Birding Anderson Valley

Over the weekend, Laurie and I went out on an extended drive, heading out 130 from Alum Rock past Lick Observatory and then down Anderson Valley, to see what we could see. Wildflower activity was pretty muted (other people report much stronger wildflower blooms south in Panoche valley, and there were areas where you could see the poppies getting ready, but not quite there yet). We took 130 towards Patterson to the Deer Creek park, which was in full off-road mode (noisy and full of people trying to kill tehmselves, were were told to park anywhere but the helipad — seriously).

We then doubled back to Mines road, and drove it out to Livermore. nice drive, cool and mostly a bit overcast, not terribly birdy, but we saw a number of nice birds including two packs of Wild Turkeys, one in Santa Clara County near Joseph Grant park (a tom and about ten hens), and the other near the end of Mines near Tesla, which had 23 bachelor toms. Those were pretty mellow, so we stopped and I got a few decent photos. The pasture ponds had some interesting ducks, including a few buffleheads and a number of American Wigeons, but no shorebirds — we’ve seen lesser yellowlegs out here in the past.

The other nice things to see were a few Say’s Phoebes and 4-6 Western Bluebirds, both of which were near the stream at the one-lane bridge as you come down into Anderson Valley. We also saw ravens there, juncos, yellow-rumped warblers, and a number of pissed off ground squirrels who really wished we’d leave and let them go back to whatever they were doing.

Mines road was surprisingly non-birdy. We stopped a few places, but all we saw were woodpeckers and jays… This area is an area I try to bird twice a year, roughly, once during spring migration and once in the fall. Winter can be a fun time as well, weather permitting, and sometimes you can get some interesting birds out here (but in retrospect, I should have gone iwth my first thought and birded out in Panoche…)

Location:     Mines Rd. (Santa Clara Co.)
Observation date:     3/15/09
Notes:     130 from Alum rock to Deer Creek park, backtrack back to mines, up mines to Livermore
Number of species:     33

Canada Goose     X
Gadwall     1
American Wigeon     X
Mallard     X
Bufflehead     X
Wild Turkey     30
Great Egret     2
Turkey Vulture     X
White-tailed Kite     1
Red-tailed Hawk     X
Rock Pigeon     X
Mourning Dove     X
Anna's Hummingbird     X
Acorn Woodpecker     3
Downy Woodpecker     1
Northern Flicker     2
Black Phoebe     X
Say's Phoebe     2
Steller's Jay     X
Western Scrub-Jay     X
Yellow-billed Magpie     X
American Crow     X
Common Raven     2
Tree Swallow     2
Chestnut-backed Chickadee     X
Oak Titmouse     X
Western Bluebird     4
Northern Mockingbird     X
Yellow-rumped Warbler     X
California Towhee     X
Red-winged Blackbird     X
House Finch     X
Lesser Goldfinch     X

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

You might also want to read:

1. Day Tripping Panoche Valley With Monday being a holiday, I took advantage of it to do an extended day trip, spending a chunk of it out in Panoche Valley...
2. big day of birding… So I decided to get away from email and cell towers for a while and Iwent out on an extended birding run, starting out way...
3. I went birding! No, really! The sun came out, the temperatures moderated, and I just needed to get out of the office for a bit, so I ran down to...
4. Ed Levin area birding.. Late report, but I spent a couple of hours at Ed Levin and up on Marsh road sunday afternoon. I started at Ed Levin in...
5. KRT Wire | 06/26/2007 | Bid to study restoration of Hetch Hetchy Valley dies KRT Wire | 06/26/2007 | Bid to study restoration of Hetch Hetchy Valley dies: The House of Representatives on Tuesday drove a stake through President...