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