[SBB] Alviso birds - Sabine's Gull flock

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

All,

This morning 9/29/07, Richard Jeffers and I surveyed the Alviso Salt Ponds for Snowy Plovers. We also covered the ponds north of the marina, which are open to the public. All these ponds have been filled (including A15, which was drawn down last week), so we found no shorebird habitat at all - and no Snowy Plovers, not even in the impoundment north of the marina.

We did, however, find many of the continuing birds reported recently, including

BROWN BOOBY - on A10/A11 dike
PARASITIC JAEGER - 1 juvenile on eastern pond A14 - a different bird than the one I saw on 9/20/07, this one was larger with a golden nape, fresher upperparts with broader cinnamon fringes, and a larger head and deeper bill.
PELAGIC CORMORANT - 1 adult on the A10/A11 dike
COMMON TERNS - at least 2 juveniles on A14 and A15, with 170 Forster's Terns (150 more FOTE were on A9)
2 male REDHEADS were with 90 GREATER SCAUP on A10 (new arrivals)
The BROWN PELICAN count was an amazing 584 birds, with 454 of these on pond A14 and the nearby levees.

At the southwest corner of pond A16 (near the westernmost or 4th island) we had a flock of 5 juvenile SABINE'S GULLS fly by. They headed over to the Alviso Marina and appeared to land in the southern edge of pond A12. There is probably a good chance that these birds will eventually end up at the Sunnyvale Water Pollution Control Plant.

At least 7 adult HERRING GULLS were on islands in pond A16 and we had several others elsewhere today. The BLACK SKIMMER pair was on the first island, along with one juvenile, now very flight capable. The BARN OWL was easy to see in  the EEC nest box.

The buffy juvenile male RUFF was close to the EEC entrance road, which made for some great pictures.

Mike Rogers
Sunnyvale

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