[SBB] Alviso and Sunnyvale

[Bill Bousman <[[email protected]]>]

Folks:

This morning, 8/21/07, I walked out (CW) on the Alviso Slough Trail 
and joined the sunrise group at the Brown Booby spot.  When I arrived 
at the A10/A11 dike, Jim Thomas and Brent Campos were still there 
with their scopes and had the BROWN BOOBY in sight as Brent has 
reported.  There were two concentrations of birds on the dike: one 
group about halfway down and a second group at the junction with the 
other salt pond levees.  The booby was working its way towards the 
junction and we lost it after about 0845 hr.  Off and on, two PELAGIC 
CORMORANTS were with the group halfway down the dike.  In the past, 
fall Pelagic Cormorants in the South Bay have often been sickly, but 
these birds actively flew and appeared healthy.  Walking out along 
Salt Pond A11, I saw a COMMON LOON in flight, circling, and going 
higher and higher towards the east.  But over the next hour I saw 
another basic bird foraging actively in A11 and I don't know if there 
were one or two birds present.  Also, while walking out I noted 3 
VAUX'S SWIFTS in a mixed flock with Violet-green Swallows and later 
with Jim and Brent we saw another.

Jim and Brent left me for my booby vigil, but the best I could do was 
note a female/immature RED-BREASTED MERGANSER in A10 that others have 
reported previously.  Not too much later Paul Bridges turned up on 
his bike.  We kept looking for the booby, but it had stopped moving 
about or had gone elsewhere.  While watching perhaps the 100th or 
200th Forster's Tern, we noted something different and had good view 
of a HY COMMON TERN foraging in A10.

I then made the hike back.  As often happens midmorning, the SE winds 
dropped and it became calm.  All of us had noted small fish feeding 
and jumping at the surface of the salt ponds.  Walking back I kept 
displacing a couple of Snowy Egrets.  As they flew off 50 m or so 
over the calm water, they startled the small fish, which jumped, 
creating a virtual wake for these birds.  A video camera would 
capture this, but not a still, I think.  Per the TOPO! software, the 
round trip is 4.1 miles.

On my way back towards Mountain View, I stopped at the Sunnyvale WPCP 
where I saw two WHITE-FACED IBIS at the far end of the Lockheed 
Martin ponds west of the dump.  On the old dump, was my first SAY'S 
PHOEBE of the fall.

Bill Bousman
Santa Clara County records compiler 



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