[SBB] Stevens Creek Mouth

[Al Eisner <[[email protected]]>]

    This afternoon I did the trek out to the mouth of Stevens Creek,
hoping for some interesting shorebirds as the tide went out.  (I try
to decipher the timing from other reports, but always seem to get out
there way too early.  Of course, that's better than too late.)  The
first creekside mud was exposed at 3:30 PM (high tide at Palo Alto
was about 1:30), but no shorebird showed up until 4:15.  At 4:40
I finally found a group of 4 Red Knots which had just come in.  One
still showed the (breeding-plumage remnant) red tint on the breast,
one other was also clearly a moulting adult; I couldn't tell at the
distance if the other two were in juvenile or winter plumage.  I found
no other notable shorebirds.

    While I was waiting, I had the almost-continual company of the
previously reported Bufflehead in pond AB1.  I'd say it is a male,
since there is a gray patch below the oblong of white on the face.
When I first got there, it was with the female Redhead, but the 
latter soon moved out of sight.  Later, the Bufflehead took up with
a small group of Pied-billed Grebes.  Speaking of Pied-billed Grebes,
there was a tight concentration of 42 at the northwest corner of
pond A2E when I walked out; with them was a likely Eared Grebe in
non-breeding plumage.  (I only got a brief look.)  Finally, on my
way to the mouth, I saw no shorebirds at all in Crittenden (despite
the high tide), perhaps because there was heavy equipment working on
the levee by the only strip of water.  On my way back, with the work
done for the day, about 50 Black-necked Stilts had settled in, but
nothing else.
 							    Al Eisner

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