Parent
From email@hidden Mon Jun 01 08:23:24 1998
Mike:
You must have been at the Grackle spot before I was there. I was there
just before noon on Saturday. I found the male instantly in the reeds.
I never did see the female. I too went twice to Bettencourt Dairy
without seeing anything of importance. Later I could not refind the
grackle until he flew out of the reeds to the east never to transverse
Santa Clara County air space.
I too have questions about the county line. People have said in the
past
only that the lake in in San Benito and the Dairy in Santa Clara County,
but where is the line?
Also, is the Red-tailed Hawk nest with three young in San Benito County
or Santa Clara County?
Also, someone reported to the Monterey RBA a Least Tern at the Grackle
spot on Saturday. Aparently it was none of us.
--
Mike Feighner, Livermore, CA, email@hidden (home)
Sunnyvale, CA, email@hidden (work)
Please reply to both addresses above for a quicker response. Thanks.
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From email@hidden Mon Jun 01 09:11:50 1998
I just had a Bushtit that was unusual in that it was a] foraging on the
ground under a feeder in my backyard (black oil sunflower chips), and b}
showed the gray crown and darker brown lores and auriculars of the
interior forms. Its eye was black, so it was a male.
My first reaction on seeing it was of a crestless titmouse with an
unusually long tail and something else not right. After looking at the
field guides, the something else not right turned out to be the dark
feathering running from the base of the bill back under the eye.
Kaufmann (Lives of North Am Birds) says Bushtits "occasionally" eat seeds,
though I don't recall ever seeing one foraging on the ground. Grinnell
and Miller (Distribution of the Birds of California) record the
westernmost appearances of the _californicus_ form (our coastal form, with
the brown cap, is Psaltrparus minimus minimus) as Solano, Napa, and San
Benito Cos, the Solano Co record being from Benicia.
-- Tom Grey Stanford CA email@hidden
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From email@hidden Mon Jun 01 09:37:23 1998
Oops, I should have looked at my Pyle before posting. The bird I saw had
characteristics of P. m. plumbeus, not californicus (the latter, the
normal Central Vally subspecies, like our normal coastal minimus, is
brown-capped). Also, if the bird reappears, I will try to get a closer
look at the coloring of the facial/auricular feathers - are they really
dark brown, or do they have black in them? The latter indicates a juvenile
male, which seems more likely what this one is, given the black eye.
Grinnell and Miller show plumbeus only in extreme northeast of state, and
between 4500 and 5600 feet (!) Pyle says it intergrades clinally with
californicus.
I'm now really hoping for another look.
-- Tom Grey Stanford CA email@hidden
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From email@hidden Mon Jun 01 11:08:43 1998
It seems to me that the Great-tailed Grackle nest site at San Felipe
Lake is close enough to the county line to warrant a serious
investigation as to which county it is in. I attempted a measurement of
the site's location, and will relate that measuement here.
I drew an imaginary line from the tule clump that contains the nest to
the road edge, that was perpendicular to the straight edge of the road.
This line intersects the road where it straightens out after the curve
coming from the Bettencourt Dairy. The USGS topographic map of this area
(1:24000 size) indicates (by my measurements) that the county line is
about 40 meters to the south of the road along this imaginary line.
I then moved towards the call box pullout and found a point along the
straight edge of the road, where a sight line along a 45 degree angle
with respect to the road pointed right at the tule clump. This line, the
imaginary line perpendicular to the road, and the road edge should form
an equilateral triangle, where the 2 sides of the triangle (the distance
between the 2 points on the road and the distance between the road and
the tule clump) should be exactly equal in length. I then paced off the
distance along the road, getting a total of 70 paces. Based on my pace
being equal to about 27 inches, I came up with a distance of 48 meters
to the nest site. This would place the nest about 8 meters into San
Benito County.
In fact, the county line would probably run between the tules and the
willow clump along the edge of the lake. So, if you see the grackles in
the willows, they are probably in Santa Clara County. If you see them in
the tule clump, they are likely in San Benito County.
If anyone can come up with a more accurate measurement, or can even
reproduce my measurement, I would be interested in hearing of it.
Mike Mammoser
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From email@hidden Mon Jun 01 11:41:02 1998
REPLY RE: banner egret/heron day
All,
Mike Mammoser caught an error in my report of the Little Blue Heron (Thanks, Mike!). I didn't look at the Salt Pond maps carefully enough. The heron was first seen flying south from the direction of the heronry at the edge of Pond A16, NOT Triangle Marsh, which is north of the Alviso Marina area at the northeast corner of Pond A15. (It may be possible to find one in the Triangle Marsh area, too.)
If these pond references sound like gibberish, go to Kendric Smith's South Bay Birders Unlimited Web site:
He has several maps put together by Bill Bousman at the Salt Pond Maps link. These maps show the Cargill salt pond numbering along with explanations.
Happy heroning
Les
Les Chibana wrote:
>After taking my class on a fieldtrip to CCRS this morning, some of us
>lunched at the Alviso EEC. There was a beautiful CATTLE EGRET in New Chicago
>Marsh on the left side, just before the 1st left turn along the entrance
>road. Later, while looking from the main levee north of the EEC bldg. in
>the general vicinity of the Little Gull sightings, an adult LITTLE BLUE
>HERON, in non-breeding plumage (as far as I could tell), flew south toward us
>from the Triangle Marsh area at the eastern edge of pond A16. It continued
>south over the New Chicago Marsh and the Arzino Ranch where we lost track
>of it.
>
>This rounded out a day of seeing the GREAT BLUE HERON rookery at CCRS,
>with large nestlings; GREEN HERON at the CCRS Waterbird Pond; GREAT EGRET,
>SNOWY EGRET, and BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON at the Alviso EEC. 7 members of
>Ardeidae without even trying! So, where's an American Bittern when you
>need one?
>
[snip]
>Les
ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
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From email@hidden Mon Jun 01 12:12:31 1998
All,
The Palo Alto count taking place this Saturday has a couple of serious gaps
to fill. A large number of veteran counters will be out of town, so we
badly need volunteers to fill in!
Two areas of special concern are 1) Russian Ridge (excellent birding, 0
counters!) and 2) the baylands, where the various waterbirds usually
account for the numerical majority of the birds seen on this count circle.
There are also openings in a couple of other sections, including the urban
ones (good for new counters).
If you have even part of this Saturday free, please consider pitching in.
If interested, contact me by return e-mail and I'll pass your contact info
to one of the section leaders.
Thanks!!
--Garth Harwood, SCVAS Chapter Manager
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From email@hidden Mon Jun 01 12:12:38 1998
All,
Several volunteer monitors in our nestbox program report that the cold
storm last week resulted in the loss of numerous nestlings. The usual
pattern has been a gradual dying off of the entire clutch over a period of
about 2 days after the nest material becomes saturated.
This pattern was probably not limited to our nestboxes. I believe our local
bird community took a real hit last week.
--Garth Harwood
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From email@hidden Mon Jun 01 15:17:35 1998
JUNE 1, 1998 SANTA CLARA COUNTY YEAR LIST UPDATE
We still need White-faced Ibis, Wilson's Phalarope, and Black Swift.
Be on the lookout for eastern vagrants like the male ROSE-BREASTED
GROSBEAK reported to Bill Bousman from a feeder in Mountain View.
Mike
P.S. Some advice from Kendric:
[To make the columns line up, please copy this list to a word processor, and
change the font to a monospaced font (Monoco, Courier, etc.), and set the
right hand margin to 7.5 inches.]
________________________________________________________________________
Recent progress of the composite list:
248: 4/19/98 SNOWY PLOVER
249: 4/29/98 LITTLE BLUE HERON
250: 5/ 3/98 TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE
251: 5/ 3/98 YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT
252: 5/13/98 FRANKLIN'S GULL
253: 5/13/98 MOUNTAIN QUAIL
254: 5/14/98 PURPLE MARTIN
255: 5/15/98 COMMON TERN
256: 5/17/98 RED-NECKED PHALAROPE
257: 5/24/98 BLACK-CHINNED SPARROW
258: 5/25/98 GREAT-TAILED GRACKLE
259: 5/25/98 ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK
260: 5/26/98 BANK SWALLOW
261: 5/28/98 WILLOW FLYCATCHER
Please send any additions, corrections, or comments to Mike
Rogers, email@hidden.
SANTA CLARA COUNTY YEAR LIST - 1998
SCR MMR MJM COMP SOURCE
377 231 211 214 261+ICGU
% OF COMPOSITE FOR 1998
% OF 377 (Iceland Gull not counted)
Red-throated Loon 2/16 2/ 8 2/ 8 SBT
Pacific Loon 2/21 SBT
Common Loon 2/ 8 2/11 2/14 1/ 2 AVe
Pied-billed Grebe 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Horned Grebe 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Red-necked Grebe 1/ 2 1/16 1/ 2 1/ 1 DJC
Eared Grebe 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Western Grebe 1/ 2 2/11 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Clark's Grebe 1/ 6 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH
Northern Fulmar
Sooty Shearwater
Ashy Storm-Petrel
Brown Booby
American White Pelican 1/ 2 1/16 1/ 2 1/ 1 DJC
Brown Pelican 1/ 6 2/ 8 1/ 4 JMa
Double-crested Cormorant 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Brandt's Cormorant
Pelagic Cormorant
Magnificent Frigatebird
American Bittern 1/16 2/28 1/15 CWh
Least Bittern
Great Blue Heron 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Great Egret 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Snowy Egret 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Little Blue Heron 5/ 7 4/29 PJM
Cattle Egret 1/ 2 4/24 4/26 1/ 2 SCR
Green Heron 1/ 6 2/11 2/13 1/ 1 DJC
Black-crowned Night-Heron 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
White-faced Ibis
Fulvous Whistling-Duck
Tundra Swan 1/ 2 1/ 7 1/ 3 1/ 1 CKS,JML,DJC
Greater White-fronted Goose 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH
Snow Goose 1/ 2 1/ 3 1/ 2 SCR
Ross' Goose 2/ 8 1/19 1/16 1/16 MJM
Brant
Canada Goose 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Wood Duck 4/21 4/11 1/18 1/ 1 AVe,CH
Green-winged Teal 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Mallard 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Northern Pintail 1/ 6 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Garganey
Blue-winged Teal 1/ 6 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH
Cinnamon Teal 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Northern Shoveler 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Gadwall 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Eurasian Wigeon 1/26 2/24 1/ 2 1/ 2 MJM
American Wigeon 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Canvasback 1/ 6 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Redhead 1/ 6 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH
Ring-necked Duck 1/ 2 1/ 7 1/31 1/ 1 m.ob.
Tufted Duck 1/ 2 1/ 2 MJM
Greater Scaup 1/ 6 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Lesser Scaup 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Oldsquaw
Black Scoter 3/ 8 3/ 2 3/ 8 3/ 1 JMe
Surf Scoter 1/ 6 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
White-winged Scoter 2/11 1/ 6 2/13 1/ 6 MMR
Common Goldeneye 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Barrow's Goldeneye 1/ 6 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 DJC
Bufflehead 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Hooded Merganser 1/ 4 2/28 2/28 1/ 1 AVe,CH,NLe
Common Merganser 1/ 2 1/ 7 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Red-breasted Merganser 1/16 2/11 1/ 2 1/ 2 MJM
Ruddy Duck 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Turkey Vulture 1/ 1 1/ 4 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
California Condor
Osprey 3/ 2 1/19 1/18 1/17 JMa,JLa
White-tailed Kite 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 2 SCR,MJM
Bald Eagle 2/ 8 2/16 1/16 SGu
Northern Harrier 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 DJC
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1/ 2 1/19 4/26 1/ 2 SCR
Cooper's Hawk 1/ 2 1/ 6 2/22 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Northern Goshawk
Red-shouldered Hawk 1/ 2 1/16 1/ 3 1/ 1 DJC
Broad-winged Hawk
Swainson's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Ferruginous Hawk 1/ 2 1/19 1/ 2 SCR
Rough-legged Hawk 1/ 3 1/ 3 SCR
Golden Eagle 1/ 6 1/ 7 1/17 1/ 1 DJC
American Kestrel 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Merlin 1/ 9 2/ 9 1/ 3 1/ 2 fide CKS
Peregrine Falcon 1/ 6 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 DJC
Prairie Falcon 3/ 4 1/25 NLe
Ring-necked Pheasant 1/ 6 1/13 2/22 1/ 6 SCR
Wild Turkey 3/16 4/11 4/ 5 1/ 1 JMa
California Quail 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/18 1/ 1 SCR,DJC
Mountain Quail 5/13 MLF
Yellow Rail
Black Rail 1/12 1/12 2/ 8 1/ 9 VTi,RWR,FVs
Clapper Rail 1/12 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Virginia Rail 1/ 2 1/12 1/31 1/ 2 SCR
Sora 1/ 2 1/16 2/ 8 1/ 2 SCR
Common Moorhen 1/ 6 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
American Coot 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Sandhill Crane
Black-bellied Plover 1/ 6 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 DJC
Pacific Golden-Plover
American Golden-Plover
Snowy Plover 5/13 4/19 TRy,SSa
Semipalmated Plover 1/ 6 4/24 1/ 2 1/ 2 MJM
Killdeer 1/ 1 1/ 7 1/18 1/ 1 m.ob.
Mountain Plover
Black Oystercatcher
Black-necked Stilt 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
American Avocet 1/ 6 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Greater Yellowlegs 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 DJC
Lesser Yellowlegs 1/ 6 4/24 1/ 6 SCR
Solitary Sandpiper 4/19 PJM
Willet 1/ 6 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Wandering Tattler
Spotted Sandpiper 4/27 2/ 8 2/16 1/ 1 AVe,CH
Whimbrel 1/ 6 1/ 6 2/ 8 1/ 4 CKS,JML
Long-billed Curlew 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Hudsonian Godwit
Bar-tailed Godwit
Marbled Godwit 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Ruddy Turnstone 4/28 RWR
Black Turnstone
Red Knot 1/ 6 1/ 6 SCR
Sanderling 5/ 6 1/ 6 1/ 6 MMR
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper 1/ 6 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Least Sandpiper 1/ 2 1/ 6 2/14 1/ 1 AVe,CH
White-rumped Sandpiper
Baird's Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
Dunlin 1/ 6 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH
Curlew Sandpiper
Stilt Sandpiper
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
Ruff
Short-billed Dowitcher 1/ 6 1/ 6 4/26 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Long-billed Dowitcher 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 2 SCR,MJM,AVe
Common Snipe 1/ 5 3/ 8 1/ 1 DJC
Wilson's Phalarope
Red-necked Phalarope 4/17 4/17 MJM,AVE,FVs
Red Phalarope 2/11 2/ 8 2/ 8 SBT
Pomarine Jaeger
Parasitic Jaeger
Long-tailed Jaeger
Laughing Gull
Franklin's Gull 5/13 RWR,FVs
Little Gull 4/28 4/29 4/28 4/28 SCR
Black-headed Gull
Bonaparte's Gull 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 DJC
Heermann's Gull
Mew Gull 1/ 2 1/19 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,TGr
Ring-billed Gull 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
California Gull 1/ 1 1/ 4 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Herring Gull 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Thayer's Gull 1/ 2 1/16 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH
??Iceland Gull 1/16 1/16 SBT,SCR,AJa,MH
Lesser Black-backed Gull 1/18 3/ 4 1/ 2 1/ 2 MJM
Western Gull 1/ 6 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Glaucous-winged Gull 1/ 6 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,TGr
Glaucous Gull 1/ 6 2/24 1/ 6 SCR
Black-legged Kittiwake
Sabine's Gull
Caspian Tern 4/17 4/11 4/11 4/ 2 RWR
Elegant Tern
Common Tern 5/15 SBT
Arctic Tern
Forster's Tern 1/ 6 2/ 8 1/ 2 1/ 2 MJM
Least Tern
Black Tern 5/ 7 4/29 4/28 TGr,JSt,RWR
Black Skimmer 1/ 6 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Common Murre
Ancient Murrelet
Cassin's Auklet
Rock Dove 1/ 1 1/ 4 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Band-tailed Pigeon 1/ 1 3/27 3/15 1/ 1 SCR
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove 1/ 1 1/ 4 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Greater Roadrunner 4/19 SMi
Barn Owl 4/19 1/ 9 4/26 1/ 9 MMR,RJe
Flammulated Owl
Western Screech-Owl 4/26 1/ 1 JMa
Great Horned Owl 1/14 4/25 3/22 1/ 1 DJC
Northern Pygmy-Owl 1/ 1 4/12 1/ 1 SCR,JMa
Burrowing Owl 1/ 5 1/20 1/ 2 1/ 1 DJC
Long-eared Owl
Short-eared Owl 3/ 7 RiC
Northern Saw-whet Owl 4/26 1/ 1 JMa
Lesser Nighthawk
Common Nighthawk
Common Poorwill 4/26 4/26 MJM,GKH,DSt
Black Swift
Chimney Swift
Vaux's Swift 4/13 4/25 4/25 4/12 DPo,SMi
White-throated Swift 1/18 1/21 2/22 1/ 8 RWR,FVs
Black-chinned Hummingbird 5/ 6 5/ 8 4/18 4/16 CCRS
Anna's Hummingbird 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Costa's Hummingbird
Calliope Hummingbird 4/19 4/19 SCR,HLR,RPR
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
Rufous Hummingbird 3/16 4/ 8 4/ 5 3/16 SCR
Allen's Hummingbird 3/ 4 4/11 3/15 1/25 AME
Belted Kingfisher 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/17 1/ 1 DJC
Lewis' Woodpecker 1/ 6 NLe,RWR,FVs
Acorn Woodpecker 1/ 1 1/ 6 2/28 1/ 1 SCR,JMa,DJC
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1/ 2 1/ 1 CKS,JML
Red-naped Sapsucker 1/ 6 1/ 6 MMR
Red-breasted Sapsucker 1/ 2 1/ 7 1/17 1/ 1 m.ob.
Williamson's Sapsucker
Nuttall's Woodpecker 1/ 2 1/ 7 1/ 3 1/ 2 m.ob.
Downy Woodpecker 1/ 1 3/ 4 1/ 3 1/ 1 SCR,CKS,JML
Hairy Woodpecker 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/ 3 1/ 1 SCR,JMa,DJC
Northern Flicker 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Pileated Woodpecker 4/12 4/12 MJM
Olive-sided Flycatcher 4/26 5/ 6 4/25 4/16 JCo
Western Wood-Pewee 4/26 4/25 4/25 4/19 JDa
Willow Flycatcher 5/28 5/28 SCR
Least Flycatcher
Hammond's Flycatcher 4/30 4/11 4/11 4/11 MMR,MJM
Dusky Flycatcher
Gray Flycatcher
Pacific-slope Flycatcher 3/28 3/27 3/18 1/ 4 CCRS
Black Phoebe 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Eastern Phoebe 1/ 2 3/ 4 3/ 1 1/ 2 SCR
Say's Phoebe 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/18 1/ 2 SCR
Ash-throated Flycatcher 4/14 4/25 4/26 4/ 8 RWR
Tropical Kingbird
Cassin's Kingbird 5/ 4 4/11 4/11 3/ 1 DRo,RCa
kingbird sp. 2/ 8 AGu
Western Kingbird 3/16 4/ 8 4/11 3/16 SCR
Eastern Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Horned Lark 3/16 4/26 3/15 1/25 AME
Purple Martin 5/14 RCi
Tree Swallow 1/18 1/19 3/ 1 1/17 LCh
Violet-green Swallow 2/ 5 1/19 2/22 1/18 JDa
Nor. Rough-winged Swallow 2/ 8 2/25 2/28 2/ 8 SCR
Bank Swallow 5/26 NLe
Cliff Swallow 3/ 2 3/ 1 3/ 8 2/26 TRy
Barn Swallow 1/ 2 1/19 3/ 1 1/ 2 SCR
Steller's Jay 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/17 1/ 1 m.ob.
Western Scrub-Jay 1/ 1 1/ 4 1/ 3 1/ 1 m.ob.
Clark's Nutcracker
Black-billed Magpie
Yellow-billed Magpie 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 3 1/ 1 m.ob.
American Crow 1/ 1 1/ 4 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Common Raven 1/ 1 1/ 5 2/13 1/ 1 m.ob.
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 1/ 1 1/16 1/ 3 1/ 1 m.ob.
Oak Titmouse 1/ 3 1/ 6 1/ 3 1/ 1 CKS,JML,DJC
Bushtit 1/ 1 1/ 4 1/ 3 1/ 1 m.ob.
Red-breasted Nuthatch 4/12 1/ 1 JMa
White-breasted Nuthatch 1/ 3 1/ 6 1/13 1/ 1 DJC
Pygmy Nuthatch 1/ 1 4/12 1/ 1 SCR,JMa
Brown Creeper 1/ 1 4/25 1/17 1/ 1 m.ob.
Rock Wren 3/ 16 1/19 1/13 1/13 MJM
Canyon Wren 1/ 1 JSa,HGe
Bewick's Wren 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/ 3 1/ 1 m.ob.
House Wren 3/29 4/ 8 4/ 5 3/21 LAY
Winter Wren 1/ 1 4/ 4 1/ 1 SCR
Marsh Wren 1/12 1/12 1/ 2 1/ 2 MJM
American Dipper 4/11 3/29 TGr
Golden-crowned Kinglet 1/ 2 1/ 2 SCR
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/ 3 1/ 1 m.ob.
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 4/26 3/27 3/29 1/ 5 CJC
Western Bluebird 1/ 2 1/ 6 2/16 1/ 1 DJC
Mountain Bluebird 1/17 JLu
Townsend's Solitaire 5/ 6 5/ 3 MHa,DHa
Swainson's Thrush 4/30 5/ 6 5/ 9 4/19 JDa
Hermit Thrush 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/13 1/ 1 SCR,JMa
American Robin 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/13 1/ 1 m.ob.
Varied Thrush 1/ 1 1/ 1 SCR
Wrentit 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/17 1/ 1 SCR,JMa,DJC
Northern Mockingbird 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Sage Thrasher 4/ 7 BWe
Brown Thrasher
California Thrasher 1/ 1 1/ 6 2/28 1/ 1 SCR
Red-throated Pipit
American Pipit 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 DJC
Bohemian Waxwing
Cedar Waxwing 1/ 2 1/14 3/28 1/ 1 JMa
Phainopepla 4/18 1/ 6 NLe,RWR,FVs
Northern Shrike
Loggerhead Shrike 1/ 1 1/19 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
European Starling 1/ 1 1/ 4 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Bell's Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo
Cassin's Vireo 4/26 4/11 4/12 4/ 5 LAY
Plumbeous Vireo
Hutton's Vireo 1/ 1 1/19 1/ 3 1/ 1 SCR,JMa
Warbling Vireo 3/28 3/27 3/29 3/18 AME
Red-eyed Vireo
Tennessee Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler 1/ 4 1/24 3/ 1 1/ 4 SCR,CCRS
Nashville Warbler 4/14 4/25 4/12 JMM
Virginia's Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler 1/ 4 4/11 4/25 1/ 4 SCR
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Black-throated Gray Warbler 4/30 4/25 4/ 5 1/ 9 SBT
Townsend's Warbler 1/ 1 3/27 3/15 1/ 1 SCR,JMa,DJC
Hermit Warbler 4/26 4/ 4 2/ 1 AVe,CH
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Prairie Warbler 1/ 4 1/17 1/ 4 SCR
Palm Warbler 1/ 4 1/13 1/ 4 SCR,HLR
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-White Warbler
American Redstart
Prothonotary Warbler
Worm-eating Warbler
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Kentucky Warbler
Connecticut Warbler
MacGillivray's Warbler 4/26 4/25 4/19 NLe
Common Yellowthroat 1/ 4 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 2 MJM
Hooded Warbler
Wilson's Warbler 3/28 3/27 3/22 3/22 MJM
Yellow-breasted Chat 5/ 6 5/ 3 CCRS
Summer Tanager
Scarlet Tanager
Western Tanager 4/24 4/26 4/25 1/23 RWR
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 5/25 KCo,MWr
Black-headed Grosbeak 4/ 8 4/11 4/11 4/ 5 VTi
Blue Grosbeak 5/ 6 5/11 4/19 4/19 MJM
Lazuli Bunting 4/19 4/26 5/ 3 4/19 SCR
Indigo Bunting
Passerina sp. 4/10 4/10 SCR
Dickcissel
Green-tailed Towhee
Spotted Towhee 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/ 3 1/ 1 SCR,JMa,DJC
California Towhee 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/13 1/ 1 m.ob.
Rufous-crowned Sparrow 1/ 2 4/ 8 4/11 1/ 2 SCR
American Tree Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow 4/27 4/26 3/31 GFi,MPl
Clay-colored Sparrow
Brewer's Sparrow
Black-chinned Sparrow 5/23 JGa
Vesper Sparrow
Lark Sparrow 4/ 8 1/19 1/ 4 1/ 4 MJM
Black-throated Sparrow
Sage Sparrow 4/12 AME,DPo
Lark Bunting
Savannah Sparrow 1/ 2 1/12 1/ 4 1/ 1 DJC
Grasshopper Sparrow 4/10 4/10 SCR
Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow 1/ 9 fide AME
Fox Sparrow 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Song Sparrow 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Lincoln's Sparrow 1/ 2 1/13 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH
Swamp Sparrow 1/ 2 1/ 2 SCR
White-throated Sparrow 3/29 1/15 AJb
Golden-crowned Sparrow 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
White-crowned Sparrow 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Harris' Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/ 3 1/ 1 m.ob.
Lapland Longspur
Chestnut-collared Longspur
Bobolink
Red-winged Blackbird 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Tricolored Blackbird 1/ 2 1/14 4/11 1/ 2 SCR
Western Meadowlark 1/ 2 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 DJC
Yellow-headed Blackbird 5/ 4 4/ 4 NLe
Brewer's Blackbird 1/ 1 1/ 4 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Great-tailed Grackle 5/25 5/28 5/30 5/25 SCR
Brown-headed Cowbird 1/ 2 1/16 1/18 1/ 1 AVe,CH,DJC
Hooded Oriole 3/29 4/24 4/26 3/21 AWa
Baltimore Oriole
Bullock's Oriole 3/28 4/ 8 3/22 3/19 GHa
Scott's Oriole
Purple Finch 1/ 1 3/27 2/28 1/ 1 SCR
Cassin's Finch
House Finch 1/ 1 1/ 6 1/ 2 1/ 1 m.ob.
Red Crossbill
Pine Siskin 1/18 1/ 9 TGr
Lesser Goldfinch 1/ 1 1/13 1/ 4 1/ 1 m.ob.
Lawrence's Goldfinch 5/ 5 4/26 4/26 1/ 6 NLe,RWR,FVs
American Goldfinch 1/ 1 1/ 7 1/20 1/ 1 m.ob.
Evening Grosbeak
House Sparrow 1/ 2 1/ 6 2/22 1/ 1 CKS,JML,DJC
Observer codes: m.ob.-many observers, AGu-Arnel Guanlao, AJa-Al
Jaramillo, AJb-Alberta Jasberg, AME-Al Eisner, AVe-Ann Verdi, AWa-Alan
Walther, BWe-Bruce Webb, CCRS-Coyote Creek Riparian Station,
CH-Caralisa Hughes, CJC-Chuck Coston, CKS-Chris Salander, CWh-Clark
White, DHa-David Haveman, DJC-Don & Jill Crawford, DPo-David Powell,
DRo-Don Roberson, DSt-Dick Stovel, FVs-Frank Vanslager, GFi-George
Finger, GHa-Garth Harwood, GKH-Grant Hoyt, GLB-Gloria LeBlanc,
HGe-Harriet Gerson, HLR-Heather Rottenborn, JCo-Jack Cole, JDa-Jim
Danzenbaker, JGa-Jim Gain, JLa-Jolene Lange, JLu-John Luther, JMa-John
Mariani, JMe-John Meyer, JML-Jeanne Leavitt, JMM-John & Maria Meyer,
JSa-June Santoro, JSt-John Sterling, KCo-Kitty Collins, KLP-Kathy
Parker, LAY-Amy Lauterbach & James Yurchenco, MH-Matt Heindel,
MHa-Merry Haveman, MJM-Mike Mammoser, MLF-Mike Feighner, MMR-Mike
Rogers, MPL-Marjorie Plant, MWr-Marti Wright, NLe-Nick Lethaby,
RCa-Rita Caratello, RCi-Rich Cimino, RCo-Rita Colwell, RiC-Richard
Carlson, RJe-Richard Jeffers, RLe-Rosalie Lefkowitz, RPR-Rebecca Paige
Rottenborn, RWR-Bob Reiling, SBT-Scott Terrill, SCR-Steve Rottenborn,
SGu-Stephan Gunn, SMi-Steve Miller,SSA-Susan Sandstrom, TGr-Tom Grey,
TRy-Tom Ryan, VTi-Vivek Tiwari, WGB-Bill Bousman
SANTA CLARA COUNTY YEAR LIST HISTORY
1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 HIGH
COMP 278 295 303 293 296 305 305
SCR 279 291 262 251 268 291
MJM 234 250 265 242 253 276 276
MMR 214 234 254 271 257 258 275 275
MLF 136 183 199 209 215 235 194 165 218 265 265
WGB 216 228 245 170 245
AME 240 220 219 231 240
KLP 232 232
RWR 204 201 203 228 228
TGr 189 211 211
CKS 185 195 186 195
GLB 190 190
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From email@hidden Tue Jun 02 08:19:38 1998
It's been a pleasant surprise to have a YELLOW WARBLER in the bottle brush
et al in my backyard for the past 3 days. Another lifer for my backyard
list.
Gloria LeBlanc
Los Gatos near Quito
http://www.lgsia.com and http://www.wallstreetgifts.com
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From email@hidden Tue Jun 02 09:30:08 1998
Folks:
On my bike commute this morning, 6/2/98, I counted about 30 AMERICAN
WHITE PELICANS on the North Pond of the Palo Alto Flood Control Basin. So I
guess the first of our "wintering" birds are back and it's not even summer yet.
A GREEN HERON (unaged) was flying SE over the Mountain View Forebay and I
counted seven BLACK SKIMMERS roosting together on the small island on Salt
Pond A1. I saw one MARBLED GODWIT in the forebay--this is one of our few
shorebirds that regularly oversummers.
Bill
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From email@hidden Tue Jun 02 10:47:29 1998
Hello All
I thought I would report some birds seen yesterday (June 1st) while
fishing at Loch Lomond Lake in the Santa Cruz Mt's near Felton. I
know this is out of the ususal area for reporting to this list, but
what the heck!
Fish loving birds abounded at Loch Lomond. A pair of BELTED
KINGFISHERS were present all morning, as well as a pair of OSPREY'S,
which we saw get several good size fish. The OSPREY'S were quite
vocal as well. There were also, DOUBLE-CRESTED COMORANTS, and a few
CASPIAN TERNS. We observed one CASPIAN TERN dive for a fish, and
succeed in getting a fairly large fish. In fact, the prey was so big,
the TERN could not get airborn from the water, so it had to leave the
fish behind!! There were also a pair of GREEN-BACKED HERONS at the
lake.
Lastly, there was a COMMON LOON in full Alternate plumage
(beautiful). I first found the Loon because I heard it calling,
quite loud! It almost made me think of possible nesting (??), but
I've never heard of Loons nesting locally.
Alan W.
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From email@hidden Tue Jun 02 14:14:44 1998
All,
Today Frank Vanslager and I saw an ad male Blue Grosbeak just down the hill
from (west of) the windsock seen above the Sycamores above Sandy Wool Lake in
Ed Levin County Park. The bird was about 50 ft. from the top of the hill and
after a few minutes flew north until out of sight (the next ridge). We also
had several Rufous-crowned Sparrows (some carrying food), a pair of Bullock's
Orioles (nest in the top of the first tree east of the trail), a male Black-
headed Grosbeak, an Ash-throated Flycatcher, a couple of House Wrens, at least
three Bewicks Wrens, several Lesser Goldfinches, a very loud Northern
Mockingbird, a pair of Western Kingbirds and a pair of American Kestrels down
by the lake {one AMKE making one of the kingbirds very upset).
Take care,
Bob Reiling, 2:00 PM, 6/2/98
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From email@hidden Tue Jun 02 14:39:42 1998
I just called Shoreline Park about what is going on at Charleston
Slough. As most of you probably know, there has been a big project there
in the last year, to open Charleston Slough up to full tidal action. I
had been expectantly waiting to see the fluctuation occurring, thinking
that they hadn't opened the new gates all the way yet. The few times I'd
been out there I kept wondering if it was high tide each time until
others told me they had the same experience. So I called and asked why
we had no mudflats appearing, and little or no apparent tidal
fluctuation.
The explanation is, that the gates are open but that outer Charleston
Slough is silted up, trapping the water in. The project apparently
planned for this and what is expected to happen is that natural
processes will scour a channel and it should slowly erode out and we
should see tidal action take effect. Project personnel say that this
scouring is already starting to occur. If it hasn't progressed far
enough by next year, the project has money to assist with some sort of
an agitation dredge. That is about all I know at this point.
Leda Beth Gray
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From email@hidden Wed Jun 03 11:44:56 1998
All,
Yesterday morning 6/2/98 I ran my Breeding Bird Survey route. For
those of you unfamiliar with the Breeding Bird Survey, it is a
nationwide (routes in Canada too actually) effort to monitor the
populations of breeding birds. This is done via annual surveys taken
along prescribed 24.5 mile routes, with 3-minute stops at 50
predetermined points roughly a half-mile apart. My route runs roughly
along Metcalf Road, south to Bailey Ave, up to Calero Reservoir, over
to Almaden Reservoir, and finishes at Guadalupe Reservoir.
Yesterday's survey tallied 78 species (not counting a heard-only
pheasant in New Almaden that probably was kept along with the many
chickens and peafowl). This is better than last year's 73 species,
but still well below the totals of 83, 84, and 83 I had in 1994, 1995,
and 1996. This may be at least partly due to the increasing level of
development in the area - there is now lots of traffic in the middle
half of the route. Species found yesterday that have not been noted
in the past 4 years include GREEN HERON (1 at Parkway Lakes), WILD
TURKEY (single birds at stops 1 and 4), California Gull (1 with 9
CASPIAN TERNS at the Calero boat launch), and CEDAR WAXWING (a flock
of 34 heading south over Coyote Creek at Metcalf Road and another
flock (including some of the same birds?) of about 45 birds heading
south a half-mile south of Metcalf Road along Monterey Highway).
After last year's low counts of 4 BULLOCK'S and no HOODED ORIOLES,
oriole numbers rebounded to 17 BULLOCK'S and 3 HOODED ORIOLES (both
high counts for the five years). The pair of HOODED ORIOLES at stop
35 at "The Browns" along Almaden Road had an apparently occupied nest
in a fan palm.
Had the usual GREAT HORNED and WESTERN SCREECH-OWLS at the first stop
(5:14am) at the junction of San Felipe and Las Animas Roads, but no
Poorwills this year. Highlights along Metcalf Road included 2 singing
GRASSHOPPER SPARROWS near the United Technologies Plant (I was
wondering if these birds would show up this year given their scarcity
at other local sites) and single singing HORNED LARK, ROCK WREN, and
LAZULI BUNTING near the motorcycle park. A GREAT HORNED OWL flying up
Metcalf Canyon at 6:20am was a surprise.
No eagles nesting below Calero Reservoir this year, but did have an
AMERICAN KESTREL nest with young there.
OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHERS were silent at their normally dependable spot
in New Almaden, but two birds were singing near Almaden Reservoir. No
mergansers or Wood Ducks at Almaden Reservoir this year and not much
on Guadalupe Reservoir either.
Regarding late WAXWINGS, keep track of any lingering birds for
Saturday's Summer Bird Count. Anything seen from today through
Tuesday 6/9 counts as a "count week" bird even if not seen on count
day Saturday 6/6/98!
Mike Rogers
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From email@hidden Thu Jun 04 09:09:24 1998
Hello All:
I just returned from Death Valley and Westgard Pass. At the top of Westgard
Pass and up the White Mtns. at an elevation of 7400 - 9000 ft. is a great
spot to see the plumbeus bushtits. It was one of the most common birds
there. These birds have no discernible cap at all and are very pale, with
no brown suffusion. The color difference is very striking and would not
cause any confusion.
Steve Miller
----------
From: Tom Grey [SMTP:email@hidden]
Sent: Monday, June 01, 1998 9:37 AM
To: South Bay Birders list
Subject: Interior Bushtit? - more
Oops, I should have looked at my Pyle before posting. The bird I saw
had
characteristics of P. m. plumbeus, not californicus (the latter, the
normal Central Vally subspecies, like our normal coastal minimus, is
brown-capped). Also, if the bird reappears, I will try to get a
closer
look at the coloring of the facial/auricular feathers - are they
really
dark brown, or do they have black in them? The latter indicates a
juvenile
male, which seems more likely what this one is, given the black eye.
Grinnell and Miller show plumbeus only in extreme northeast of
state, and
between 4500 and 5600 feet (!) Pyle says it intergrades clinally
with
californicus.
I'm now really hoping for another look.
-- Tom Grey Stanford CA email@hidden
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From email@hidden Thu Jun 04 11:54:03 1998
Nothing major to report but in any case ....
I have been out of the country for the past month and missed out on all
the action in May. Went to Stevens Creek Park yesterday morning to make
amends. Spend a couple of hours at the lower parking lot.
YELLOW and WILSON's WARBLER, CASSIN's VIREO, PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHER,
WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE. ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHER. Found a WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE nest.
There was an attending adult in the nest.
This was on a bare tree right next to the unpaved road that goes up the stream
past the ranger station.
A PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHER in the picnic area by the stream was very active.
"Singing" continuously and moving from one perch to the other in the understory
of a few adjoining trees. All the perches together outlined an imaginary
polygon. This went on for over an hour and the bird was at it even when I left.
It didn't appear to make an sallies for food during this time.
Is this the display behavior of a PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHER?
Was it outlining its territory?
Vivek
PS: I am not too familar with P.S. FLYCATCHER vocalizations and was very
confused by the bird. It wasn't giving the "suwheet" call a lot. Mostly sharp
"chewup"s and other such notes with an occasional "pew-whit" or "peew-it"
mixed in. Some soft "whit"s mixed in. Listening to the Peterson's tapes, I
can't
rule out CORDILLERAN. Do these mixed vocalizations constitute the "song"?
Is it possible to reliably distinguish P.S./Cordilleran by voice in the field?
For this bird, the assumed display/territorial behavior would rule out
Cordilleran I guess.
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From email@hidden Thu Jun 04 12:25:44 1998
Hi South-bay-birders,
In answer to Vivek, from the description it sounds like a singing
Pacific-slope Flycatcher. I would describe the typical song as being
composed of three parts: a "suwee" shortly followed by a stacatto
"pre-dep" followed (usually) by a very soft high note "e". This is the
usual order of the song, although the order of notes is sometimes
varied, and occasionally they throw the "su-weep" position call into the
mix. Now about Cordilleran's song...
I recorded some songs of presumed Cordilleran Flycatchers in the Warner
Mountains last year. To my ears there was little difference between them
and my recordings of Pacific-slope songs, except that the
Cordilleran's singing was more monotonous--they rarely varied the order
of the parts of their songs, sticking more closely to the above formula.
The bahavior would be consistant with a singing bird--I've noticed they
often change postition, singing at different points outlining the same
general area.
John Mariani
email@hidden
Vivek Tiwari wrote:
>
> Nothing major to report but in any case ....
> I have been out of the country for the past month and missed out on all
> the action in May. Went to Stevens Creek Park yesterday morning to make
> amends. Spend a couple of hours at the lower parking lot.
> YELLOW and WILSON's WARBLER, CASSIN's VIREO, PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHER,
> WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE. ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHER. Found a WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE nest.
> There was an attending adult in the nest.
> This was on a bare tree right next to the unpaved road that goes up the stream
> past the ranger station.
> A PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHER in the picnic area by the stream was very active.
> "Singing" continuously and moving from one perch to the other in the understory
> of a few adjoining trees. All the perches together outlined an imaginary
> polygon. This went on for over an hour and the bird was at it even when I left.
> It didn't appear to make an sallies for food during this time.
> Is this the display behavior of a PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHER?
> Was it outlining its territory?
>
> Vivek
> PS: I am not too familar with P.S. FLYCATCHER vocalizations and was very
> confused by the bird. It wasn't giving the "suwheet" call a lot. Mostly sharp
> "chewup"s and other such notes with an occasional "pew-whit" or "peew-it"
> mixed in. Some soft "whit"s mixed in. Listening to the Peterson's tapes, I
> can't
> rule out CORDILLERAN. Do these mixed vocalizations constitute the "song"?
> Is it possible to reliably distinguish P.S./Cordilleran by voice in the field?
> For this bird, the assumed display/territorial behavior would rule out
> Cordilleran I guess.
>
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From email@hidden Thu Jun 04 15:36:33 1998
South-Bay-Birders,
Today I tried for the grackles at San Felipe Lake without success, but
I did easily see a Cassin's Kingbird along San Felippe Road in the
middle of the three eucalyptus trees at the north end of the road.
I have updated my website at http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~jmorlan with a
new photo quiz (a shorebird and an owl) and answers to last month's
controversial warbler and gull pictures.
In addition an archive of the May 1998 South-bay-birds messages has
been posted.
Enjoy!
--
Joseph Morlan California birding, Rarity photos, ID quizzes.
380 Talbot Ave. #206 http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~jmorlan/
Pacifica, CA 94044 email@hidden
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From email@hidden Thu Jun 04 16:16:06 1998
On Thu, 04 Jun 1998 12:25:44 -0700, "John S. Mariani"
wrote:
>I would describe the typical song as being
>composed of three parts: a "suwee" shortly followed by a stacatto
>"pre-dep" followed (usually) by a very soft high note "e".
There is a supposed difference in the "pre-dep" phrase between these
species. It is low-high in Pacific Slope and high-low in Cordilleran.
Good luck in detecting this difference!
--
Joseph Morlan California birding, Rarity photos, ID quizzes.
380 Talbot Ave. #206 http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~jmorlan/
Pacifica, CA 94044 email@hidden
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From email@hidden Thu Jun 04 16:48:46 1998
At the end of May I took a short trip to Washington State
and British Columbia. It was primarily a non-birding trip,
but I will mention what I saw for the benefit of any
birders who are thinking about going to that area.
First of all, all the articles and guides about this
area dwell on all the water birds and occasional Arctic
rarities that come into the area in the winter. However,
if you don't want to go to this area from November to March,
you will not see most of the birds they refer to. Combine
this with the fact that most of the birds in this area in
the warm months are the same species that we see in our
area, and you have to lower your expectations!
The first life bird I saw in this area was the
NORTHWESTERN CROW, which we saw in small groups, scavanging
along the beaches of Puget Sound. I noticed immediately
that it was smaller. Most of the crows close to shore
are NW, as are all the crows on Vancouver Island.
The most common gull throughout the area was the
GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL. Most other species were hard to
find. GWGU are not unknown here, but this was a good
opportunity for a full frame photo.
A visit to parks and lakes in the Seattle area produced
the same species we have locally.
Out on the Olympic Penisula, facing Puget Sound
(Hood Canal, acutally), the most common waterbirds
were COMMON LOON and PIGEON GUILLEMOT. We also saw
these on our ferry trips. At one point on the NE
corner of the penisula we were overflown by an
immature BALD EAGLE. On the trip north to BC I
saw a FERRUGINOUS HAWK having lunch on a fence post.
The book _Birds of the Vancouver Area_ was not much use,
since we did not go to Vancouver, just Victoria. The
one area we went to that was covered in that book was
the Tsawwassen ferry pier. As the book predicted, birds
were quite scarce, but it was GREAT BLUE HERON time,
with about 30 of these birds on the mud flats next to
the pier. The other book available from the ABA,
_Birds of the Straits of George_ was of no use, since
it only talked about special islands, so it was only of use
to someone equipped with a private boat. In Victoria,
however, we bought _Birds of Victoria_. It wasn't
very good, but was some help.
On the 90 minute ferry trip from Tsawwassen to Victoria,
we kept scanning the grey water and sky with our binoculars.
We did not come up with any new or interesting birds, but
we did see one Minke whale.
You can take a 2 hour ferry from Anacortes WA to Victoria BC,
but there is only one a day, it leaves at 8 am, and there
are various restrictions. There is also one ferry from
Seattle to Victoria that leaves at noon and takes 4.5 hours.
The BC ferries leave Tsawwassen almost every hour and are
quite posh. They pass through the Gulf Islands.
In Victoria we had a small park in front of our hotel,
where we found a pair of nesting YELLOW WARBLERS, and saw
a crow in hot pursuit of a small hawk. Otherise, birding
for all but our last day there was very poor, thanks to
constant rain. We did drive out to Oak Bay, on the east
side of town, and found our second life bird, two
HARLEQUIN DUCKs (both males), swimming and diving just
off of the beach of a small park. As this time of year,
according to the book, all the HADU have moved inland and
started to nest, but then the males start to come
back out to the coast alone and shed their breeding
plummage. There were also a CALIFORNIA GULL.
On our last day (a half day), the sun came out and
bird activity went way up. We went out to a coastal
park SW of Victoria called Witty's Lagoon. Inland there
was soaring RTHA, hammering DOWO, singing WAVI, zipping
RUHU, and demonstrating RWBL. Offshore were Kingfishers
and Oystercatchers and more GBHE, and lots of seals.
Waiting for the ferry to leave the island, I watched
an enormous PILEATED WOOPECKER call and fly around after
being disturbed by a hawk. On the trip back to the
mainland, two full adult BALD EAGLEs circled over the
boat. I had only had one BAEA siting before this
trip, at long distance, so this was almost like a
life bird.
Marbled Murrelets, Rhinocersos Auklets, and Tufted
Puffins are supposed to be reasonably common in the
warm months, and a trip focused specifically on
birdwatching will probably turn them up.
Chris Salander
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From email@hidden Fri Jun 05 13:52:07 1998
Hi Everyone--
The BURROWING OWL pair on the berm near the entrance to Lockheed Martin
building 107 (nearest cross streets are 11th Avenue and H Street) in
Sunnyvale have produced 3 young, which now stand outside their burrow with
their parents. If there are any censusers in the area, you can see them
easily from your vehicle. From 101, get off at Ellis Street in Mountain
View, drive toward Moffett Field, then turn right on the frontage road
(Manila Drive), follow Manila to its end at H Street (there's a traffic
light), turn left, follow H Street to the next traffic light (11th Avenue),
turn right, then turn right again into the parking lot for building 107. The
owls are on your immediate left as you enter the parking lot.
Mark Miller
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From email@hidden Fri Jun 05 15:23:12 1998
To All Concerned,
Saw a flock of 16 Cedar Waxwings flying over my home in Belmont on June 4,1998
Somewhat a late sighting, but not unprecedented.
Paul Noble---Scchowl
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From email@hidden Fri Jun 05 16:55:01 1998
All,
Early this morning (June 4 1998) a bluebird trail monitor, Tina Peterson,
and I observed 4 immature White-tailed Kites, bearing the distinctive
brownish markings of young birds, at Arastradero Preserve among several
large oaks just North of Arastradero Lake. Later we passed the same spot
and an adult kite was in attendance.
We also observed numerous ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHERS including some with
downy young in SCVAS nestboxes. VIOLET-GREEN and TREE SWALLOWS also have
young in our boxes at this point but most everything else has fledged.
However, we observed a pair of WESTERN BLUEBIRDS inspecting nestboxes as if
intending to nest again. Tempting to think this might be a pair that lost
its young in last week's foul-weather episode, attempting to compensate
(it's pretty late for WEBU to be setting up housekeeping around here.)
BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHERS were vocal at several points including along the
trail just above Arastradero Lake. We had the unnerving luck to witness one
fledgling of that species be taken by a WESTERN SCRUB-JAY after the jay
fended off determined attacks by the male parent. Oddly, two other species
joined in the fray briefly at the point of capture: a CALIFORNIA TOWHEE and
a SPOTTED TOWHEE each made an ineffective run at the miscreant jay.
--Garth Harwood
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From email@hidden Sat Jun 06 14:11:44 1998
Birders,
Today while walking my dog at Princeton Harbour, San Mateo County,
California I heard a sound entirely unfamiliar to me. First it was faint
then it became louder as the bird came in closer. I described it as a loud
whistle with a squeaky quality. Two syllables were given each time and the
calls were separated by intervals of 2 seconds or longer. The two syllable
call lasted approximately one second in legth. I described it as too-leeek
(perhaps trrr-leeek), with a variant which was lower pitched (too-loook).
The closest thing I would describe it as sounding like was an American
Golden-Plover. Once I found the bird overhead (perhaps 60m away or slightly
more) I was entirely surprised to see that the culprit was a tattler. It
was very overcast this morning, with light rain at times, so all I could
see was the bird's sillouette. I did notice that one primary on the left
wing (I think) was broken off, but no barring or plumage characters. It was
stocky, the bill just longer than the head length, nicely squared tail etc.
No obvious white patches anywhere. The bird circled about one and a half
times, perhaps looking for a place to land before continuing to the west
and behind a large hill. I may have listened and watched it flying for
nearly one minute, that was all.
I see plenty of Wandering Tattlers here but actually seldom hear them.
What I have heard sounded nothing like the bird today. I am thinking that
the bird that flew over today was a Grey-tailed Tattler. I would like to
know if calls are really diagnostic for these species and if what I heard
sounds pretty good for Grey-tailed or if it may be some rare call of
Wandering. Remember that the calls given by the bird were unsolicited calls
of a bird flying over, not alarm calls of a bird flushed from a beach.
I have never heard a Grey-tailed Tattler and do not have any recordings of
their calls to compare with. Does anyone have any recordings they could
send me as zipped .wav files????
Cheers.
Al.
Alvaro Jaramillo "It was almost a pity, to see the sun
Half Moon Bay, shining constantly over so useless a country"
California Darwin, regarding the Atacama desert.
email@hidden
Helm guide to the New World Blackbirds, Birding in Chile and more, at:
http://www.sirius.com/~alvaro
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From email@hidden Sat Jun 06 14:15:59 1998
Birders,
Just sent a message regarding a possible Grey-tailed Tattler I saw flying
over at Princeton Harbour this morning. I have just come back from a search
around Princeton Harbour and the beach beyond the peninsula, but located no
tattlers of any type. A flock of 6 oversummering Black-bellied PLovers were
around, that was about it. Hopefully this bird will be found farther north,
Pt. Reyes may be a good place to look.
As well, just after seeing this tattler I saw a nice Black Skimmer flying
low over Princeton Harbour. This is only my second observation of this
species in the county. Finally, there are still many thousands of Sooty
Shearwaters out on Half Moon Bay, I have yet to sit down and give them a
good scoping. Perhaps a Black-vent or Manx could be out there, who knows.
There are also about 2 dozen Black Brant summering at Princeton Harbour
this year.
All for now
Al.
Alvaro Jaramillo "It was almost a pity, to see the sun
Half Moon Bay, shining constantly over so useless a country"
California Darwin, regarding the Atacama desert.
email@hidden
Helm guide to the New World Blackbirds, Birding in Chile and more, at:
http://www.sirius.com/~alvaro
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From email@hidden Sat Jun 06 14:57:54 1998
Yesterday (6/5) at about 6:30 near the end of a bicycle ride around
the "loop", I saw two huge birds hanging in the wind over the usual
hill on Sand Hill Road. I stopped and took out my binocs to watch the
pair of Golden Eagles for quite awhile. They circled a few times,
each making a brief foray to the ground. If they got anything, it was
too small to keep them busy or carry off. After awhile, they crossed
the road, one of them right over me, and drifted on over SLAC. When
last seen, an unidentified bird was mobbing one.
This morning, in Sharon Hills Park (the Valparaiso Hill in MP), I
rounded a corner and encountered a Great Blue Heron hard at work
breaking up a rat in preparation for a hearty breakfast. (I think the
idea must be to smash the skeleton to make it easier to swallow.) It
didn't interrupt its meal, even tho I was so close that I couldn't
see the whole bird at once with my binocs. After swallowing the rat,
it walked slowly away through the trees.
================================
George Oetzel Menlo Park, CA
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From email@hidden Sat Jun 06 15:31:13 1998
Hi South Bay birders,
Today (6/6), I did the area between Shoreline Lake and San Francisquito
Creek for the Summer Bird Count. Starting at Shoreline, I had the
immature male BLACK SCOTER and the leucistic HORNED GREBE. The adjacent
salt ponds had five BLACK SKIMMERS and an alternate-plumaged EARED
GREBE. A little after 9:00 am, I heard an interesting loose-trill song
in some shrubs near the Rengstorff House on the east (maybe southeast)
side of the lake. I went to investigate and found a very nice male PALM
WARBLER feeding low in the shrubs and weeds and singing regularly. The
bird was across the slough from the Rengstorff House, in the area of the
concrete bridge with rusted footbridges on both the up and down-stream
sides of it.
A little later at Charleston Slough, an adult FRANKLIN'S GULL flew by,
providing excellent views. It eventually started soaring and, after
becoming a mere speck in the sky, began to meander northward. I also had
a male RED-NECKED PHALAROPE in that area. The GREATER WHITE-FRONTED
GOOSE and very bedraggled male WOOD DUCK were still at the Duck Pond.
Bert McKee
Pescadero, CA
email@hidden
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From email@hidden Sun Jun 07 10:38:57 1998
Phyllis Browning and I were at Shoreline, Mountain View around nine this
morning (6/7) looking for the Palm Warbler, which Bert McKee found during
yesterday's Palo Alto SBC. We were disappointed at not seeing it near the
Rengstorff House, but entertained by three Green Herons in a single tree.
However, we moved on to the Black Skimmer vista point by Salt Pond #1, and
there we found the bird singing vigorously. It was hard to see clearly
since it remained deep within the Coyote Bush, but numerous quick glimpses
were enough for an ID as a western form with a whitish lower breast and
belly. The rusty cap is much brighter than the one shown in the National
Geographic. It sang one song for some minutes and then shifted to a slower
version.
Rosalie Lefkowitz
ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
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From email@hidden Sun Jun 07 19:09:10 1998
To All Concerned
Saw another flock of Cedar Waxwings today (6/7). This one numbered 55
individuals. Seen over Belmont.
Paul L. Noble---Scchowl
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From email@hidden Sun Jun 07 19:59:11 1998
HiBirders -
Today, Kent Van Vuren and I decided to look for the LAUGHING GULL at the
Pescaderso Creek mouth, and then after, check to see if we could find the
PILEATED WOODPECKER seen on several occasions by birders within the last
month.
We started at the LAUGING GULL, but had no luck. Ron Thorn, Al Eisner
and Gary Dagi (sp?) were all there as well. In addition to the sightings
of these three San Mateo birders, we saw thousands of SOOTY SHEARWATERS
streaming by off shore and in large rafts. When we had our fill of these
birds (and birders - HAHA), we decided to head up to Skyline Road and
look for that PILEATED WOODPECKER. On the way, we decided to stop at the
store in Pescadero, where I promptly locked the keys in the car (while it
was running!). Luckily, the sherriff was right there and called AAA for
us (who lives right behind Duarte's Tavern) and we were on our way in a
few minutes.
Finally, we got up to the trailhead where you look for PILEATED
WOODPECKER. On our way down (10:00 AM), Kent and I heard a different
warbler song. I immediately thought of OVENBIRD and Kent make sure we
didn't jump to conclusions, so we went in search of it. Kent was the
first to locate it as it was still belching out its song. OVENBIRD! The
bird was seen to the left of the trail (as you head downhill) just before
the right turnoff for the private residence. We set up a pile of rocks
on the edge of the road to mark the spot. We then headed down to the
PILEATED WOODPECKER spot and we immediately saw the female fly from the
nest tree. We didn't hang out too long, and headed back up. We were
hoping to see/hear the OVENBIRD again, but didn't hear it as we passed
the spot at around 11:00 AM. We had no other species of note.
When I tried to call the birdbox, I had difficulties recording my
message. The tape would constantly interrupt my recording. Thus, my
message was as brief as possible, and I forgot to mention the pile of
rocks.
Steve Rovell
email@hidden
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From email@hidden Mon Jun 08 09:01:13 1998
Hi,
Saturday June 7 I was touring Alviso, taking photos to document wetland
habitat. Much of Alviso is slated for development. The EIR for the
Alviso Master Plan should be out. Anyway, at the intersection of Grand,
Speckles, and Los Estranos I found a Loggerhead Shrike sitting on the
chain linked fence. The Arzino Ranch area seems loaded with Western
Meadowlarks, their yellow breasts were absolutely brilliant.
In case you are interested in Wetlands (Arzino Ranch), read on. The
culvert is open connecting Arzino Ranch and New Chicago Marsh. Until
this year there has always been cement bags blocking the culvert
preventing tidal action. I think the heavy rains and the flooding dug
out the channel. I have no idea what happened to the cement bags. But
the area is restored to tidal action. I have no doubt that the someone
will fill the channel and place cement bags to prevent this tidal
action.
Thanks for indulging my passion for wetlands. If you happen to see any
attempt to block the tidal action at Arzino Ranch please E-mail me at
email@hidden.
Ginny Becchine
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From email@hidden Mon Jun 08 14:45:10 1998
email@hidden wrote:
> In case you are interested in Wetlands (Arzino Ranch), read on. The
> culvert is open connecting Arzino Ranch and New Chicago Marsh. Until
> this year there has always been cement bags blocking the culvert
> preventing tidal action. I think the heavy rains and the flooding dug
> out the channel. I have no idea what happened to the cement bags. But
> the area is restored to tidal action. I have no doubt that the someone
> will fill the channel and place cement bags to prevent this tidal
> action.
Actually, the pipe connecting New Chicago and Arzino was just installed
about 6 months ago. I get the impression that it was quite intentional,
and believe it will probably stay that way.
I don't know that the action is truly tidal. I believe that New Chicago
Marsh gets water only when the high tide exceeds a certain level, and
that it can't drain below that level. At that point it only loses water
due to evaporation. At least that's my understanding.
Mike Mammoser
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From email@hidden Mon Jun 08 14:58:41 1998
Today at around 10:00AM, I saw a black-headed gull with a big red bill
in the pond opposite the trailers at CCRS. This is a kind of gull that
I am not too experienced with and I don't have access to my field guides
right now. I also haven't been following the posts lately so don't know
if a LAUGHING/FRANKLIN's has been reported from CCRS lately.
The bird was swimming near the north-east corner of the pond. It was
larger than the BONAPARTE's that are there. The bill seemed large and
bright red. Crescents on the eye.
I should have checked with the staff at CCRS but needed to hurry back for
a meeting.
I also didn't get a chance to post this until now. Sorry.
I would appreciate any comments about this bird.
Thanks,
Vivek
email@hidden
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From email@hidden Mon Jun 08 15:28:03 1998
A brief visit to the area at Stevens Creek park's lower parking lot
area on Friday 6/5 around 5:00 pm yielded some common birds for this
time of year. WESTERN-WOOD PEWEE'S were there, as well as OLIVE-SIDED
FLYCATCHERS, PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHER, WARBLING VIREO'S, BLACK-HEADED
GROSBEAK,YELLOW WARBLER, BEWICK'S WREN, CROWS, STELLER'S JAYS, and
BLACK PHOEBE.
A little further on, close to the dam, while hiking I inadvertantly
flushed a female CALIFORNIA QUAIL that I almost stepped on! Upon
investigating, I discovered a nest with 14 eggs under a clump of
native grass about 1.5 feet long. I took a few quick photo's of the
clutch and left to allow Mom to continue with her incubation duties.
Alan Walther
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From email@hidden Mon Jun 08 15:46:09 1998
Today I found a female COMMON MERGANSER on a
mud bar in a pond in the Coyote Creek Overflow
Channel north of Montague Expressway. She was
keeping close company with a male MALLARD. They
were the only two waterbirds around.
- Chris Salander
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From email@hidden Mon Jun 08 18:32:23 1998
South Bay Birders---
On Saturday June 6, Karen and I did our usual breeding bird
census for the Palo Alto Count in the area bounded by Arastradero
Rd., Alpine Rd., Junipero Serra Blvd. and Page Mill Rd. This
includes the "Dish" region between I-280 and Junipero Serra above
Stanford campus and the Piers Dairy land, including Felt Lake, west
of 280; also the Los Trancos Crk. riparian habitat along Alpine to
Rosatti's at Arastradero Rd.
We started owling at 4:40 AM and were rewarded with young BARN
OWLS making begging calls from a tree cavity on Old Page Mill Rd.
We were able to tape out 2 WESTERN SCREECH OWLS and get nice visuals
on each before dawn. The second bird responded at 5:20 AM as dawn
broke, which is about as late as I've ever had one show itself in
June/July. The first non-nightbirds detectable were VIOLET-GREEN
SWALLOWS, which were busy foraging in the pitch dark, their
"electric" sounding vocalizations giving them away. The other
species that was most audible before dawn was ASH-THROATED
FLYCATCHER---we heard six of them along Old Page Mill before we saw
a single bird of any species besides owls.
Unfortunately we heard no GREAT HORNED OWLS, and as of the
countdown on Sat. evening, no one else who reported results did
either. We then checked the riparian corridor near
Alpine/Arastradero which turned up a number of expected species but
nothing remarkable. For the first time in several years we were
unable to find YELLOW WARBLER at this usually reliable site.
Karen spotted a GREEN HERON flying along the creek near Ladera
as we headed for Piers Ranch and Felt Lake. The lake was only
moderately interesting, with another GREEN HERON and a CASPIAN TERN
being the most notable finds. We missed GOLDEN EAGLE, as did others
on the Count, but it appears that 2 adults were seen during Count
Week in the area around Sand Hill Rd. and I-280.
Our final coverage area was the Stanford Preserve on the east
side of 280, accessed from Alpine Rd. We were disappointed in the
first hour and a half as we missed several target species, but on
the hike back to the car I found a LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE, possibly the
only one of the Count, perched in a small tree where they have bred
in previous years. I also had a family group of WHITE-TAILED KITES
near Junipero Serra and Mayfield. I'm assuming this is a different
family group than the Arastradero group found by Garth Harwood et
al. and the ones at Jasper Ridge.
My best find was at the Big Dish itself, where an excited
chatter alerted me to a WESTERN KINGBIRD, which flew to a juncture
of bright blue girders on the Dish's support structure and began
feeding young birds in a nest. We had walked past this spot earlier
and missed both the kingbird and shrike, so I guess sometimes it
pays to retrace your steps.
At the Countdown dinner at McClellan Ranch Park in Cupertino,
it became obvious that we suffered from poor coverage again this
year. Bert McKee and Jack Cole did a great job of covering the
Bayside habitat from Redwood City to Mountain View, and Bill Cabot
covered Moffet Field. The rest of us were stretched pretty thin as
well, as the foothil areas require lots of legwork. It seems we may
have missed such species as GREAT HORNED OWL, CEDAR WAXWING,
CASSIN'S VIREO, GRASSHOPPER SPARROW, VIRGINIA RAIL, GREEN-WINGED
TEAL and others that are often recorded on the Count.
I know Gloria Heller had both HERMIT WARBLER and HERMIT THRUSH
in her area around Wundedrlich Park, and Bert McKee has already
reported his good finds from the Bayside. Would Jack Cole,
Dick Stovel, Richard Jeffers, Garth Harwood, Phyllis Browning and
others who participated mind posting their "good birds" on e-mail?
Did we really miss Great Horned Owl and Cassin's Vireo?!
Thanks to Garth for organizing the Count and to Ruth and Gene
Troetschler for providing pizza and salad for the crew that showed
up at McClellan Ranch. Let's hope coverage is better next year.
---Grant Hoyt
To: email@hidden
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From email@hidden Tue Jun 09 09:53:02 1998
On Tue, 9 Jun 1998, Rusty Scalf wrote:
> Here in the San Francisco Bay area (or at least
> the East Bay) Spotted Towhee song seems to
> be a single trill; emphatic, with a somewhat
> explosive quality.
>
> I have often thought of putting together a bird
> call/song tape for beginning birding students.
> Spotted Towhee has been a frustration in this
> endeavor since the Peterson tape version has
> definite introductory notes (3 I think) just before
> that trill. When I play this for students, I have
> to ask them to mentally clip off those intro notes
> and just listen to that trill.
It so happens I just the other day heard a Spotted Towhee give the
preliminary notes (in this case two) before the trill, which I agree is
usually all by itself. I suspect that Peterson's and other tapers would
look for instances of western Rufous-sided Towhee that had the (rare)
preliminary notes, because they assumed the song should follow the classic
"drink-your-teeeeeeee" pattern of the eastern (then) subspecies.
-- Tom Grey Stanford CA email@hidden
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From email@hidden Tue Jun 09 10:04:01 1998
I went back to CCRS today to try to get a better look at the
FRANKLIN's/LAUGHING GULL I saw there yesterday.
Frank Vanslager and Bob Reiling were there scoping the pond opposite the CCRS
trailers. There were several FRANKLIN's GULLs swimming in there!
At least 7 by our count, with 3 in adult breeding plumage. Rest were
in a transitional(?) plumage - bill black (with maybe a hint of red?),
dark hood with some white speckling on the forehead. Mantle slightly
darker than the adult BONAPARTE's that are around. The white band
on the upperwings was visible on the folded wing. The tips of the folded
primaries were black and white.
The breeding plumage adults had more white on the primary tips than is
shown in the field guides. Bob and Frank continued out to the other ponds
and they may post more details later.
Incidentally, I had gone back yesterday evening to the same spot but there
weren't any gulls around. Instead they seem to be there in the mornings.
Also, at least some of the non-breeding FRANKLIN's GULLs were there yesterday
morning too, but I hesitated to make the call since I wasn't sure.
Vivek Tiwari
email@hidden
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From email@hidden Tue Jun 09 11:02:42 1998
Hello All:
I have heard Spotted Towhees even do the introductory notes without the
trill at all!! For some really confusing birds, the interior birds (such as
at Westgard Pass in the White Mtns.) I have heard give up to six
introductory notes without a trill and do a series of these before
interspersing trills. The trill itself gets slower too, with Colorado birds
giving a trill not much faster than eastern birds. It would be great to get
tape samples from throughout its range.
Steve Miller
----------
From: Tom Grey [SMTP:email@hidden]
Sent: Tuesday, June 09, 1998 9:53 AM
To: South Bay Birders list
Subject: Re: Spotted Towhee
On Tue, 9 Jun 1998, Rusty Scalf wrote:
> Here in the San Francisco Bay area (or at least
> the East Bay) Spotted Towhee song seems to
> be a single trill; emphatic, with a somewhat
> explosive quality.
>
> I have often thought of putting together a bird
> call/song tape for beginning birding students.
> Spotted Towhee has been a frustration in this
> endeavor since the Peterson tape version has
> definite introductory notes (3 I think) just before
> that trill. When I play this for students, I have
> to ask them to mentally clip off those intro notes
> and just listen to that trill.
It so happens I just the other day heard a Spotted Towhee give the
preliminary notes (in this case two) before the trill, which I agree
is
usually all by itself. I suspect that Peterson's and other tapers
would
look for instances of western Rufous-sided Towhee that had the
(rare)
preliminary notes, because they assumed the song should follow the
classic
"drink-your-teeeeeeee" pattern of the eastern (then) subspecies.
-- Tom Grey Stanford CA email@hidden
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From email@hidden Tue Jun 09 11:30:08 1998
email@hidden wrote:
>
> By 8:20 AM this morning Frank Vanslager and I realized that there was not just
> one, possible Franklin's/Laughing gull but a "flock" of 8 to 9 Franklin's
> Gulls feeding in the pond adjacent to the Coyote Creek Riparian Station
> trailers. Included were three red-billed alternate plumage adults (one with
> just a bit of white in the lower throat) and at least five all gray mantled
> (no brown), black billed (some red?), white-faced and white-throated, "2nd
> summer" birds with white-windowed black primaries.
These sound more like birds in first alternate plumage to me. The bird
that looked like an adult but with some white on the throat could
possibly be in second alternate plumage, but I don't think birds of this
age are reliably distinguished from older adults (I believe second
alternate is its first definitive plumage anyway, despite the fact that
some birds apparently retain immature features; someone please correct
me if I'm wrong). It's possible that this bird had simply not completed
its prealternate molt, and it may yet replace those feathers. Grant
claims that Franklin's completes its prealternate molt on the wintering
grounds, but a bird that Joe Morlan and I studied last week off Monterey
had not yet replaced its inner secondaries and was actively molting its
upperwing coverts.
Bert McKee
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From email@hidden Tue Jun 09 14:56:40 1998
All,
By 8:20 AM this morning Frank Vanslager and I realized that there was not just
one, possible Franklin's/Laughing gull but a "flock" of 8 to 9 Franklin's
Gulls feeding in the pond adjacent to the Coyote Creek Riparian Station
trailers. Included were three red-billed alternate plumage adults (one with
just a bit of white in the lower throat) and at least five all gray mantled
(no brown), black billed (some red?), white-faced and white-throated, "2nd
summer" birds with white-windowed black primaries. Vivek Tiwari then stopped
by on his way to work for a more definitive (50-power) look at the birds he
saw yesterday on his way to work. Frank and I then checked out the "Waterbird
Pond" and parts of Coyote Creek before returning to the CCRS trailers. We
were once again looking at the FRGUs, with Al Jaramillo and Steve Rottenborn
when at about 11:15 AM the sun broke through the clouds and the birds
flew/soared toward the south and out of sight.
Take care,
Bob Reiling, 2:19 PM, 6/9/98
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From email@hidden Tue Jun 09 15:05:54 1998
Miller* Steve E wrote:
> I have heard Spotted Towhees even do the introductory notes without the
> trill at all!! ... The trill itself gets slower too, with Colorado birds
> giving a trill not much faster than eastern birds.
The local Spotted Towhees (Santa Clara County) will give introductory
notes prior to the trill on occasion. Also, I don't think that the
cadence of the trill is geographically related. I have heard local
towhees give a trill so slow that you'd think you were listening to a
Dark-eyed Junco (and all speeds in between).
Mike Mammoser
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From email@hidden Tue Jun 09 21:29:41 1998
Birders:
As Bob mentioned as soon as the sun came out at 11 am or so the
Franklin's Gulls began soaring and flycatching. They eventually flew out of
sight. However, later I was able to find one or two by looking at the sky
and checking wheeling groups of California Gulls. At times the gulls would
come back to the pond immediately behind the trailers and at other times
they were not present at all. If they are not in the pond, look in the sky,
if that doesn't work then patience will have to prevail.
All for now.
Al
Alvaro Jaramillo "It was almost a pity, to see the sun
Half Moon Bay, shining constantly over so useless a country"
California Darwin, regarding the Atacama desert.
email@hidden
Helm guide to the New World Blackbirds, Birding in Chile and more, at:
http://www.sirius.com/~alvaro
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From email@hidden Tue Jun 09 22:13:54 1998
To all,
I would like to correct a statement I made in a recent message. On
Sunday I wrote that New Chicago Marsh was tidal. I called the refuge
and was informed that the marsh is classified as a managed marsh. There
is a culvert that is open in the summer to allow water flow into the
marsh, but the culvert is closed in the winter. I apologize for my
error.
Ginny Becchine
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From email@hidden Wed Jun 10 07:37:47 1998
Thanks, Grant, for the good write-up of your count area last Saturday.
Here's mine.
In Region One, Chuck Coston birded the area from Cooley Point to the
Dumbarton bridge, and Ed Frost and I covered the area north of the
bridge. Chuck's best birds were three RED-NECKED PHALAROPES along
University Avenue just south of the bridge. Ed and I found three BROWN
PELICANS, single BUFFLEHEAD, COMMON GOLDENEYE, RED-BREASTED MERGANSER,
and three SEMI-PALMATED PLOVERS, birds that were not found elsewhere on
the count to the best of my recollection. On Tuesday morning, I heard two
MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLERS singing along Langley Hill Road for an additional
count-week bird. Another check of Russian Ridge revealed once again that
Savannah sparrows had replaced the grasshopper sparrows so prevalent
there in past years. Chuck had two WESTERN KINGBIRDS at Bayfront Park
last Wednesday, but no evidence of nesting. That's it.
Jack Cole
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From email@hidden Wed Jun 10 12:38:20 1998
Re Saturday's birds, there are two Great Horned Owls and a large infant out of nest which
were sitting low amidst eucalyptus trees only a block from our house on Lathrop Drive on
campus. Also saw a Blue-grey Gnatcatcher on nest in the Stanford hills above Old Page Mill
not far from Foothill Blvd. And found a House Wren going in /out of a cavity and singing
some 120 yards north of the "dish," one which was singing like a very happy bird! Other
than that, I spent a half hour that afternoon watching the two adult Pileated Wodpeckers
down in the canyon east of Skyline, with the female then feeding two nestlings which were
showing the dull red caps -- a great sight of four, well worth the hour spent walking down
there, and back!! A very nice day indeed. David (857-9219)
On Mon, 8 Jun 98 18:32:23 PDT Grant Hoyt
wrote:
> South Bay Birders---
> On Saturday June 6, Karen and I did our usual breeding bird
> census for the Palo Alto Count in the area bounded by Arastradero
> Rd., Alpine Rd., Junipero Serra Blvd. and Page Mill Rd. This
> includes the "Dish" region between I-280 and Junipero Serra above
> Stanford campus and the Piers Dairy land, including Felt Lake, west
> of 280; also the Los Trancos Crk. riparian habitat along Alpine to
> Rosatti's at Arastradero Rd.
> We started owling at 4:40 AM and were rewarded with young BARN
> OWLS making begging calls from a tree cavity on Old Page Mill Rd.
> We were able to tape out 2 WESTERN SCREECH OWLS and get nice visuals
> on each before dawn. The second bird responded at 5:20 AM as dawn
> broke, which is about as late as I've ever had one show itself in
> June/July. The first non-nightbirds detectable were VIOLET-GREEN
> SWALLOWS, which were busy foraging in the pitch dark, their
> "electric" sounding vocalizations giving them away. The other
> species that was most audible before dawn was ASH-THROATED
> FLYCATCHER---we heard six of them along Old Page Mill before we saw
> a single bird of any species besides owls.
> Unfortunately we heard no GREAT HORNED OWLS, and as of the
> countdown on Sat. evening, no one else who reported results did
> either. We then checked the riparian corridor near
> Alpine/Arastradero which turned up a number of expected species but
> nothing remarkable. For the first time in several years we were
> unable to find YELLOW WARBLER at this usually reliable site.
> Karen spotted a GREEN HERON flying along the creek near Ladera
> as we headed for Piers Ranch and Felt Lake. The lake was only
> moderately interesting, with another GREEN HERON and a CASPIAN TERN
> being the most notable finds. We missed GOLDEN EAGLE, as did others
> on the Count, but it appears that 2 adults were seen during Count
> Week in the area around Sand Hill Rd. and I-280.
> Our final coverage area was the Stanford Preserve on the east
> side of 280, accessed from Alpine Rd. We were disappointed in the
> first hour and a half as we missed several target species, but on
> the hike back to the car I found a LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE, possibly the
> only one of the Count, perched in a small tree where they have bred
> in previous years. I also had a family group of WHITE-TAILED KITES
> near Junipero Serra and Mayfield. I'm assuming this is a different
> family group than the Arastradero group found by Garth Harwood et
> al. and the ones at Jasper Ridge.
> My best find was at the Big Dish itself, where an excited
> chatter alerted me to a WESTERN KINGBIRD, which flew to a juncture
> of bright blue girders on the Dish's support structure and began
> feeding young birds in a nest. We had walked past this spot earlier
> and missed both the kingbird and shrike, so I guess sometimes it
> pays to retrace your steps.
> At the Countdown dinner at McClellan Ranch Park in Cupertino,
> it became obvious that we suffered from poor coverage again this
> year. Bert McKee and Jack Cole did a great job of covering the
> Bayside habitat from Redwood City to Mountain View, and Bill Cabot
> covered Moffet Field. The rest of us were stretched pretty thin as
> well, as the foothil areas require lots of legwork. It seems we may
> have missed such species as GREAT HORNED OWL, CEDAR WAXWING,
> CASSIN'S VIREO, GRASSHOPPER SPARROW, VIRGINIA RAIL, GREEN-WINGED
> TEAL and others that are often recorded on the Count.
> I know Gloria Heller had both HERMIT WARBLER and HERMIT THRUSH
> in her area around Wundedrlich Park, and Bert McKee has already
> reported his good finds from the Bayside. Would Jack Cole,
> Dick Stovel, Richard Jeffers, Garth Harwood, Phyllis Browning and
> others who participated mind posting their "good birds" on e-mail?
> Did we really miss Great Horned Owl and Cassin's Vireo?!
> Thanks to Garth for organizing the Count and to Ruth and Gene
> Troetschler for providing pizza and salad for the crew that showed
> up at McClellan Ranch. Let's hope coverage is better next year.
>
> ---Grant Hoyt
>
> To: email@hidden
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From email@hidden Wed Jun 10 15:28:49 1998
All,
This morning 6 FRANKLIN'S GULLS were present in the pond opposite
the CCRS trailers, 5 first-summer birds and one adult-like bird
with a few white throat feathers that may indicate a second-summer
bird (it did not flap its wings to reveal the amount of white and
black in the primaries to confirm this). The two full-adult birds
reported yesterday were not around.
The banding board had some birds of interest, including five
ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHERS thru 6/7 with at least two more today
6/10, a recaptured HERMIT THRUSH on 6/5, 8 MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLERS
in May with 1 recapture on 5/16 and another on 6/2!, a recaptured
WILSON'S WARBLER on 6/2, and of course the 4 YELLOW-BREASTED CHATS
on 5/3, 5/8, 5/9, and 5/13.
Mike Rogers
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From email@hidden Wed Jun 10 16:21:47 1998
Hi Everyone--
>From 1 'til1:30 PM Wednesday, I watched 14 BONAPARTE'S GULLS and 6
FRANKLIN'S GULLS in the settling pond behind the trailers at CCRS. One of
these had a black hood with white throat and reddish bill, another had a
fully black hood and bright red bill; the others had fuzzy black on the head
and dark bills. I presume the black-headed birds are older. I expected to
see a strong white bar between the gray mantle and the black wingtips; in
the white-throated bird, molt made the pattern indistinct, and the
black-throated bird had no such pattern (it did have crisp white crescents
on the outer 4 primaries, though). In April at least, adult Franklin's have
a pink flush on the chest; none of these showed any pink, however. They
don't fly much, so it's hard to get long looks at the wings. It also means
they might stay another day.
Mark Miller
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From email@hidden Wed Jun 10 20:10:26 1998
Taking Grant Hoyt's suggestion, here are the best birds that I found on the
Palo Alto count last Saturday in the Moffett Field region and the adjoining
Shoreline Tech Park, Stevens Creek, Lockheed-Martin (Sunnyvale) area, and
the salt ponds to the north.
BURROWING OWLS have their last stronghold in the Palo Alto count region on
and near Moffett Field, of course, but I turned up disappointingly few
(only 12 altogether). There were almost none to be found on the west side
of the base, where there has previously been a healthy (breeding)
population. I only found 4 adults and 1 juvenile near the runway, 2 adults
near the Moffett Golf Course, and one adult on the Ames/Lockheed fence near
the corner of 11th Avenue and H Street. Thanks to the timely e-mail by Mark
Miller before the count I was able to get 1 adult and 3 juveniles by Bldg.
107 at Lockheed -- the adult sitting on the fence down the street probably
belonged to this family. A GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE was still at the
Moffett Golf Course, consorting with the domestics. A pleasant surprise was
finding a lone VAUX'S SWIFT amongst the throngs of cliff swallows, barn
swallows, and (the few) white-throated swifts blanketing the fields in the
NW corner of Moffett Field (bordered by Stevens Creek and Crittenden
Marsh). I saw this bird two different times in the coarse of the morning in
the same region -- I had to assume it was the same one -- and got a very
good look.
Two SWAINSON'S THRUSHES, in short succession, flew onto the path and into
the brush along the narrow marshy area in the Shoreline Tech Park (near the
Christmas tree farm). Both a male and a female HOODED ORIOLE were seen
foraging along different stretches of Stevens Creek in the same region; but
I didn't notice any activity around the palm tree nearby where a pair of
them nested last year.
A lone HORNED GREBE was seen in Crittenden Marsh with half a dozen pair of
eared grebes, many of whom were displaying courting behaviour. The water
is still so high there that they may have to try nesting on the shore, if
they are so inclined. Finally, an adult PEREGRINE FALCON spent the entire
afternoon sitting in a high-voltage tower at the end of Salt Pond B2 near
the bay, occasionally dodging angry Forster's terns, but otherwise not
budging.
I won't go into all the ones I missed -- that would be to lengthy.
-- Bill Cabot
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From email@hidden Thu Jun 11 08:53:54 1998
Folks:
I drove down to San Luis Obispo yesterday and checked on some of the
South County stakeouts. At San Felipe Lake there was considerable activity in
the willows with the GREAT BLUE HERON and DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT nest (of
which I believe there are 12 now). As best I could tell, all the herons were
full sized and nearly fledged while the cormorants were incubating. The male
GREAT-TAILED GRACKLE appeared to stay in complex of willow trees SW of the
call box and sometimes squawked from the willows, sometimes moved to the top
and gave a three-note squawk and sometimes flew out over the tules where I
assume the nest is and gave a long "wheeerrriiieee" as he flew over the nest.
Once he landed in the tules and remained for a few minutes. Although the
Surveyor-General of Santa Clara County had declared the willows within Santa
Clara County, I was glad to see the male fly over to the dairy to interact
with his other blackbird friends.
Along San Felipe Road, the CASSIN'S KINGBIRD was on the east side of the
middle eucalyptus. At one point he flew after a local Red-tail and rode on
his back for a few seconds in kingbird fashion and then returned to one of his
favored perches.
Bill
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From email@hidden Thu Jun 11 08:57:21 1998
Steve Rottenborn reported that he had seen a male Costa's Hummingbird at
Senter Park, near Capitol Xway. The bird was in cottonwoods just north
(or downstream) from a large stand of eucalyptus trees along the west
side of Coyote Creek at Capitol Xway. This bird was seen on Monday.
Mike Mammoser
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From email@hidden Thu Jun 11 09:47:48 1998
The Stanford campus produced few surprises on the Breeding Bird Count. There
were two BARN OWLs at the nest box near the stables just before dawn and a third
on Green Library roof showing much interest in the twittering from the
WHITE-THROATED SWIFT roost. The intense aerial vocalizations near the stables
and elsewhere before dawn I presumed to be from bats.
San Francisquito Creek had most of its usual specialties: RED-SHOULDERED
HAWK, STELLER'S JAY, WOOD DUCK, BELTED KINGFISHER (carrying something in
its bill toward El Camino, where Phyllis Browning reported a nest). Lush
El Nino-nurtured vegetation may have contributed to the presence of
BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK and WARBLING VIREO, not ususally found in this area
on the count. PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHERs were also well represented.
Lake Lagunita had a PIED-BILLED GREBE and a RUDDY DUCK as well as the
usual MALLARDs which included at least two MALLARD families with small chicks.
A fly-over pair of CASPIAN TERNs may well have been the same seen elsewhere.
Four GREAT BLUE HERONS scattered about away from water were probably hunting
gophers - one had a gopher in its bill. (Reminds me of a story: once
earlier this year I was watching a GBH trying to swallow a gopher while
standing in the middle of the woods near the Cactus Garden. It was having
a lot of trouble and made several attempts over the course of 10-15 minutes
without success. All of a sudden a red-shouldered hawk swooped down and
flew right by the heron's head, whereupon the heron quickly swallowed the
gopher in about two seconds.)
Missed was SONG SPARROW. This species was a common campus bird in the
1930's (based on bird lists in the biology library, not from memory),
but lately has been found only in one stretch of San Francisquito Creek and
not found this time. Three ORIOLE sp. flying away from the Frenchman's
Road stakeout in the dim early light were not identifiably HOODED, so this
species was missed.
Regards -
Dick Stovel email@hidden
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From email@hidden Thu Jun 11 10:07:29 1998
We saw a pair of WTKI yesterday morning 280 and Sand Hill with at least one
young bird in tow. The Arastradero pair?
Also we have been watching a pair of BUOW on the corner of El Dorado and
Moffat (sic) in Alviso. Haven't seen the second bird for a while but one is
quite regular on a burrow very close to the road. I haven't seen a band yet
but always one leg up!
Janet Hanson
SFBBO
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From email@hidden Thu Jun 11 11:03:41 1998
email@hidden wrote:
Although the
> Surveyor-General of Santa Clara County had declared the willows within Santa
> Clara County, I was glad to see the male fly over to the dairy to interact
> with his other blackbird friends.
It's really hard to determine exactly where the county line is here.
Some say that the county line runs through the willows, where possibly
only the very inner part of the large leafy willow may be in the county.
If one wants this bird on their Santa Clara County list, it may be best
to see it further inside the county line, just to be sure.
Mike Mammoser
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From email@hidden Thu Jun 11 11:33:09 1998
All: Maria and I saw at least 4 Franklin's Gulls in the pond opposite the
CCRS trailers this morning around 8:30, along with a very few Bonaparte's Gulls.
Yours, John Meyer
********************************************************************
John W. Meyer, Dept. of Sociology, Stanford U., Stanford, Cal. 94305
email@hidden (650) 723 1868
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From email@hidden Thu Jun 11 13:49:11 1998
All:
Today (11 June), Scott Terrill and I checked CCRS for Franklin's
Gulls, seeing 4 first-summer and 1 apparent second-summer bird
in the WPCP pond near the trailers. Later, I returned to bring
something to CCRS, and these five Franklin's were still present.
I then checked the waterbird pond, where two first-summer and
two adult-type (having all-black hoods with no white mottling,
fairly bright red bills, and limited black and very extensive
white in the primaries) Franklin's Gulls were present. While
I watched these birds, a second-summer FRGU (not the one I had
seen earlier near the CCRS trailers) flew in, for a total of
10! Eventually four of the five birds at the waterbird pond
flew off, heading straight to the Newby Island dump. I have
not doubt there are more than 10 present down there.
Steve Rottenborn
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From email@hidden Thu Jun 11 15:41:53 1998
All,
Grant Hoyt requested some kind of report from section leaders of last
Saturday's Summer Bird Count. As others have reported, it was a pretty lean
day all around. My section, Region 8, includes Monte Bello OSP (surveyed by
Howard Higley & Dick Carlson), portions of Los Trancos Creek OSP, Foothills
Park, and Rancho San Antonio County Park. Given the nature of the season,
misses may be of equal or greater interest than what we did find!
At higher elevations we missed the usual compliment of Grasshopper Sparrows
and Black-chinned Sparrows. LAZULI BUNTINGS were present in typical
numbers, however, as were CHIPPING SPARROWS. A single BLACK-THROATED GRAY
WARBLER provided the most excitement for our fog-bound party early on,
although a solo PINE SISKIN which scooted overhead at daybreak turned out
to be the only one reported at the countdown.
HUTTON'S VIREOS were encountered in small numbers but despite every effort,
Cassin's was missed by our party (along with all others reporting in that
evening). A singing YELLOW WARBLER near the picnic area in Foothill Park
was probably our best bird there. BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHERS were hard to find,
even in prime chaparral habitat. However, we encountered several boisterous
family groups of BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAKS, especially around the visitor
center at Foothill. The lake at Foothill was disappointing; no Terns, no
Black-crowned Night Herons, just a trio of RUDDY DUCKS and a PIED-BILLED
GREBE along with the usual Coots, mixed Swallows, and RED-WINGED
BLACKBIRDS. (Tree Swallows may have been missed on the entire Count,
however.)
At Rancho San Antonio, a HOUSE WREN along the left side of the big water
tank was, I believe, the only one reported at the countdown. Are they
really so scarce hereabouts?
--Garth Harwood
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From email@hidden Thu Jun 11 21:24:32 1998
To all,
Having read the reports of Franklin's Gulls at CCRS for the past 10 days or
so, has caused me to ponder. What are these prairie nesting birds doing here
in California at such a late date? Any ideas?
Paul L. Noble----Scchowl.
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From email@hidden Fri Jun 12 10:03:59 1998
Hi All-
Here are some highlights of the count in Region 3, a mostly urban
section covering an area that includes most of Menlo Park, Atherton
and portions of Redwood City.
St. Pat's Seminary in Menlo Park had a pair of Red Tailed Hawks in a
tall eucolyptus tree but we could not see any nest. We did see an
American Kestral feeding young behind some decorative moldings on the
seminary building. Acorn Woodpeckers were active around the palm trees
on the front lawn. We also saw a pair of Downy Woodpeckers, a few
White-breasted Nuthatches (one carrying food), and a Pacific Slope
Flycatcher. Development of large chunks of the Seminary in the last
few years has shrunk the somewhat natural habitat, so overall numbers
are down. No Orange-crowned Warblers (not in any of the areas we
counted) CA Quail, blackbirds, Killdeer or orioles were seen at the
seminary.
We did not see the Pygmy Nuthatches that have been found in
residential Menlo Park in past years. Only a few California Quail
were seen in this area as well as a couple of Hutton's Vireos. One
species flourishing in this area was Pink Lawn Flamingo totalling out
at 21 for this count.
Other counting locations and highlights included Bear Gulch Reservoir
(Ash-throated Flycatcher and CA Quail- no cliff swallow nests on the
large tanks where we had seen hundreds in the past but some nests on
other structures), Canada College (two pairs of bluebirds, one of
which was active at a nestbox), Menlo College (juncos carrying nesting
material), Sacred Heart Prep (Nesting Acorn Woodpeckers) and Stulsaft
Park in Redwood City, an amazingly natural seeming hillside in an
otherwise residential area with serpentine rock, native chaparral and
riparian vegetation, nice trails and a creek running through it. The
latter is along Jefferson Ave in RWC and had quite a few juncos, a
Pacific Slope Flycatcher, Wrentit and Song Sparrow. We got our
dependable Steller's Jay at Flood Park, as well as Northern Orioles.
We counted quite a few Chickadee and Scrub Jay fledglings during the
day as they are pretty easy to recognize by ear. The day ended with a
Red Shouldered Hawk in a tree on the grounds at Sunset Magazine not
far from San Francisquito Creek.
Leda Beth Gray
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From email@hidden Fri Jun 12 10:51:40 1998
I headed over to CCRS this morning and shortly before 8:00 easily found at
least four FRANKLIN'S GULLS on the pond opposite the trailers. Al Eisner showed
up shortly thereafter as well as another birder whom I did not recognize.
During the observation, one of the adult FRGUs left the pond and flew south.
Also on the pond were BONAPARTE'S GULLS, which offered an interesting comparison
when the two different species could be viewed in the same scope field. I did
not have time to check the water bird pond.
Mark
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From email@hidden Fri Jun 12 13:03:30 1998
At lunch time today, 12 Jun 98, I checked out Senter Park along Coyote
Creek near Capitol Xway, hoping to refind Steve Rottenborn's Costa's
Hummingbird. I had no luck with the hummingbird, but I did find two
singing WILLOW FLYCATCHERS. These birds were acting very territorial.
They had set up perch sites within about 50 yards or less from each
other, and when one sang the other would answer immediately. They would
then counter each other 2 or 3 times. At least one of them was being
very aggressive, chasing the nearby HOUSE FINCHES.
This was on the west side of the creek near Capitol Xway, along the edge
of a disced field that has a small Vietnamese nursery. Look for the 3
tall flagpoles in the nursery.
Mike Mammoser
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From email@hidden Fri Jun 12 13:56:26 1998
Mike Mammoser wrote:
>
> At lunch time today, 12 Jun 98, I checked out Senter Park along Coyote
> Creek near Capitol Xway, hoping to refind Steve Rottenborn's Costa's
> Hummingbird. I had no luck with the hummingbird, but I did find two
> singing WILLOW FLYCATCHERS. These birds were acting very territorial.
> They had set up perch sites within about 50 yards or less from each
> other, and when one sang the other would answer immediately. They would
> then counter each other 2 or 3 times. At least one of them was being
> very aggressive, chasing the nearby HOUSE FINCHES.
I noted the same behavior from two migrant WIFL along Coyote Creek at
Shady Oaks Park in June several years ago. The birds were singing
vociferously and chasing HOFI around repeatedly. I was wondering at
the time whether they were chasing HOFI because of the similarity
between the WIFLs' song and the last phrase of the HOFIs' song (often
a burry "fee-bew" that can sound very much like a WIFL).
Steve
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From email@hidden Fri Jun 12 16:08:24 1998
Hi all,
I was "stuck" in the South Bay all day today, so I decided to take
advantage of this unique opportunity to look at molt and variation in
the Franklin's Gulls at CCRS. I had a total of about 4-6 birds through
the day; there were definitely two adult-types and two first-years at
the very least. Although the only birds I could find at first were
flying in the distance, two first-years and an adult eventually landed
in the pond across from the trailers, and they stayed in the area until
I left. Another adult was with the California Gull flock on the
Waterbird Pond. A fall migrant WILSON'S PHALAROPE, an adult female, was
also briefly on the Waterbird Pond in the late morning.
Bert McKee
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From email@hidden Sat Jun 13 10:04:59 1998
I went to CCRS this morning, 13 Jun 98, and found 4 FRANKLIN'S GULLS on
the pond across the fence from the trailers. No full adults among them.
On an adjacent pond I had 4 WILSON'S PHALAROPES.
Mike Mammoser
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From email@hidden Sat Jun 13 10:19:28 1998
Has anyone had Black Swifts at Ano Nuevo this year? I have a friend coming
in from the east who would like to see them, and MacArthur Burney Falls is a
lot farther away from San Francisco than the San Mateo coast.
Thanks for your input --
Luke
Luke Cole
San Francisco, CA
email@hidden
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From email@hidden Sat Jun 13 13:23:56 1998
Walked in to Table Mountain this morning, and ran into Vickie Silvas-Young
(sp?) also looking for the woodpeckers. We set up under the "viewing tree"
and within ten minutes a young PILEATED WOODPECKER appeared in the nest
cavity, soon followed by a second. They called, without immediate effect,
but after an hour or so, the ad female showed up and fed the young (she
called, flew in near but still out of sight, a laid low for about 10
minutes first). She was soon followed by the ad male, who also fed both of
the young. The two adults hung around long enough for Vickie to get
plenty of pix in good sunlight, after the morning fog cleared. The young
birds heads are fully feathered, and the adult birds spent quite a bit of
time calling from nearby - the male did this for quite a while before
doing any feeding - and we speculated that this might be behavior aimed at
drawing the young birds out of the nest. (So if you haven't seen this
great sight, you might think of getting up there.
Also seen or heard: a male Selasphorus hummingbird, probably Allen's, near
the Pileated nest; a FLICKER feeding young in a nest in a nearby snag; all
three Vireos, ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHERS, a BROWN CREEPER, WILSON'S and
ORANGE=CROWNED WARBLERS, BAND-TAILED PIGEONS.
I drove down to Yerba Buena Nursery early - no luck on MacGillivray's, but
a WINTER WREN was singing its spectacular song right by the road between
the highway and the quarry.
-- Tom Grey Stanford CA email@hidden
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From email@hidden Sun Jun 14 11:56:57 1998
All:
Sorry for the delay in reporting these birds.
On 28 May, I spent a few hours along Coyote Creek in the vicinity
of Senter Park, an old city park between Capitol Expressway and
Tully Road in south San Jose. There were large numbers of migrants
around in addition to the species that breed in the broad,
relatively undisturbed riparian corridor here. Here I had a
WILLOW FLYCATCHER (much less frequently detected in the county
in spring than in fall), 1 HAMMOND¹S FLYCATCHER, a female-type
TOWNSEND¹S WARBLER, 2 female LAZULI BUNTINGS (fairly rare along
Coyote Creek this far north, especially in spring), 7 WESTERN
WOOD-PEWEES (probably does not breed here, so these are migrants),
6 WESTERN TANAGERS, 5 YELLOW WARBLERS, 3 male BLACK-HEADED
GROSBEAKS, 4 ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHERS (this species does breed
here), 6 WESTERN TANAGERS, 4 SWAINSON¹S THRUSHES, 7 BLACK-CHINNED
HUMMINGBIRDS (4 m, 3 f), 1 WILSON¹S WARBLER, and 5 PACIFIC-SLOPE
FLYCATCHERS. A male COOPER¹S HAWK dive-bombed me when I got
close to its nest; a pair has nested here since 1995 or earlier.
I returned to Senter Park on 29 May and birded the entire riparian
corridor along the west side of the creek from Capitol downstream
to Tully. Again, migrants were in abundance. I had a female
MACGILLIVRAY¹S WARBLER, 5 WILLOW FLYCATCHERS (plus 1 unseen
Empid giving a ³whit² call), 1 CASSIN¹S VIREO, 20+ WESTERN
WOOD-PEWEES, 6 OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHERS (again, an unusual
migrant on the valley floor), 14 WESTERN TANAGERS, 1 ad.
male ALLEN¹S HUMMINGBIRD, 1 ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER, 14
YELLOW WARBLERS, 22+ WARBLING VIREOS (plus two broods of
young being fed by adults), 8 SWAINSON¹S THRUSHES, 7
WILSON¹S WARBLERS, 10 BLACK-CHINNED HUMMINGBIRDS (6 m,
4 f), 1 WRENTIT (rare on this part of the valley floor;
breeding here?), 2 CALIFORNIA THRASHERS, 5 ad. HUTTON¹S
VIREOS (including two pairs feeding fledged young), 1
LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE, and 10 PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHERS
(including a pair carrying food to an unseen nest inside
an abandoned trailer, entering through a small hole in a
broken window).
On 30 May, I took Rebecca up to Russian Ridge OSP, then
down to the Ravenswood area so I could study the SAVANNAH
SPARROWS breeding in upland vs. bayside areas (bayside
birds appeared somewhat darker, primarily on the back). A
LAWRENCE¹S GOLDFINCH flew over Russian Ridge, and down at
the bay, I had a SAVANNAH SPARROW nest with young and a
pair of HORNED LARKS near the west end of the Dumbarton
Bridge.
On 31 May, after hearing Mike Mammoser¹s query regarding
the precise location of the Great-tailed Grackle nest
relative to the county line, Rebecca and I went to San
Felipe Lake to take another look. Standing on Hwy. 152
at its closest approach to the grackle nest, I measured a
distance along the road that seemed to me to be equivalent
to the distance between the road and the nest. Doing this,
I estimated the distance between the road and the nest to
be 45-50 m (MJM had determined using another method that
it was 48 m). Using the topo map, I was able to look at
the relative positions of an old silo foundation, the road,
and the county line and the distances between these. I
then used this information to estimate the relative positions
of the county line, the nest, and the willow clump near the
nest. Doing this, I estimated that the willow clump is
entirely or mostly within San Benito County; that is, the
county line runs just north of this clump, or possibly runs
within the willow clump so that the willow branches closest