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
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
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