Fledglings Fall Bird-a-Thon

       September 13th, 2014 - time for the second annual Fledglings bird-a-thon! Here, a group of young birders, led by Pati Rouzer, explores some of the county's best hotspots, learning about birds,  trying to count as many as we can, to get money through pledges for the SCVAS (in the spring), and the SFBBO (in the fall). In the spring we did a survey of Ed Levin County Park. This time, we would be traveling to different locations around the bay: first to the Coyote Creek Field Banding Station, then to Ulistac Natural Area, and finally to Shoreline at Mountain View.

       Unfortunately, I had to attend a Russian theater rehearsal from 9:45 to 12:30, so I'd miss out on about half of the day. I got to sandwich the rehearsal between the field station and Shoreline. We started early - at 7:30 in the McCarthy Ranch Plaza in Milpitas. We left the parking lot at around 7:45, with a day list of around 15 with birds just from the plaza, the most interesting being Eurasian Collared-Dove (they're spreading!), and California Gull. Last year on the fall bird-a-thon, we'd spotted an Osprey sitting in one of the trees right outside the plaza, but we had no such luck this year.

       As we drove down the restricted access (don't worry - we had permission) road to the banding station, we heard a Belted Kingfisher loudly rattling its way down the creek, what I thought was a Downy Woodpecker call (I'm not good at sound ID between Downy and Hairy), Chestnut-backed Chickadees, and saw lots of late-migrating Violet-green, and several Barn, Swallows on the wires above us. By the banding station, we saw a male Downy Woodpecker, giving us the 100% bird, that wasn't heard only.

        Josh Scullen, one of the many experienced banders working at the station, first showed us a juvenile Pacific-slope Flycatcher brought in from the mist nets at the moment. I'd never seen one so close! He pointed out all the field marks, including the eyering, the wide bill, short primary projections, and buffy wingbars to make it a juvenile. Josh also told us another, sometimes more reliable way to age the bird: seeing how much its skull has ossified, or how much the two layers of bone in the skull are together - you can look at the skull right through the bird's skin! Then, he made several measurements (length, weight, fat, band number, etc.), and let it free.

        On the walk through the woods and the field, we checked the mist nets, but found nothing. Ozzie, a young birder also in 9th grade, found a calling Blue-gray Gnatcatcher in the treetops. I didn't even recognize its call at first (after all, I've heard it only twice), but it clicked immediately as soon as Ozzie called out the ID. In the field on the way back, we found several Common Yellowthroats, including a young male stuck in the mist net. Josh untangled it, put it in a bird bag, showed it to us up close at the banding station, took the needed measurements, and let it go. He then did the same with a juvenile Black Phoebe - one of my favorite birds! I definitely learned a lot that day!

       We left the Coyote Creek Field Station at around 9:00, with 30 or so bird for the day. Not that many, but our next stop was Ulistac - a good place for passerines. On the way there, I talked with Ozzie about birding this year - turns out a lot of birds are mutual nemeses for us! Unfortunately, I only got to spend five minutes at Ulistac before I had to leave for my theater class.

        At exactly 12:50, I got to rejoin my bird-a-thon team, which had just finished their walk at Shoreline, and was planning to terminate their day at 1:00. In total, they had found 66 bird species. None would have been new for me for the year, but I was disappointed to not have been able to bird for an extra three hours. On the plus side, I got to bird for an extra hour with Ozzie around Charleston Slough and Coast Casey Forebay.

       We found several new birds for the day (that already didn't count because our bird-a-thon was officially over), and some other goodies: a female Green-winged Teal and a Greater Yellowlegs in the forebay, three Surf Scoters on the lake, lots of Elegant Terns (25 or so), a Whimbrel and a Semipalmated Plover in Charleston Slough, lots of dowitchers I didn't want to call for sure, and a Common Gallinule in Adobe Creek. I ended the day with only a few less species than the birdathon team, despite not going to Ulistac for long. Well, that's it for the bird-a-thons this year! I'll probably do the Christmas Bird Count in December, though, where I'll get to meet some more birders and find some nice birds!

Summary:
Birds seen: 62
New birds: 0
Big year count: 181

Good birding,

Sergey Pavlov

A September Day by the Bay

       I finished off August by heading to Almaden Quicksilver County Park two days in a row, on the evening of Saturday the 30th, and the day of Sunday the 31st. I didn't see any yearbirds, but I really enjoyed this park and its scenery and hiking trails. Photos can be found at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/96975200@N08/sets/72157648204263376/ Be sure to check out the chipmunk!

        I had a three-day weekend that week (because Labor Day), so I used my Monday that I had off to do a yearbird-search by the bay with my dad. A Pectoral Sandpiper and a Pacifc Golden-Plover had been reported recently at the State and Spreckles pond in Alviso, so that was where I headed off to first.

        At around 1:00, we were there, gazing at a huge flock of American Avocets and Black-necked Stilts, maybe 400 of them, but with no rarities in sight. It was an interesting spectacle, though:

 

        Soon, though, a flock of phalaropes flew in, of which about 50 were the larger Wilson's, and around 15 or so Red-necked, all in nonbreeding plumage. At the north end of the pond, I found a Marbled Godwit on one of the islands, and my first-of-fall Northern Shovelers (still in nonbreeding plumage, too), but nothing else of note.

       We moved on to the Environmental Education Center, and I walked on the boardwalk through New Chicago Marsh. There, I found many more Black-necked Stilts, three Greater Yellowlegs, and many of the ubiquitous Least Sandpipers. I got some nice shots of one that happened to pose for me right on the boardwalk: 

       There were also about 150 unidentified dowitchers on the islands in New Chicago Marsh. I still don't have either one of the dowitchers on my yearlist (shameful!), but I know that I'll have to get them eventually - maybe go to Charleston Slough/Coast Casey Forebay and spend an hour solely on the seemingly almost impossible identification of winter dowitchers...

       On the island in Pond A16, I found about 100 American White Pelicans together with Western and California Gulls. There was a Belted Kingfisher hovering over Mallard Slough that we watched before to our car. Our next stop was Sunnyvale Baylands Park.

        There were lots of potential good birds to be found here: Willow Flycatcher, Western Wood-Pewee, rare warblers, and other migrants. In fact, a Tennessee Warbler was reported in the cottonwood row that morning!

        However, when we got there (at around 2:15), it was rather hot, and I could barely hear birds calling. Pretty much the only birds in the test garden were California Towhees - what looks like a family of about five or six. I had better luck at the Baylands Grove, though, where I found a Pacific-slope Flycatcher. It had a greenish-yellow tinge to it, no eyering, and short primary projections, sealing my ID for sure and eliminating Willow Flycatcher. In the cottonwoods by the entrance booth, I found two Downy Woodpeckers - only my second of the year (the first being in Vasona on the very first day of my big year). The woodpeckers were elusive, and gave us rather good looks, but never good photos.

  

      I met several other birders near the double cottonwood row and the eucalyptuses, and we searched in vain for the Tennessee Warbler. All we found was another Pac-slope Flycatcher way high up in the eucalyptus trees. I lost hope for the day, but I also knew that I would try again in September to see some migrants here.

        Next, we headed to Pond A2E, where I hoped to catch some possible (but very unlikely) lingering Least Terns, and some rare migrating Common Terns. Once we had parked at the end of Crittenden Lane, we found that we had to come home soon. We didn't have bikes, and walking there and back would take about forty-five minutes on its one if I stopped to bird. We resorted to desperate measures - borrowing Google bikes from the parking lot of the one of the office buildings. They didn't have hand brakes or gears, but they would do for a short ride.

       At A2E, it was very windy, and very terny. There were a lot more Forster's Terns fishing over the pond and sitting on the wooden posts than there were in July. Again, no luck finding any rarer terns among them. Carefully scanning the posts produced no results, either because of my ineptitude, or my lack of attention, or simply because there really was nothing there - I guess I'll never know. 

       However, my day didn't go without seeing a single yearbird: looking a bit down the trail, I saw a Brown Pelican repeatedly rising, kiting on the wind, and then sitting back down on the water. This was not only a county yearbird, but also a county lifer - I'd never seen them before, despite birding by the bay in the fall and winter numerous times - today was the first time.

       Crittenden "Marsh" (where I had seen the Snowy Plovers, with which I had no luck today) was completely dry, and so was the unnamed triangle pond. As we were leaving, I noticed about five other species of tern over the pond - Elegants. I had seen these at Shoreline about a week ago, but this was only my second time seeing them in the county.

       So ends my big day - riding back tro our car on borrowed Google bike on the Stevens Creek Trail, the wind blowing in our faces. The day certainly didn't live up to its full potential, but I definitely enjoyed my day off of school birding and being in nature.

Summary:

Birds seen: 38

New birds: 1

Big year count: 181

Good birding,

Sergey Pavlov