[SBB] Bank Swallow and other goodies - 9/23/06

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

All,

Mike Mammoser and I surveyed various Alviso salt ponds for Snowy Plovers today 9/23/06. We checked the swallow flock near the Marina at 10:10am and had 40 VAUX'S SWIFTS, 30 BARN SWALLOWS, 25+ VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS (including some adult birds), and 2 TREE SWALLOWS. Later, at 12:15pm, I rechecked the flock and found that the number and variety had increased, with 80 BARN SWALLOWS, 6+ TREE SWALLOWS, 2+ CLIFF SWALLOWS (a dingy-headed juvenile and at least one much more advanced juvenile that had already molted in a whitish forehead and nearly full rusty throat) in addition to about the same number of Violet-green Swallows as earlier.

Highlights on ponds accessible to the public included 1050 RED-NECKED PHALAROPES on Salt Pond A13, 90 GREATER SCAUP on pond A10 (all but two being eclipse males), and 59 BROWN PELICANS on ponds A10 and A11. Two PEREGRINE FALCONS (an adult and an immature) were foraging over the ponds north of the Marina as well.

The sparrow flock in the brush southwest of the Marina has really built up in the last few days, with many WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS and single GOLDEN-CROWNED and LINCOLN'S SPARROWS easily seen from the road today.

Notable birds from closed portions of the refuge, besides 9 SNOWY PLOVERS, included a male REDHEAD, an OSPREY, 2 COMMON TERNS, a SAGE THRASHER, and our first-of-the-season AMERICAN PIPITS (3).

Mike Rogers
Sunnyvale

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