mjm@oliven.olivetti.com (Michael Mammoser) (11/30/89)
I had a wonderful four day weekend of birding. I hope you all did too. Bright and early on Thanksgiving morning I went out to Matadero Riparian, a small riparian area where Matadero Creek enters the Palo Alto Flood Control Basin. This area tends to be good for sparrows in winter; with Song, Savannah, Fox, White-Crowned, Golden-Crowned, Lincoln's, and the occasional Swamp Sparrow. Not to mention the other sparrow-like birds such as California and Rufous- Sided Towhees, House Finch, Lesser and American Goldfinches. But it was the Swamp Sparrow that I was after. They are not too common, although regular, on the west coast and have been seen in Matadero Riparian in each of the last four years. The only one I've ever seen was here three years ago on a Christmas Bird Count and I figured that it was high time that I saw one again. I worked the length of Matadero Riparian (about 100 yards) being serenaded all the way by the scores of Anna's Hummingbirds staking their claims in the flowering Eucalyptus trees. The sparrows were all there except Savannah, which I could have found in the flood control basin proper, and Swamp Sparrow. At the end of the riparian stretch, in the flood control basin, is a patch of short scrubby trees, tall weeds, and cattails that is distinct from the flood control basin proper, which is composed of a low-growing salt marsh type of vegetation. I walked around this patch to the point where I had seen the Swamp Sparrow several years ago and "pished". A Marsh Wren answered. I "pished" again. This time Lincoln's Sparrows responded and played hide-and-seek through the weeds. More "pishing" produced a Common Yellowthroat. Every "chip" and "buzz" had to be investigated, turning up the same old birds. I stayed there for about an hour and a half, my attention sometimes being distracted by the gulls flying overhead or the Black-Shouldered Kites perched a short distance away. Finally a bird popped up that looked different, but flew off before I could get a good look at it. I slowly approached the spot where it went down. When it popped up again, it sat for some seconds before flying off and disappearing in the weeds. This was the time I needed. It had a very gray face, an unstreaked gray breast that contrasted with the pale throat and belly, and buffy flanks with faint streaking. Then it was gone. I stayed there for some minutes trying to get another look, without success. So I moved off to Charleston Slough to try and find a Eurasian Wigeon. They were being seen here since September and I figured that the odds were pretty good for finding one today. I started scanning through the flocks of American Wigeon, Ruddy Duck, Northern Pintail, and Northern shoveler. My attention was immediately drawn to a red headed, pale bodied duck resting on an island in the slough. Sure enough, it was a Eurasian Wigeon. They are pretty distinctive and stand out quite well from the rest of the ducks, so they are not too difficult to locate with a fairly rapid panning motion. Within a few minutes I had located a second one swimming not too far from the first. I moved over to Adobe Creek, which borders the flood control basin next to Charleston Slough. I moved up the creek to where the cattails grow and the water isn't as open; where the Cinnamon Teal like to hang out. There I found two Blue-Winged Teal; one eclipse plumaged male and a female/immature. These are fairly rare winter birds out here and it was nice to see them, although the male wasn't in his usual nifty plumage. All in all, the day produced some nice Thanksgiving birds. The next day I joined my friend, Grant Hoyt, to do a census along Coyote Creek for the Coyote Creek Riparian Station, the local bird banding organization. They run mist nets along the creek and augment their banding data with census information, to fully understand how this critical riparian habitat is utilized. Today the highlights were of the raptor variety. Of course, there were the ever-present Red-Tailed Hawks, but the interesting sightings started with an immature Cooper's Hawk. It was perched in a tree near the banding trailer, and even from a distance it seemed too large to be a Sharp-Shinned (it was probably a female). It didn't stick around long, sneaking away when our attention was diverted. The diversion came in the form of a large dark bird perched in the top of a cottonwood down the creek. At the distance we were from the bird it was hard to see field marks clearly and we mused about the possibility of it just being another Red-Tailed. Then another possibility leapt to mind when the bird turned its head and showed its straw-colored nape; Golden Eagle! We moved down the opposite side of the creek to a point where the eagle was just above us, and we had a clear view of it. Fortunately, the bird sat for a couple of minutes, giving us excellent views from a short distance, before becoming too uneasy with our presence and flying off downstream. We passed the eagle twice more that morning while it remained in the vicinity. Further downstream my attention was drawn to the open agricultural field on the other side of the creek and a flock of Rock Doves that was wheeling over it; and the large falcon that was the cause of all the fuss. I called to Grant and we raced to an open spot in time to see the falcon flying away low over the field to a power tower near the freeway. We didn't have an opportunity to make a positive ID, but surmised that it was probably a Peregrine. Some minutes later as we neared the end of the riparian area the falcon gave us another chance, as it suddenly reappeared, flying low right in front of us and scattering blackbirds and Mourning Doves everywhere. It approached a chain-link fence that bordered the road and, after clearing the fence, turned back towards us and cruised along the fence just a few feet above the ground. The bird was only about eighty feet away and we could easily identify it as an immature Peregrine. At this point the bird climbed about twenty feet into the air and made a short stoop towards the ground, pulling up just short. It repeated this two or three times over the same spot, until a Mourning Dove flushed from the spot where it had been diving and took off straight towards us, with the falcon in hot pursuit. They were flying only about three or four feet above the ground and in the space of about thirty feet the falcon had closed the distance between them. It was only a couple of wingbeats away from snatching the dove out of the air when a second Mourning Dove flushed at their approach and flew straight up past them. This seemed to distract the falcon; for it pulled up and made a half-hearted turn towards the second dove. But its concentration had been broken and, as both doves fled for safety, the falcon gave up and flew past us back over the creek. After this the rest of the census was rather anticlimactic. Saturday I joined Grant and his wife, Karen, for a trip out to the central valley. The plan was to bird along Woodbridge Road in the delta of the Sacramento River and then head to Gray Lodge Waterfowl Management Area north of Sacramento. As we left Santa Clara Valley, raindrops started to fall and continued off and on for the rest of the day. Whatever birding we did would have to be done from the car, for the most part. Woodbridge Road is a good place to observe wintering Sandhill Cranes and we were not disappointed in this respect. At one point we pulled over with a small flock of cranes on either side of the road; close enough for excellent binocular views. They even entertained us with some of their pair-bonding rituals; leaping high into the air with wings spread and legs flailing, or grabbing a clump of dirt or grass in their bills and tossing it high into the air. Another field that we stopped at was filled with Killdeer, with a liberal dose of Black-Bellied Plovers, and a smattering of Dunlin, Least Sandpipers, and Common Snipe. We estimated that there were about a thousand Killdeer here; the most that I have ever seen in one place. At another spot we stopped next to a field full of grape- vines and were watching crowned sparrows and goldfinches in the bushes and tall weeds along the side of the road. We noticed a Sharp-Shinned Hawk cruising over the grapevines and watched him until he dropped below the level of the vines. We thought nothing more about it until, a minute later, he suddenly popped up at the roadside bushes, surprising us and the sparrows. Sneaky critters, these accipiters. He went away empty-taloned, though. When we got to Gray Lodge, the numbers of ducks was impressive. At many times we were able to see tens of thousands of them in the air at once. There were American Wigeon, Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail, Gadwall, Ruddy Duck, Mallard, and Ring-Necked Duck. We were hoping that we might be able to pick out a Eurasian Wigeon in the flocks, but the rain prevented us from walking around or scoping. The only thing missing here were the geese, so we left the preserve and drove along the road north of there scanning the fields on either side for grazing flocks of geese. Most of the flocks that we found were too far from the road to get any decent looks, and when we finally found one close enough, they were unscopable because of the rain and wind. We could certainly see that they were Snow Geese, but we needed to scope them to pick out the possible Ross' Goose, which was a lifer for me. We continued up the road without finding any more geese, but after a while the rain abated to some extent, so we turned back to try for one of the previous flocks. On the way a Merlin flew by, but was gone by the time we were able to pull over and get out of the car. However, we noticed thousands of geese flying in and out of an area off in the distance that had no obvious roads going to it. Many of them were flying overhead and Grant kept saying "there's a Ross'", pointing out the size difference between one goose and the rest. However, I was not willing to accept size difference alone as a positive ID, and we continued looking for a flock. Finally, we found a flock that was fairly close to the road at the same time that the wind and rain were at a minimum. I noticed a small number of Greater White- Fronted Geese among the Snows, and eventually picked out a couple of Ross', which I happily ticked off on my life list. We ended up doing quite well on this day despite our "confinement" to the car. I was so pleased with these three days of birding that I took Sunday off and watched football. Mike
grp@unify.uucp (Greg Pasquariello) (11/30/89)
In article <51596@oliveb.olivetti.com> mjm@oliven.olivetti.com (Michael Mammoser) writes: > > Saturday I joined Grant and his wife, Karen, for a trip >out to the central valley. The plan was to bird along Woodbridge >Road in the delta of the Sacramento River and then head to Gray >Lodge Waterfowl Management Area north of Sacramento. >Mike (Sorry to post this, but I am not sure yet if my mailer is working to/from you Mike) Mike, how do I get to these places? -Greg -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Greg Pasquariello (916) 920-9092 grp@unify.UUCP Unify Corporation ...!{csusac, pyramid}!unify!grp