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

[Kris Olson <[[email protected]]>]

I stopped by La Avenida around 3pm for an hour and a
half after I saw Mike's message and finished with Girl
Scouts. It was very quiet in terms of birds but not
bikes, walkers or dogs (off and on leash).

I walked both directions from La Avenida on the lower
paths and upper paths. No sign of any warbler, though
I heard what was probably Yellow Warbler chips to the
north (left).

I did pish up a LINCOLN'S SPARROW and SONG SPARROW at
the end of La Avenida.  Did not see any other sparrow.

Slightly north of La Avenida (I turned left and am
directionally challenged in Santa Clara county --
assume this is north), i found what I assume is a
Red-tailed Hawk sitting low in the trees in the middle
of the creek. It was very dark brown with its back to
me but hidden behind many leaves, so I only saw parts
of it. The head was brown but somewhat streaked on the
back and top when you looked closely. What I could see
of its breast (upper) was heavily streaked with dark
brown. Back seemed very dark brown except for some
rich rust color on its shoulders. ? I could not see
its lower body, but the end of the tail appeared solid
dark brown. I did not see bars on it.

I remember that there has been a dark Re-tail
(Harlan's?) in the vicinity. Is this its offspring?

Other birds I finally managed to find included Downy
Woodpecker, Bewick's Wren, Northern Mockingbird, and
both Lesser and American Goldfinches. 

Good birding! and don't look for warblers in the heat
of the afternoon

Kris Olson, Menlo Park

--- Mike Rogers <[[email protected]]> wrote:

> 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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