[SBB] further details - Varied Twitchers Birdathon 4/21/07 (long)

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

All,

As promised, here is a full account of yesterday's (4/21/07) Varied Twitcher Santa Clara County Big Day.

We had a great day for adding new species to our cumulative list. Over the 5 years we have run this guided Big Day, we have compiled a composite list of 195 species, adding 8 new ones yesterday (American Bittern, Ross's Goose, Bald Eagle, Merlin, Glaucous Gull, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Varied Thrush, Yellow Warbler). The next best trip for species seen on no other trip was 2005, when we had 6 species seen in no other year. The other 3 years had only 2 or 3 unique species.

Unfortunately, we also missed several species that we have never missed before, including American White Pelican, Golden Eagle, Long-billed Curlew, and Loggerhead Shrike. This also happened in 2005, when we missed 6 species that we have found in every other year. So it seems that if you find a lot a great unique stuff you will pay the price by missing a lot of stuff that you have never missed before, resulting in totals that stay pretty constant. What does it take to find the rare stuff and the common stuff all on the same day? I guess that's the elusive Big Day goal that keeps us coming back every year to try again!

Yesterday we finished up with 163 species, behind last year's high of 165, but ahead of the 157, 158, and 157 of the other three years - not bad.

We met at the Mountain View Forebay at 4:00am and started our day by taping for rails. COMMON MOORHEN and VIRGINIA RAIL responded, Sora did not. Owling at Monte Bello OSP added the day's only BARN OWL, 4 GREAT HORNED OWLS, 3 WESTERN SCREECH-OWLS, and at least one NORTHERN PYGMY-OWL but no Northern Saw-whet Owl or Common Poorwill.

We had PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHERS and BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAKS singing in the dark, but day birding began in earnest at about 6:00am. Hiking partway up the Indian Creek Trail, we added chaparral birds and others, including 3 lingering HERMIT THRUSHES. Hiking down the Canyon Trail added more BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLERS, at least 2 TOWNSEND'S WEARBLERS, 4 singing WILSON'S WARBLERS, a singing WINTER WREN, BROWN CREEPER, a singing VARIED THRUSH, and a WESTERN TANAGER, along with other montane species such as HAIRY WOODPECKER, PURPLE FINCH, and BAND-TAILED PIGEON. We also got nice looks at a tooting NORTHERN PYGMY-OWL. Climbing our way out of the canyon back to the car we managed to hear a PILEATED WOODPECKER, a species that was much less cooperative than usual this time. The chaparral patch below the sag pond had WHITE-CROWNED, GOLDEN-CROWNED, and LINCOLN'S SPARROWS.

Having missed Sora at the Forebay, we decided to quickly check the pond below Gate 5. No Sora here either, but a pair of RING-NECKED DUCKS was our only look at this species all day and a RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH by Page Mill Road was a first for our cumulative list. A singing LAZULI BUNTING on the way back down Page Mill Road was unfortunately in San Mateo County, but we found others later in the day. A real piece of luck was catching a northbound OSPREY above Gate 4 to Foothills Park.

Our stop along Page Mill Road south of Arastradero Road added VAUX'S SWIFT and MERLIN; the 280 overpass over Arastradero Road added NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW but not White-throated Swift. A quick check of the Gates of Heaven Cemetery pond failed to produce the Hooded Mergansers Jim had seen there the day before, but we did find the day's first CEDAR WAXWINGS.

We arrived at the Chestnut Picnica Area in Stevens Creek CP at 10:14am and immeditaley found a singing OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER and a DOWNY WOODPECKER. A visit to the Bay Trees Picnic Area added a stealthy WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE and another DOWNY WOODPECKER. The VIlla Maria Picnic Area was crowded as a result of the race being held there, but we added BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER and both species of SWIFT. One CASPIAN TERN was at the reservoir, but none of the other recent goodies were around, perhaps because the place was overrun with people. We did find the AMERICAN DIPPERS in the usual spot, but failed to find a Cassin's Vireo anywhere. A few tense moments were had when the ignition switch on my Dodge Grand Caravan jammed in the off position, but ten minutes of wiggling the wheel and shaking the car eventually broke things loose - we ended up leaving the engine running for many of the day's later stops to avoid a repeat of that potential disaster.

Arriving late at McClellan Ranch at 11:45am, we were confronted with 100s of people and no parking spaces. The trail reconstruction project along the creek thwarted any chance of finding the Wood Ducks that have been seen there, but we did add the day's only GREEN HERON (a flyover) and WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCHES, as well as the hoped for HOODED ORIOLES and Bob's singing YELLOW WARBLER. Several YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS were new for several in our group who missed the single bird at Stevens Creek CP.

Geng Road at 12:25pm had no Cattle Egret, Ross's Goose, or Great-tailed Grackle, and nearby San Francisquito Creek had no Spotted Sandpiper. An insistently singing WILSON'S WARBLER was clearly a migrant. A few minutes later, we were rapidly adding new species at the Palo Alto duck pond and nearby (former) yacht harbor basin. Both species of SCAUP were at the duck pond and both species of DOWITCHER were in the estuary behind it. CLARK'S and WESTERN GREBES were in the draining pool below the bridge by the interpretive center. The tide was very low, and shorebirds were way out on the bay, but careful scoping added BLACK-BELLIED and SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS, a WHIMBREL, many MARBLED GODWITS, DUNLIN, and both small PEEPS. These birds were harassed by an adult PEREGRINE FALCON initially found lunching on the ground. A single female CANVASBACK among the many SCAUP was our only one of the day.

The Emily Renzel pond turned up a COMMON GOLDENEYE and 5 BUFFLEHEAD, an EARED GREBE, and all 5 common SWALLOW species. The ROSS'S GOOSE there the day before eluded us until Mike Mammoser caught it fleeing the coup with several CANADA GEESE heading towards the Palo Alto golf course. A minute later, Mike called out "AMERICAN BITTERN" and we all watched in awe as this bird flew slowly just above eye level right in front of us up the middle of the pond to the northwest. This would be very late for a wintering bird and suggests that maybe breeding might be happening in this vicinity this year.

After a quick stop at the Palo Alto Flood Control Basin, we headed on to Shoreline Lake. Four species of GREBES were here, but the Horned Grebe reported just a couple days before was a no-show. Two SURF SCOTERS were present, as was another COMMON GOLDENEYE. Scoping towards the southeast corner of Salt Pond A1 turned up at least 3 BLACK SKIMMERS on the little island and the day's first GREATER YELLOWLEGS was in the Forebay. More SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS were in the Forebay and Charleston Slough as well.

We found our first BURROWING OWL along First Street on our way into Alviso just before 3:00pm. A quick stop at the Alviso Marina added FOX SPARROW, SORA, and BONAPARTE'S GULL but scoping the eastern end of Salt Pond A8 turned up nothing new among the thousands of shorebirds there. No snipe were at Spreckles and Grand and scoping Arzino Ranch from there only added WESTERN MEADOWLARK. Salt Pond A16 was good to us, though, with 2 adult HERRING GULLS and 1 adult and 2 first-winter THAYER'S GULLS on the first island and a first-winter GLAUCOUS GULL on the 2nd island (along with an apparent GLAUCOUS x HERRING GULL hybrid). We also added our first AMERICAN WIGEON, as well as 2 more BONAPARTE'S GULLS and 3 EARED GREBES. We had no time for another check of Arzino Ranch, hoping that we would find a shrike somewhere in the Diablo Range (didn't happen) and that Long-billed Curlews would be on the lawns at the San Jose-Santa Clara WPCP (not there at 4:05pm or at 7:45pm).

Our first stop at Ed Levin CP (after passing a WILD TURKEY on the way in) was the hang-glider parking area, where we quickly located several LAWRENCE'S GOLDFINCHES. A distant tree held our first YELLOW-BILLED MAGPIE and our only accipiter, an adult COOPER'S HAWK. WESTERN KINGBIRDS were all over the hillside. Heading up to the dog run, we heard SELASPHORUS HUMMINGBIRDS and quickly picked out a female. Then Richard called out a male CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD, which we got brief looks at as it foraged in and out of the eucalyptus foliage. Fortunately, as we headed up towards the sycamore grove, it (or another male) perched at eye level in a small tree before zipping over to the purple cone-shaped flowers on the bush growing through the dog run fence. Almost an hour later, when coming back from the sycmores, there were 2 adult male and 1 female CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRDS feeding on the flowers along the dog run fence, along with a female RUFOUS/ALLEN'S HUMMINGBIRD. All 5 SWALLOW species were for
aging in this area as well.

The area up by the sycamores added the hoped for LAZULI BUNTINGS (2 males), RUFOUS-CROWNED SPARROWS (6), HOUSE WREN (1), and GRASSHOPPER SPARROWS (5+), as well as more LAWRENCE'S GOLDFINCHES. Lingering SAVANNAH and LINCOLN'S SPARROWS were present here as well. Despite lugging his scope all the way up the hillside, Richard could not pick out any American White Pelicans on the south bay salt ponds. The Elm Picnic Area added nothing new, but 5 YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, 2 LAWRENCE'S GOLDFINCHES, a GREAT HORNED OWL, and an adult male SELASPHORUS HUMMINGBIRD that failed to show its back were of note.

We left Ed Levin Park at 6:00pm, failing to find a shrike along Old Calaveras Road but finding 10+ WILD TURKEYS there. The pair of BALD EAGLES was at/near the nest and 12+ BUFFLEHEADS were on Calaveras Reservoir below. We couldn't find a Rock Wren along Calaveras Road in the rain, but 6+ YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, a LARK SPARROW, a LAWRENCE'S GOLDFINCH, and singing RUFOUS-CROWNED SPARROWS and LAZULI BUNTINGS were only 0.5km from Felter Road. However, it turned out that the Lark Sparrow  at 6:34pm was our last species of the day (#163). From then on, the increasing wind and rain made birding very difficult. Marsh Road added nothing new, although yet again more LAWRENCE's GOLDFINCHES were located among many singing WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS at the road's end. No Golden Eagles were sitting atop the transmission towers along Sierra Road, and we could not locate Horned Larks at the Sierra Road summit.

Last ditch efforts at Arzino Ranch failed to turn up a shrike or a curlew, although we added another BURROWING OWL. A stop at the old Palo Alto yacht harbor at 8:07pm found it full of water, but likewise without curlews and we were unable to hear any Clapper Rails in the marsh (we did hear Black-bellied Plovers and Short-billed Dowitchers). We returned to the Forebay and disbanded at about 8:30pm, after 16.5 hours of birding.

A fun day of birding, but leaving plenty of room for improvement next year!

Mike Rogers
Sunnyvale

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