Mokka mit Schlag » Birding

Sunday I again joined the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, this time heading north to Palo Alto and the Arastradero Preserve for a trip led by Frank Vanslager. The group was meeting at 8:00 A.M., but I got there an hour early. This was fortunate because my Fox Rent-A-Car had a slow leak in the right rear tire, and it had gone almost flat. I needed the extra time to find a gas station and fill the tire. Fortunately California gas stations are quite friendly, and I had no trouble getting some air.

I arrived at the preserve about 7:30. The gates weren’t open yet, so I drove down the road and picked up Western Bluebird and some sparrows. Driving back I found the ranger opening the gate so I parked. The others soon arrived. From the parking lot we spotted Red-winged Blackbird, Western Bluebird, American Robin, Red-tailed Hawk, and various other birds.

It had been drizzling all along, but at this point it got serious. We wandered over to some half-finished buildings that showed clear evidence of owl infestation. However no owl was seen. We birded from the porch for about half an hour picking off a few birds in the trees across the street or flying over the meadow behind us, before we decided the rain wasn’t going to let up.

There were two choices left: get wet or go home. I’d come 2500 miles for this trip so I wasn’t going home. Fortunately the rest of the group felt the same way so we took off in the rain.
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After leaving Ogier Ponds around noon, I drove up to Mountain View and one of my favorite sites, Mountain View Shoreline Park. Unfortunately I hit it several hours before low tide, and the shore birds hadn’t yet come in. 100+ American Avocets and several dozen dowitchers were camped out on a small island in the middle of the pond. A few Canvasbacks and other ducks were swimming around:

However it would be a few hours before the tide moved enough to bring them in, so I decided to try a different site and drove north to Fremont and the Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge. This proved to be a wise choice. Don Edwards was packed with birds including Bushtit; Golden, White-crowned, and Song Sparrow; and lots of shorebirds, especially Black-necked Stilt, American Avocet, and Willet. Also present was at least one Greater Yellowlegs.
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Saturday I joined the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society for a field trip to Ogier Ponds down in south San Jose. The trip officially started at 8:30 A.M., but not knowing the area I’d alloted more time than necessary to reach the site and got there about 7:30 A.M.

The first bird I saw was an American Robin. The last time I was an Audubon trip in California I’d also spotted a robin before the start of the walk, which I didn’t learn till the walk was over was a big surprise at that site and location so I hadn’t taken a picture. This time I was prepared and snapped this picture:

Of course, Murphy’s law applies; and at this site at this time of year, robins turned out to be common. We saw seven or eight more, and no one was the least impressed with my early robin. :-)
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My new Audubon Equinox HP 10×42 binoculars arrived yesterday so I took them to Prospect Park to try them out. I’m not sure if it was the new binoculars or the light or the unusual closeness of the cormorant, but for the first time I can remember, I noticed that the Double-crested Cormorant has green eyes.

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I’ve received some more information about H7H6, the banded Canada Goose I first spotted in Prospect Park on January 29 and have since relocated twice.
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Scanning the results of the Great Backyard Bird Count, it looks like the Brooklyn Bird Club can claim at least one save for New York. Saturday’s Brooklyn Bird Club trip with Steve Nanz turned up the only two Eurasian Wigeons found in the state. Update: a later version of the results shows two Eurasian Wigeons in Mettituck, so it’s turns out not to be a save after all.
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