking around the "east pond" turned up 60 FORSTER'S TERNS and 1 molting adult COMMON TERN. The COTE was easy to pick out because it still had virtually an entirely black crown (just a white spot on the forehead at the base of the bill and a few white flecks in mid-crown). The dark edge to the right outer tail feather was visible when th ebird stretched, but this feather was short, either broken off or being regrown. The coverts were in molt, with many lesser and median coverts dropped. The upperwing did show the typical dark "wedge" at the molt boundary, but this was not prominent. The bill was already darkening significantly and was obviously slimmer than those of the nearby Forster's Terns. After allowing extensive study, this bird flew off over the "west pond" and across Guadalupe S
lough to Salt Pond A5.

Mike Rogers
Sunnyvale

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