My month of September was going pretty poorly bird-wise until the couple last days. On the 28th, I got two code fives (Sabine's Gull and Parasitic Jaeger) at the Sunnyvale WPCP. The week from September 29th to October 6th, I had fall break. My dad stayed home from work on Tuesday, so we went birding together. I tried to hit all the spots (especially those by the bay) that could get me a lot of yearbirds.
We started off at the Sunnyvale Baylands at 7:25 AM, trying to find Western Wood-Pewee and Swainson's Thrush for the last time. I told myself that if I missed them that day, then I would miss them for the rest of the year - the chance of them appearing in our county was simply too low. Unfortunately, we had no luck in the test garden, Baylands Grove, or the cottonwood row with either of the birds, despite scouring all three of them. We did find Pacific-slope Flycatchers, Hermit Thrushes, and Yellow Warblers, and got some good photos of the thrushes.
Next, we headed to Alviso/Don Edward National Wildlife Refuge. I'd met Gena Zolotar at the test garden, and she told me that a continuing juvenile Ruff was still being seen in the eastern corner of salt pond A12. I also needed to see Lesser Yellowlegs, and a good place to try was the part of New Chicago Marsh off the corner of Gold and Elizabeth Streets
We arrived there at 9:15, and I immediately got out of the car to scan the islands in the marsh for yellowlegs. The Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs may seem quite similar at first, but size and bill length can be used to effectively differentiate between them. Luckily, there were eight or so yellowlegs on on of the islands. Even from a distance, I could make out the short bills and small size of three of them. Lessers - yearbird #184 and an (overdue) lifer! (fourth bird from the left)
I was optimistic about the Ruff being where it was supposed to - it had been seen continuously for about half a month now, and had been seen yesterday. We parked at Alviso Marina and walked down the boardwalk through the marsh, where there were many Song Sparrows singing, and even a Marsh Wren. Upon reaching the levee, we turned right and began closely scrutinizing the shore to our left.
Turns out we didn't need to pay all that much attention - the Ruff stood out like a sore thumb from the much smaller Least Sandpipers surrounding it. We could see that it was a juvenile because of the scalloped back and the uni-colored bill, and it didn't look like any shorebird I'd seen before. It was my second lifer in twenty minutes, and a code five! It cooperated for some photos:
Unfortunately, after this stellar start, I found nothing of interest at the Environmental Education Center except returning Cinnamon Teals, and a Herring Gull with trash. However, I was far from disheartened by this - who would get disheartened after seeing two lifers? I couldn't have asked for more from Don Edwards that day! Besides, we were now going to drive to Coyote Valley to see if we could find one of my year nemeses: the Tricolored Blackbird.
Upon arriving in Coyote Valley, we checked both Laguna Street and Palm Street. The highlight on Laguna was my first-of-fall Say's Phoebe, but no Tricolored Blackbirds were present - only Brewer's and a single Brown-headed Cowbird.
The end of Palm Ave. turned out to be somewhat more interesting, with both a juvenile and an adult Golden Eagle, and a trio of an American Kestrel, Yellow-billed Magpies, and an accipiter chasing each other around. I never got to identify the accipiter 100% because the lighting was so bad, but it was still intriguing to watch it getting chase by the long-tailed, squawking magpies.
To end our productive big day, we looked into Calero County Park for five minutes for Tricolored Blackbirds, but to no avail. We finished the day with a grand total of 68 species - only three short of my big day record! Within these 68 species, there were two lifers and several first-of-seasons, making this day one of the best of my big year, and leaving me with only 15 birds till 200.
Summary:
Birds seen: 68
New birds: 2
Big year count: 185
Good birding,
Sergey Pavlov
We started off at the Sunnyvale Baylands at 7:25 AM, trying to find Western Wood-Pewee and Swainson's Thrush for the last time. I told myself that if I missed them that day, then I would miss them for the rest of the year - the chance of them appearing in our county was simply too low. Unfortunately, we had no luck in the test garden, Baylands Grove, or the cottonwood row with either of the birds, despite scouring all three of them. We did find Pacific-slope Flycatchers, Hermit Thrushes, and Yellow Warblers, and got some good photos of the thrushes.
Next, we headed to Alviso/Don Edward National Wildlife Refuge. I'd met Gena Zolotar at the test garden, and she told me that a continuing juvenile Ruff was still being seen in the eastern corner of salt pond A12. I also needed to see Lesser Yellowlegs, and a good place to try was the part of New Chicago Marsh off the corner of Gold and Elizabeth Streets
We arrived there at 9:15, and I immediately got out of the car to scan the islands in the marsh for yellowlegs. The Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs may seem quite similar at first, but size and bill length can be used to effectively differentiate between them. Luckily, there were eight or so yellowlegs on on of the islands. Even from a distance, I could make out the short bills and small size of three of them. Lessers - yearbird #184 and an (overdue) lifer! (fourth bird from the left)
I was optimistic about the Ruff being where it was supposed to - it had been seen continuously for about half a month now, and had been seen yesterday. We parked at Alviso Marina and walked down the boardwalk through the marsh, where there were many Song Sparrows singing, and even a Marsh Wren. Upon reaching the levee, we turned right and began closely scrutinizing the shore to our left.
Turns out we didn't need to pay all that much attention - the Ruff stood out like a sore thumb from the much smaller Least Sandpipers surrounding it. We could see that it was a juvenile because of the scalloped back and the uni-colored bill, and it didn't look like any shorebird I'd seen before. It was my second lifer in twenty minutes, and a code five! It cooperated for some photos:
Unfortunately, after this stellar start, I found nothing of interest at the Environmental Education Center except returning Cinnamon Teals, and a Herring Gull with trash. However, I was far from disheartened by this - who would get disheartened after seeing two lifers? I couldn't have asked for more from Don Edwards that day! Besides, we were now going to drive to Coyote Valley to see if we could find one of my year nemeses: the Tricolored Blackbird.
Upon arriving in Coyote Valley, we checked both Laguna Street and Palm Street. The highlight on Laguna was my first-of-fall Say's Phoebe, but no Tricolored Blackbirds were present - only Brewer's and a single Brown-headed Cowbird.
The end of Palm Ave. turned out to be somewhat more interesting, with both a juvenile and an adult Golden Eagle, and a trio of an American Kestrel, Yellow-billed Magpies, and an accipiter chasing each other around. I never got to identify the accipiter 100% because the lighting was so bad, but it was still intriguing to watch it getting chase by the long-tailed, squawking magpies.
To end our productive big day, we looked into Calero County Park for five minutes for Tricolored Blackbirds, but to no avail. We finished the day with a grand total of 68 species - only three short of my big day record! Within these 68 species, there were two lifers and several first-of-seasons, making this day one of the best of my big year, and leaving me with only 15 birds till 200.
Summary:
Birds seen: 68
New birds: 2
Big year count: 185
Good birding,
Sergey Pavlov
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