Recent birding….

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)

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