mjm@oliven.olivetti.com (Michael Mammoser) (01/21/88)
On sunday, the 17th of January, the high tide produced the highest water I have ever seen at the Palo Alto Baylands at the south end of San Francisco Bay. I believe that the wind and rain added almost a foot to the water level. There is a wintering population of black rails here and the high water gave them very little cover in the place that they normally find refuge. Consequently, they were forced to spend more time in the open as they scurried for the few clumps of cover. I got the best looks at them that I have ever had. Good high tides can draw 50-100 birders to a 30 square yard piece of land to see these guys. Also, the Baylands draws a few wintering sharp-tailed sparrows, that high tides can produce some goods looks of. This year there is only one of them in the normal spot, but Sunday also produced the best looks I have ever had of this species as well. Also, on Sunday, a yellow rail was found caught between two boards on the boardwalk and was captured and turned over to the wildlife rehabilitation people. I believe that this is the first county record of this species since the early 1900s. The rehab people released it back into the Baylands on Teusday, so I am going there today to try and call it up with a tape. The water was so high that day that a Virginia rail took refuge on the boardwalk and would not leave it, even as people went walking past it. At one point there were about 15 people standing there while the rail was walking around between their feet. This is unusual behavior for a normally spooky bird. good hunting, Mike
john@nmtsun.nmt.edu (John Shipman) (01/24/88)
Thank you very much, Michael Mammoser, for your posting on the high
tide at Palo Alto Baylands. Much of my early birding experience was
there---what a great place to learn!
I found your statement that ``there is a wintering population of black
rails here'' most interesting. I was at one of the early sightings of
that bird at a high tide in the Baylands in the late seventies, and at
that time no one was sure what it was doing there; back then they
didn't know about any regular occurrence of the bird in the South Bay
except *maybe* at the east end of the Dumbarton Bridge.
The spot where I saw the rail was just to the right of the gate that
leads down the levee towards the interpretive center, just by the road
leading to the boat ramps, where that road turns right (site <1> on
the map below).
One high-tide day there was also a Sharp-tailed Sparrow diving around
in the pickleweed only about thirty feet to the right of the rail
(site <2> on the map). Meanwhile, Joe Morlan and his thundering herd
(a birding class of at least forty people) were blasting off down the
boardwalk to the spot where the sharp-tailed sparrows had been seen in
previous years---out to the PG&E boardwalk, turn left, past the second
tower near where the boardwalk goes over the bay (site <3>). We
shouted "SHARP-TAILED SPARROW!" real loud but Morlan didn't believe
us, and they didn't see any where they went. They eventually came
back and, fortunately for them, the sparrow was still around. So what
did you mean by ``the normal spot'' for Sharp-tailed Sparrow?
As for the yellow rail, I hope you saw that bird. It's *WAY* up there
on my most-wanted list. (-: It's reputed to be hard to see... :-)
High tides can be bizarre at Baylands. We once saw a Virginia Rail
eaten by a Black-crowned Night-Heron. Another time a vast crowd of
birders flushed a Black Rail and it was eaten by a Great Egret. On
several occasions I saw Clapper Rails eating mice during high tides.
I have pictures of a clapper eating two endangered Salt Marsh Harvest
Mice. Has anybody else seen this behavior?
One day an elderly lady and I stood near the first tower and watched a
Great Blue Heron about twenty yards away doing battle with a huge
Norway Rat as they stood on a floating log. The heron pounded on the
rat for a while with its bill. At one point the rat summoned a last
flurry of energy and tried to bite the heron on the leg. After
several rounds of pounding and trying to ingest the rat, the heron
finally choked it down. The lady turned to me and said, "I didn't
come out here to watch all this violence!"
If you know anybody who needs to see Virginia Rail or Sora, they are
fairly easy to spot an hour or so after even a moderately high tide
(4.0 or higher) if you walk down the levee that runs between the
sewage effluent channel and the airport. At the place where the
channel bends to the right and diverges from the levee, the wedge-
shaped cattail patch between the levee and the channel is a good place
to see the rails as they leave the cover near the levee and disperse
back into the marsh. Photography is tough, though, since they are
usually out for only a few seconds.
SITES=<1>: Black Rail +----+ Observation ^
<2>: Sharp-tailed Sp. | | Platform |
<3>: Sharp-tailed Sp. +- -+ North
||
<3> ||
||
=============================================================== PG&E boardwalk
|| || ||
|| x || x ||
tower 2 tower 1 ||
||
|| <2>
-------- ______________________
/ Interp \ <1>/ road to boat ramp
\ center / | __________________
-------- + | /
=============dike=================================| | |
gate + | | parking lot
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I would have e-mailed this, but our mailer barfed. Anybody who sees
Chandrake the Magician (Ted Chandik, who worked at the interpretive
center last I knew), say hello to him for me.
--
John Shipman/Zoological Data Processing/Socorro, New Mexico
USENET: ihnp4!lanl!unm-la!unmvax!nmtsun!john CSNET: john@nmt.csnet
``If you can't take it, get stronger.'' --Falline Danforth