Re: [SBB] Ulistac Natural Area

[Chuq Von Rospach <[[email protected]]>]

> I birded the Ulistac Natural Area in Santa Clara this morning,
> 10/2/07.

Coincidentally, I birded Ulistac as well today, arriving abut the  
time Bill was typing this message, and leaving around 12:30. My bird  
list is significantly different than his, the only one we have in  
common is the western tanager.

The small birds were a lot less cooperative for me, of course, but I  
still had some interesting ones. Common birds included a juvenile  
scrub jay (and a couple of others heard but not seen) and two  
northern mockingbirds chasing each other. One landed on the top of a  
bush and I got a good look at it -- and it had a beak like a  
thrasher. In the continuing attempt for whatever god governs birding  
to make me crazy, I get yet another weird bird; the photos confirmed  
what I thought I saw in the field, it's a northern mockingbird with a  
deformed upper beak. I'll post a photo in a bit.  Those were the only  
birds I saw in the first 20+ minutes there (heard? many. Quite birdy,  
just not much willing to be seen...).

I worked my way north into the old pines, and things got better.  
That's when I saw the tanager fly over. A few minutes later, I saw  
another bird fly over and land in a tree, and saw the red flash;  
acorn woodpecker. In the pines things picked up; the first small bird  
I saw up in the canopy was a chestnut-backed chickadee, and while  
chasing it down it led me to two other small birds, both of which  
turned out to be butter-butts (yellow-rumps). I ended up with three  
of them, but no yellow, no orange-crowned. While trying to get a  
picture one of the yellow-rumps, it flew up and landed on a branch,  
and I realized there was another big bird sitting about 2 feet from  
it -- that was a Cooper's Hawk, which turned out to have landed about  
15' behind me and was watching me intently. The yellow-rump, by the  
way, also saw the hawk and booked...

While shooting the Cooper's hawk, I heard another bird fly in  
yelling. It landed on a branch above the Cooper's by about 8'. The  
Cooper's left, and I found myself looking at a Northern Flicker (red- 
shafted).  At that point, my binoc's batteries gave out and I was  
ready for lunch, so I wandered back out.

I saw half a dozen other warbler-like things, but none well enough to  
ID, and a bunch of sparrows in flight, also not things I could ID.

Other things seen: three jackrabbits, last seen leaving the scene  
with an off-leash dachsund in hot pursuit. It wasn't close...




--
Chuq Von Rospach
[[email protected]]
http://chuqui.typepad.com



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