[SBB] Another Big Day - 4/27/07

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

All,

Our Varied Twitchers Big Day last Saturday was hampered by rain at the end of the day, keeping us from having any shot at breaking the SCL Big Day record total of 175, set back on 20 April 1994. However, many of the lingering wintering birds kept hanging around and other great stakeouts like the Brant at Shoreline Lake were being turned up, so Mike Mammoser, Richard Jeffers, and I decided to have another run at the record yesterday 4/27/07, when the weather forecast called for no rain. In order to give ourselves a better chance, we started at midnight instead of 4:00am and birded non-stop for the next 21 hours. The basic route we used was very similar to that used last Saturday, with the exception that we visited several sites down near Morgan Hill from 1:30am to 3:15am. Not surprisingly, most of the birds we saw yesterday were very similar to those seen last Saturday, but we used knowledge gained from last Saturday's efforts by our team and other teams to establish a new Big Day r
ecord for Santa Clara County of 177 species.

An outline of the highlights is listed below.

Mountain View Forebay: Virginia Rail, Sora, Common Moorhen, numerous shorebirds
Geng Road pond: Green Heron
Palo Alto yacht harbor: Clapper Rail, more shorebirds, including both dowitchers, Semipalmated Plover
Coyote Creek Golf Course: Barn Owl, Great-tailed Grackle
Other stops around Morgan Hill, Chesbro Reservoir, Calero Reservoir: nothing much
Almaden Lake: Common Merganser (silhouetted by the reflection from a street light on the water)
Ascent up to and along Skyline Blvd: Great Horned Owl, Northern Saw-whet Owl

Monte Bello OSP: Western Screech-Owl, Common Poorwill, Northern Pygmy-Owl, Hermit Thrush (1 singing),
Lazuli Bunting (16+), Black-throated Gray Warbler, Townsend's Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, Pileated Woodpecker, Western Tanager (3),  Brown Creeper, Winter Wren (2), Olive-sided Flycatcher (1), Chipping Sparrow (1, 0.5 miles down the Canyon Trail), Hairy Woodpecker, Nashville Warbler (1, opposite the sag pond), Yellow-rumped Warbler (3), Golden-crowned Sparrow (3), Lincoln's Sparrow (1, near the start of Canyon Trail), Red-breasted Nuthatch

Insterstate 280 at Arastradero Road: Northern Rough-winged Swallow, White-throated Swift, Cedar Waxwing

Stevens Creek CP: Western Wood-Pewee (4), Downy Woodpecker, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Belted Kingfisher, Yellow-rumped Warbler (1), Osprey (1+), Common Mergasner (pair), Green Heron(1), Spotted Sandpiper (3), Cassin's Vireo (1), Dipper (2), Olive-sided Flycatcher (1), White-breasted Nuthatch

McClellan Ranch: Hooded Oriole, White-breasted Nuthatch, American Goldfinch, Yellow Warbler (1), and a glimpse of what may have been a Wood Duck flying off through the trees (a species we missed).

Geng Road pond and Palo Alto Baylands: the expected gulls, shorebirds, Clark's Grebe, but no curlew or Whimbrel

Emily Renzel Wetlands: Western and Eared Grebes, Common Goldeneye (1), Bufflehead (6), Ross's Goose (1 adult), and Aleutian Cackling Goose (1, likely the Shoreline Lake bird, as it looked the same and there was none at Shoreline)

Palo Alto Flood Control Basin from Highway 101 frontage road: American White Pelican (2), Common Yellowthroat

Shoreline Lake/Mtn View Forebay/Charleston Slough: Surf Scoter (3), Western Grebe (2), Eared Grebe, Brant, Black Skimmer (8 - 6 in A1, 2 on island in Charleston Slough), Golden-crowned Sparrow (2)

Salt Pond AB1/A2E: American White Pelican (1), Peregrine Falcon (1 adult), American Wigeon (2)

Sunnyvale WPCP: Green Heron, Bufflehead (1), Common Moorhen (4), Golden-crowned Sparrow (1), Blue-winged Teal (pair at Lockheed Ponds), Long-billed Curlew (1, flyby over closed landfill!)

Alviso Marina/Salt Pond A8: White-crowned Sparrow (1), Western Kingbird, Lesser Yellowlegs (1), Snowy Plover, Caspian Tern, Peregrine Falcon (1 immature), Bonaparte's Gull

Arzino Ranch: Burrowing Owl (5), Golden Eagle (1)

Salt Pond A16/EEC: Herring Gull (4), Thayer's Gull (4), Caspian Tern (1), White-throated Swift (1)

Overpasses in Milpitas: more White-throated Swifts

Ed Levin CP: Lawrence's Goldfinch (7+), Yellow-rumped Warbler (2), White-crowned Sparrow (1), Grasshopper Sparrow (2) Lazuli Bunting (3), House Wren (5), Rufous-crowned Sparrow, Yellow-billed Magpie, Wild Turkey, Western Tanager (1), Cedar Waxwing, Rufous Hummingbird (1 adult male, Elm PA), Allen's Hummingbird (1 adult male), Chipping Sparrow (1, near Chaparral Ranch behind golf course)

Calaveras Road: Lark Sparrow (1), Rock Wren (1), Bald Eagle (pair at nest), Bufflehead (14+), Ring-necked Duck (pair), Caspian Tern, Eared Grebe, Lazuli Bunting (2+)

Felter Road: Hooded Oriole, Tricolored Blackbird (several in flock opposite 4388 Felter Road)

Sierra Road: Merlin (1), Horned Lark (1)

Arzino Ranch: Loggerhead Shrike (1)

Palo Alto Baylands: Golden-crowned Sparrow (1), Clapper Rail (1)

Biggest misses included both accipiters (none seen all day!), Vaux's Swift, Canvasback, Whimbrel, and American Pipit (4+ seen out along the bay edge this morning!). The Glaucous Gull, Calliope Hummingbirds, and Fox Sparrows have apparently all left.

Yesterday morning Steve Rottenborn found Yellow-breast Chat, Bank Swallow, Wilson's Snipe, Canvasback, Wood Duck, and Swainson's Thrush - all birds we missed (granted, Gilroy would have been hard to squueze into our itinerary :)  ). This morning Mike Mammoser, Richard Jeffers, and I found 5 other species that we missed yesterday (including the above-mentioned pipits) on a Snowy Plover survey in Alviso. So finding 180 species on a Big Day in SCL is certainly possible (as long as there are great stakeouts around like Ross's Goose, Brant, and Bald Eagle!).

Mike Rogers
Sunnyvale

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