big day of birding…

So I decided to get away from email and cell towers for a while and I
went out on an extended birding run, starting out way too freaking
early in the morning and driving up Mount Hamilton and out to the
Stanislaus county line, then backtracking and out Mines road to
Livermore, over Altamont and then through Gustine to San Luis NWR,
then home via O’Neill Forebay and 152. I hit the Grant park area just
as the light started going grey, and got home again about 3PM, driving
about 270 miles in the meantime. low temperature was 52 in the fog on
the way up mount hamilton, high temperature was 97 degrees at San Luis
reservoir on the way home.

The drive was awesome, the birding was interesting but not
spectacular, the photography was pretty mediocre. And I had a great
time… I was going to try to loop in merced NWR as well, but it was
hot enough in the central valley that it made no sense. All in all, I
checked birds in five counties, adn I considered looping down into
Santa Cruz and up the coast into San Mateo, but I decided that was
tempting insanity (besides, I’m thinking of hitting pigeon point and
gazos early monday…)

Santa Clara highlights:

For some reason, I have problems seeing california quail on the
county. I swear they see me coming and hide, laughing. Today solved
that and gave me numbers to last me for a while, since quail were
freaking everywhere. They definitely went forth and prospered this
summer. I saw at least 30 families from the base of mount hamilton to
when I entered alameda county, the largest being about 45 individuals,
and that large family included some tiny (week to ten day old) baby
quail numbering about 15. they were maybe 2″ tall. Everywhere I went,
quail were diving for cover…

I also saw massive numbers of scrub jays, the largest family group
being ten. And large numbers of Acorn woodpeckers. Lots and lots of
acorn woodpeckers.

But overall, birding wasn’t stupendous, about about 10AM when the
temperature in the valley hit about 84, the birds all headed for shade
and said “dude! some other time” (except for the jays…).

Specific highlights:

California thrasher at Smith Creek CDF (year bird! 192).

ten ravens looking for trouble to cause around Grant park at sunrise.

an adult female bluebird and a bird in juvenile plumage up at the sky
ranch gate, indicating they nested there this year. no sign of the
tree swallows that I’ve seen nesting at that location before, they’re
gone (if they were there). Just downhill from here I ran into the
band-tailed pigeon and one of the flickers.

Just below that, a tree with ten turkey vultures hanging out in a
roost waiting for it to warm up.

On the way down the hill near one of the ranches, a hawk in a tree
turned out to be a sharp-shinned.

Down near ranch 71 (in the flat among the horse pastures) I ran into a
few interesting small birds, including a single Lark Sparrow, an oak
titmouse, and a pigmy nuthatch. Pigmy nuthatch, much to my surprise,
is a lifer on ebird and is my lifer bird #250 and year bird 193. Last
year, I hit year bird 193 November 28th. That’s my 11th lifer this
year. the other flicker was in this area.

also in this area as I was driving I flushed a full adult bald eagle,
who turned out to have staked out a roadkill rabbit and when I got too
close flew off and past my car about 4′ away. Absolutely awesome
sight. From the size and the bill, I’ll say 80% sure it was female.

at O’neill forebay it was pretty quiet, I stopped just long enough for
a quick look in the heat, and saw mostly coot’s and a small flock of
western grebes. If there was a clark’s in there, I didn’t stop to sort
them out (my bad). Didn’t see much of anything else from my vantage
point, the water looked pretty empty.

(out of area, San Luis waterbird route was pretty hot, dusty and
empty; mostly I pissed off great egrets and great blue herons who felt
the need to move out of my way, although I did see a green heron, a
loggerhead shrike and a single american kestrel female).

———- Forwarded message ———-
From:  <do-not-reply@ebird.org>
Date: Sat, Sep 4, 2010 at 3:26 PM
Subject: eBird Report – Del Puerto Canyon (SCL Co.) , 9/4/10

Location:     Del Puerto Canyon (SCL Co.)
Observation date:     9/4/10
Notes:     long drive, from alum rock to stanislaus county line, back
to mines road and alameda county
Number of species:     26

California Quail     350
Turkey Vulture     12
Bald Eagle     1
Sharp-shinned Hawk     1
Red-tailed Hawk     3
Band-tailed Pigeon     1
Mourning Dove     75
Acorn Woodpecker     45
Northern Flicker     2
Black Phoebe     1
Steller’s Jay     15
Western Scrub-Jay     70
Yellow-billed Magpie     X
American Crow     X
Common Raven     10
Cliff Swallow     2
Oak Titmouse     1
Bushtit     8
Pygmy Nuthatch     1
Western Bluebird     2
Northern Mockingbird     3
California Thrasher     1
California Towhee     X
Lark Sparrow     1
White-crowned Sparrow     X
Red-winged Blackbird     X

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

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