Catching up on documenting some recent birding, mostly short trips and lunch walks.  Nothing stunningly unusual…

We now have hooded orioles visiting the feeder, so they’re back. spring is here! And the resident Cooper’s Hawk is continuing to stake out the feeders. We know it takes an occasional house finch or sparrow and once we saw it take a mourning dove. Mostly, everyone scatters for a while, and then it moves on.

and if you haven’t seen this, it’s an awesome video: Bird’s Eye View of flying.

4/18 — Visiting the eagles.

Laurie and I headed out to Calaveras to visit the eagles. We got there
about the time the DeDUCKtions were leaving, but I don’t think I can
count them on my list.

Mom was sitting much higher on the nest than she was while on the
eggs, but the chick didn’t come out into view in the ~45 minutes we
were there. One potential reason: there were 3-4 magpies showing great
interest in the nest and flying up and perching on the tower. Mom was
clearly not happy with this, but also didn’t move off the nest to try
to chase them off. Also seen were starlings bugging the bottom of the
nest, which didn’t seem to bother her. Dad didn’t put in an
appearance, but we did see him soaring at high altitude a couple of
times while checking out the turkey vultures in the air, but he was
hard to keep a watch on.

Also seen/heard while there: western bluebirds, magpies, starlings,
blackbirds, oak titmice, scrub jays, turkey vultures and a partridge
in a pear treee.

We then birded Marsh road; seeing pretty much the usual suspects,
although there seemed to be very few epaulets among the blackbirds and
a good number of Brewer’s in the mix. A couple of western kingbirds,
two lark sparrows, more western bluebirds, and a small flock of yellow-
rumps, including one that’s gotten into breeding plumage. Three hooded
orioles, 1 male, two female. No partridge. On a hill right as you
leave milpitas headed for Ed Levin was a male wild turkey…

Oh, and yesterday (friday) I did a lunch walk at EEC out to the salt
pond and back. The barn owl and chicks were hiding, the marsh wrens
were loud, the song sparrows were fighting them for attention, the
Sora on the far side of the channel made a very brief appearance, and
out on the island I saw three cormorants, one clearly a D-C with a
yellow beak, and two that looked larger and with different shaped
beaks with no yellow at all, so I believe we had a couple of the
Brandt’s that have been wandering around, but I didn’t have a scope to
be 100% sure. Also some caspian terns out on the island making a lot
of noise. No sign of the reported grebes.

For photographer interest, there’s a canada goose that’s built a nest
on a small island on the headquarter’s side of the path out to the
salt pond. While I was there, she decided it was time for some
housekeeping, so I could see two and possibly a third egg. Good
opportuniies for photos here without stressing the bird out, if you’re
interested.

4/15 — State and Spreckles lunch walk

A quick lunch jaunt out to Alviso today in the breeze caught me a few
nice things. At the state and spreckles pond were large numbers of
avocets (some possibly sitting on nests, or just hunkered out of the
wind) and stilts, a couple of western sandpipers and a few ducks.

Stopping by the magic fence I had one burrowing owl on the fence. The
magic pasture showed no more owls, but had both a flock of blackbirds
in it and a large flock of swallows bugging above it; A few minutes
study proved them to be northern rough-winged, and a conservative
estimate over about 10 minutes watching was at least 100 individuals.

Begin forwarded message:

> From: do-not-reply@ebird.org
> Date: April 15, 2009 1:25:19 PM PDT
> To: chuqui@me.com
> Subject: eBird Report – Alviso Marsh–State St. & Spreckles Ave. ,
> 4/15/09
>
>
>
> Location: Alviso Marsh–State St. & Spreckles Ave.
> Observation date: 4/15/09
> Number of species: 13
>
> Canada Goose 6
> Northern Shoveler 4
> Ruddy Duck 1
> Double-crested Cormorant 1
> Turkey Vulture 4
> Black-necked Stilt 120
> American Avocet 45
> Western Sandpiper 2
> Eurasian Collared-Dove 1
> Burrowing Owl 1
> American Crow X
> Northern Rough-winged Swallow 100
> Red-winged Blackbird X
>
> This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

4/14 — Baylands/Duck pond. Where are the egrets?

Wandered by the duck pond this morning to see if the rookery was
kicking into gear. It was — empty. When I was there about 2 and a
half weeks ago, I could find 4-5 black-crowned night herons in the
regular spots, today, nothing. None. Zero egrets anywhere on site, no
herons.

In 2007 and 2008, my photo library shows herons in full nesting
activity by the first week of April. I’ve got great egrets in nesting
mode as early as late march there, but now seems to be the time they
should be ramping up. Snowy egrets should be starting to show up about
now. It was a weak year for this rookery last year, this year, it’s
running late.

While I was there, a couple of notable birds. As I got there, a hawk
flew into the rookery area; I thought it sat into a tree, but when I
got there to explore, I couldn’t find it, so it must have flown
through and out the back. It was about the right size for a Cooper’s
but I didn’t notice the dark banding on the tail. Not sure what to
call it, it was a medium greyish bird. Definitely not red-tailed.

I also ran into hummingbird near one of the palms. Only saw it at a
distance, but when I saw it, it had its back to me, and looked more
lime green than the emerald green of a Anna’s. When it turned and
faced me quickly, I caught a distinct orange flash. Selaphorus — I’m
thinking Allen’s, right?

Final bird at the rookery was a common raven that flew in and perched
on the fence for a minute, then hopped down under the palms to see
what kind of trouble it could cause. Throw in a few yellow-crowned
sparrows and one white-crowned for seasoning.

A couple of other bird notes: as I was headed out to the car this
morning, I heard one of the neighborhood Nuttall’s pounding away. he
was in an elm in my neighbor’s yard (beautiful male), giving me one of
the easiest photo assignments I’ve done recently.

And finally, I’ve been told by someone out of area that I directed to
the Calaveras eagles that they saw downy chicks in the nest this
weekend. I haven’t gone up to verify this, but from my guesses, the
timing would be about right. I thought I’d pass this along in case
someone wanted to go up and take a look (what? Bald eagle chicks? Nah.
boooringgg……) In any event, I’m planning to go visit this weekend
and see what happens. I may carry along a BBQ and a beer cooler,
because it seems that a party tries to break out there every weekend
right now… (grin)

4/12 — Panoche Valley

Laurie and I drove out Panoche Valley past mercy hot springs, an area we’d never birded before. Nice drive, nothing too unusual, only first of year bird was a white-breasted nuthatch, but to b honest, I treated it more as a drive than a birding expedition…. We skipped Mercy Hot springs and the long-eared owls in favor of finishing the drive and getting some coffees at Santa Nella’s Starbucks…

Location:     Panoche Valley–Miller Ranch
Observation date:     4/12/09
Number of species:     31

Mallard     X
Turkey Vulture     3
Red-shouldered Hawk (California)     2
Red-tailed Hawk     3
Mourning Dove     X
Anna’s Hummingbird     X
Acorn Woodpecker     2
Nuttall’s Woodpecker     3
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted)     1
Black Phoebe     X
Western Kingbird     10
Western Scrub-Jay (Coastal)     X
Yellow-billed Magpie     X
American Crow     X
Common Raven     3
Tree Swallow     12
Barn Swallow     X
Chestnut-backed Chickadee     2
Oak Titmouse     5
Bushtit     X
White-breasted Nuthatch     1
American Robin     X
Northern Mockingbird     X
European Starling     X
Spotted Towhee     2
California Towhee     1
Dark-eyed Junco     X
Black-headed Grosbeak     1
Red-winged Blackbird     X
Bullock’s Oriole     1
Lesser Goldfinch     2

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

4/11 — Steven’s Creek Park.

(nice to know the hairy woodpeckers are back and nesting. Looking forward to trying tog et some good shots this year)

I was running errands near Cupertino today, so I wandered up to Cooley
to see if I could snag a flycatcher or two.

For better or worse, the only flycatcher I got my eyes on turned out
to be a black phoebe, not a Pacific Slope. Oh well. I did run into a
number of rare and unusual Vireos, unfortunately, they saw me coming
and slipped into their Dark-Eyed Junco disguises. Highlight birds
while staring into the canopies turned out to be two Townsend’s
Warblers. The road from Cooley up to the camp area also snagged a
couple of acorn woodpeckers, two spotted towhees, various juncos, four
(or more) song sparrows, and various “usual suspects”. I saw one Robin
and two song sparrows flying around with nesting materials in their
beaks.

On the way out I stopped at the entrance to stake out the snag that
the hairy woodpeckers used last year, and I was rewarded; they’re
back. Interesting to me was that they aren’t using last year’s nest
hold but have carved out a new one; after about a 10 minute wait the
male showed and the female popped out and they interacted in the
entrance hole, then he left again. 45 minutes after that, he returned,
she left the nest and they wandered up into the trees to work on
(ahem) making eggs for the nest. An Anna’s hummingbird showed repeated
interest in the nest holds, and through the time I was watching,
nobody entered or exited the first (larger) hole. The new hole is
about 6 inches to the left and a bit higher than the original, but
still easily viewable from the area near the entrance. They don’t seem
too worried about people at the entrance, but it’s still a sensitive
location due to its location near the road to the parking lot, so show
some discretion when viewing it and watch from the entrance, not the
roadway.

chuq

Begin forwarded message:

> From: do-not-reply@ebird.org
> Date: April 11, 2009 3:51:14 PM PDT (CA)
> To: chuqui@me.com
> Subject: eBird Report – Stevens Creek Park, Cooley Picnic Area ,
> 4/11/09
>
>
>
> Location: Stevens Creek Park, Conley Picnic Area
> Observation date: 4/11/09
> Number of species: 18
>
> Canada Goose 2
> Anna’s Hummingbird X
> Acorn Woodpecker 2
> Hairy Woodpecker 2
> Black Phoebe 1
> Steller’s Jay X
> American Crow X
> Common Raven 1
> Tree Swallow X
> Barn Swallow 2
> Chestnut-backed Chickadee X
> Oak Titmouse X
> American Robin X
> Townsend’s Warbler 2
> Spotted Towhee 2
> California Towhee 1
> Song Sparrow 4
> Black-headed Grosbeak 1
>
> This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Man, am I behind on this stuff.

Finally, my 4/7 lunch walk at Shoreline lake

I decided to risk the rain and took my tuesday lunch walk out at
Shoreline, hoping to meet the eared grebes (and maybe the horned!) in
light more compatible for photography. Rain held off, so did the
grebes; the only grebes I saw on the lake were pied-billed.

Still, it was a nice walk, punctuated with one (probably two)
Townsend’s Warblers in the pines along the path leading from terminal
to the lake and the salt pond, a pair of killdeer (that seemed to me
to be worried about a nest, I kept my distance) at the end of the path
up the west side where the gate prevents you from going onto the golf
course, and in a tree near there, a flock of 45 or so Cedar Waxwings
chattering in a tree and descending onto some holly bushes. On the way
out, no sign of the bittern from the path, and I didn’t wander in to
look, but I did see on the western side of the channel a song sparrow
that looked to be dealing with a youngster begging to be fed — isn’t
it rather early for that? Could it have been courting behavior instead?

there were black-necked stilts on the island, along with a sandpiper
that I thought might be a spotted, but I was without scope and it was
too far to be sure, so I left it as sandpiper.

Begin forwarded message:

> From: do-not-reply@ebird.org
> Date: April 7, 2009 1:28:45 PM PDT
> To: chuqui@me.com
> Subject: eBird Report – shoreline lake, mountain view , 4/7/09
>
>
>
> Location: shoreline lake, mountain view
> Observation date: 4/7/09
> Number of species: 23
>
> Canada Goose X
> Mallard X
> Greater/Lesser Scaup X
> Surf Scoter X
> Common Goldeneye X
> Ruddy Duck X
> Pied-billed Grebe X
> Double-crested Cormorant X
> Snowy Egret X
> Red-tailed Hawk 1
> American Coot X
> Killdeer 2
> Black-necked Stilt 4
> Willet X
> gull sp. X
> Anna’s Hummingbird X
> American Crow X
> Bushtit X
> Northern Mockingbird 1
> Cedar Waxwing 45
> Townsend’s Warbler 1
> White-crowned Sparrow 6
> Dark-eyed Junco X
>
> This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Rare Birds Flocking to Newly Restored San Diego Wetlands Area: I need to check this out next time I head south. (via @burdr)

Who can resist photos of Great Horned Owls? I can’t.

Even better: Great Horned Owl Chicks.

National Geographic: Birds of a Feather.

DC Birding: Review, the Princeton Encyclopedia of Birds.

All about Birds website redesigned. And very good, too!

The word is that the eagles on Calaveras have hatched at least one chick. I’m headed out there shortly. My interest in those eagles has spawned discussions with people about other nests. There’s a nest in Sydney, BC that has a webcam and chicks (which just reminds me it’s been forever since we’ve visited the island. gotta fix that). and don’t forget the Caltrans turtle bay eagle webcam!

Astute readers might notice very little activity going on here — other than the birding links.

Well, apologies for that. I can explain.

Things have been — what a surprise — really busy at Palm, trying to get things ready for the rest of the universe. You might have heard we had a little announcement last week at Web 2.0; I’m seriously glad we got there, but there’s still a lot to do and much of what I’m doing is still in stealth land. I’m enjoying the work a lot, and I’m really happy I made the decision to go there — but it’s taking up a lot of time and energy; to be honest, I haven’t been in much of a mood to write in the evenings, so I’ve been relaxing offline and away from the computers, watching hockey and working my way through an RPG on the XBOX (Fable, if you might ask. I’m so bleeding edge…)

But one thing I promised myself when I took the job was that I’d take advantage of not spending 1 1/2 and more per day in the car driving to do something with that time I’ve recovered, and also take advantage of being about 10 minutes away from many of my favorite birding haunts. I’m trying to get out a couple of times a week during lunch for short birding trips — and to start getting my walking and exercise going.

And that’s the other reason; I’m trying, twice a week and once on the weekend, to get out and get some exercise. Not a lot — yet — because I’m still trying to rehab the knee and ankle and honestly, half a mile to 3/4 is about all I’m really comfortable with; even so, after a few weeks of this, I’m starting to notice the difference and I’m starting to raise the exertion a bit.

It’s a start, and birding is a reason and an excuse; I also find writing about it pretty, well, unintersting, even to me. “Hey! I’ve lost 1% of my goal weight! whoo hoo!” just doesn’t do much for me.

But talking about the birding? That I enjoy doing. So I will.

there are a number of things I”m planning to write about, so soon you should be seeing some more on other topics, and I’m starting to think about the next phases in a few things, from my photography work to this blog design to…

But the reality is, with the time and energy I have these days, my first priority is to make sure things at work go well, and secondarily, I’m trying not to allow myself to not see the exercise and walking as a “as soon as I finish this thing” priority again. The other things can happen once I’m happier with the state of my exercise and diet, not the other way around. And, FWIW, since joining Palm I’ve taken in a full belt loop, and I’m getting closer to the weight I was at before my dad got sick at the start of 2008. But there’s still a lot to do there, the journey can barely be said to have begun…

So stay tuned, and I apologize for the relative paucity of discussion here…. But we’re finally getting there.

I think.

I went out and visited the Bald Eagles today to check up on the happy
couple. While I was there, the male brought in another ground
squirrel, and sat atop the tower for a while. then the female left the
nest for a little spin, and you could almost see the “damn! it feels
good to get out and stretch my wings!” in her flight as she played in
the thermals. She ulimately went really high and disappeared north and
didn’t come back for the 30 minutes or so I stayed after that. The
male sat on the edge of the nest and fed, then hopped down and sat on
the eggs. It was a nice warm day, so they didn’t seem to feel the eggs
needed constant sitting.

Other birds seen while watching the birds sit on the nest and do
nothing of interest: lots of magpies, at least one pair of bluebirds,
an acorn woodpecker, a small group of gold-crowned sparrows who popped
out and ground fed for a while, and lots of turkey vultures and a
couple of red-tails. One red-tail soared in while the male was
circling near the nest, got a little too close, and the male angled
over into an intercept, and the red-tailed hauled butt out of the
area. After the female left, we had repeated individuals of turkey
vultures soar by, and one got a little too close to the nest for the
male’s comfort, who get it a little yell, and it shifted directions
and headed south. On the way in to the nest, just after the Felter
split, I saw a bird in a tree and mentally checked off red-tailed.
Really big red-tailed. really, really big red-tailed with a brownish
head? I stopped and got out the binos, and it was a young golden
eagle. It was nice enough to fly over after that, showing off the
white spots on the underwings nicely.

After that, I birded Marsh road. On the way in, I had a single female
wild turkey on the road looking at me really nervously (it was gone
when I returned). All the way out at the end of Marsh I found two
western kingbird’s on the fence bugging, and they were joined by a
male bluebird. In the bushes along the road down in the flats I found
two Lark Sparrows. I stopped where the stream crosses the road (still
some water, but it’s way down from when it was raining) to check out
the area around the stream, and found some white-crowned sparrows on
the ground scratching for seeds, goldfinches, a nice Bullock’s Oriole
male on the fence, a single western meadowlark, lots of magpies, and
in the shade near the sparrows, a funky bird that I first thought was
a california towhee but realized it had a huge beak; it was a female
black-headed grossbeak that seemed to be moulting. I could hear
turkeys in the distance, but didn’t see any other than the one
individual.

All in all, a nicely successful birding day, hitting almost all of the
species I wanted to see (but rarely do) except California Quail, which
continues to hide well from me this year (so does the Baylands
pheasant… )

Location: Marsh Road, Calaveras
Observation date: 4/5/09
Number of species: 25

Wild Turkey 1
Turkey Vulture X
Red-shouldered Hawk 2
Mourning Dove 2
Anna’s Hummingbird 1
Black Phoebe 1
Western Kingbird 2
Steller’s Jay X
Western Scrub-Jay 1
Yellow-billed Magpie X
Tree Swallow X
Barn Swallow X
Oak Titmouse X
Western Bluebird 3
European Starling X
Orange-crowned Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler X
Lark Sparrow 2
White-crowned Sparrow 3
Dark-eyed Junco 2
Black-headed Grosbeak 1
Red-winged Blackbird X
Western Meadowlark 1
Lesser Goldfinch X
Lawrence’s Goldfinch X

Location: calaveras road
Observation date: 4/5/09
Number of species: 20

Double-crested Cormorant 1
Turkey Vulture X
Bald Eagle 2 Nesting pair
Red-tailed Hawk 3
Golden Eagle 1
Acorn Woodpecker 1
Black Phoebe 1
Steller’s Jay X
Western Scrub-Jay X
Yellow-billed Magpie 25
Common Raven 4 two interacting pairs
Tree Swallow 2
Oak Titmouse 1
Western Bluebird 2
European Starling X
Yellow-rumped Warbler X
Golden-crowned Sparrow 5
Red-winged Blackbird X
Lesser Goldfinch X
American Goldfinch X

And to catch up, I previously did a couple of short birding walks at lunch:

Shoreline Lake on 3/26:

I did my lunch ramble down to terminal road and walked over to
Shoreline to see if I could take pictures of the Eared Grebes.
Pictures I took, whether they’re any good in the backlighting I don’t
know yet.

the bittern was evidently eating out today, he was missing from his
usual spots.

Surprising to me: the number of eared grebes; most folks seem to be
reporting low numbers of the birds on the lake. I sat down on the
shore and hoped they’d come close, and started noticing multiple
groups of the birds, plus a few hanging out with the goldeneyes. At
one point, I could count 13 distinct individuals in sight — and
perhaps as many as 15, depending on which diving birds were timing it
to confuse me. All are either in breeding plumage or close to it,
really gorgeous, if you haven’t gotten down there to see them. Early
morning is probably better (as usual for Shoreline) to avoid sun glare
and backlighting problems.

Also a good number (10+) pied-bills, including some vocalizing at each
other.

Begin forwarded message:

> From: do-not-reply@ebird.org
> Date: March 26, 2009 2:39:59 PM PDT
> To: chuqui@me.com
> Subject: eBird Report – shoreline lake, mountain view , 3/26/09
>
>
>
> Location: shoreline lake, mountain view
> Observation date: 3/26/09
> Number of species: 14
>
> Canada Goose X
> Surf Scoter X
> Common Goldeneye X
> Ruddy Duck X
> Pied-billed Grebe 10
> Eared Grebe 13
> Snowy Egret 2
> Willet X
> Mourning Dove X
> Anna’s Hummingbird X
> American Crow X
> California Towhee 1
> White-crowned Sparrow X
> House Finch X
>
> This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

and

Ulistac Nature Preserve in Santa Clara on the 24th

I did a lunch walk at Ulistac today, starting about noon and spending about 45 minutes there, entering at the south gate and walking up the path down the middle of the area, then out the north gate and back down the sidewalk.

Special bird for me today was a Nashville Warbler (life #222) in a Willow in the Northern area of the park; it was lurking in a tree where two chickadees were having a very animated “get to know each other” conversation, which is what drew me in to happen to notice the other bird hop (thank you, chickadees, may your brood be large and healthy).

raptors included two Cooper’s Hawks, one flying, and a red-shouldered hawk that flew in and landed. I did see a Northern flicker, but not well enough to see if it was the Intergrade. I also saw two woodpeckers, neither well enough to document, but one I believe was a downy, and the other was — a woodpecker.

Lots of yellow-rumps, the southern part of the park was dominated by mockingbirds including one showing serious territoriality against another mockingbird. The northern part of the park had scrub jays in it. The Bewick’s Wren and the juncos were heard only. No sign of the Kingbird or other recent reports.

Begin forwarded message:

From: do-not-reply@ebird.org
Date: March 24, 2009 6:33:13 PM PDT (CA)
To: chuqui@me.com
Subject: eBird Report – Ulistac Nature Area , 3/24/09

Location:     Ulistac Nature Area
Observation date:     3/24/09
Number of species:     19

Turkey Vulture     1
Cooper’s Hawk     2
Red-shouldered Hawk     1
Mourning Dove     X
Anna’s Hummingbird     X
Northern Flicker     1
Western Scrub-Jay     X
American Crow     X
Chestnut-backed Chickadee     2
Bewick’s Wren     1
Northern Mockingbird     X
Nashville Warbler     1
Yellow-rumped Warbler     X
California Towhee     1
White-crowned Sparrow     X
Golden-crowned Sparrow     X
Dark-eyed Junco     X
House Finch     X
House Sparrow     X

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

I’ve been collecting some intereting things until I had time to do some posting. Now that taxes are done, I seem to have some time… Up first, some interesting things for birders that I’ve run into recently…

• Sequoia Audubon, which is the local chapter in San Mateo county, has just issued a great new guide to birding the county. It’s a great way to learn where the birds are in the county, and it uses some nice modern technologies to help enable this online; it’s also wonderfully designed and easy to use. You can take a look at it at http://birding.sequoia-audubon.org/ — I like it enough it’s going to be a model for some things I hope to build later this year.
• I’ve been spending time most weekends up near Calaveras Reservoir watching the Bald Eagle’s nest and waiting for the chicks to hatch. For those interested in eagles but looking for an easier way to watch, check out the eaglecam, showing a nest at Turtle Bay on Route 44 here in California.
• And Birders World magazine has redone their site, and it’s quite nice. The one thing I wish it had was RSS feeds on the photo galleries, because the way life is these days, without RSS I never remember to go and look. Yes, I am in full attention deficit, thanks for noticing…

have fun!