Something about birds with crests!
Check out this Hooded Merganser video at Shoreline at Mountain View in Santa Clara County, California.
Pinnacles NP with Andrew Bradshaw and visiting birder from the Netherlands! Go time!
Summary of our Sector Results for the Calero-Morgan Hill CBC yesterday:
My intrepid team (Tom and Diane Bennett, Breanna Martinico and Ryan Bourbour) covered the Coyote Valley sector of the count, which includes the heart of Coyote Valley from Tulare Hill south to Palm Avenue and Monterey Road west to the edge of the Santa Cruz MT Foothills. We started at 6:30am and ended at 5:20pm. As suggested by Beth and others, the species richness and abundance was down and we missed many birds we usually get on this count. In large part this sector is highly influenced by land use and rainfall. Over the years there has been dramatic land use changes such as planting of orchards, the amount of alfalfa and height of vegetation. There was very limited standing water, which produced not a single shorebird and nearly no waterfowl.
Overall, a beautiful and frigid day that started off cold at 27°F and the high was only 53°F.
Highlights included:
A 4 falcon day and all seen in the same view at the same time! A PRAIRIE FALCON was perched near Bailey Ave on top of an oak just on IBM property then blasted through Laguna Ave stirring up large passerine flocks at ~8:45am.
We had a female type MERLIN foraging on Laguna Ave and flushing large flocks of AMERICAN PIPITS (200+), which we numerous throughout the valley, and SAVANNAH SPARROWS. We had another MERLIN (male) on the East end of Richmond Ave.
An adult PEREGRINE FALCON was perched between Laguna Ave and Bailey Ave.
The rarest bird of the day was a single minima type CACKLING GOOSE mixed in with the 200 Canada Geese between Bailey Ave and Laguna Ave on the more western side near the fence line. We probably would have missed this bird if it did not fly in with Canadas as once it landed it sat down and only the top of the head was visible amongst the towering Canada.
We had two BARN OWLS for the day. One at 6:50am foraging on Laguna Ave near Fisher Creek and one roosting in a palm.
We found over a 1000 blackbirds, but cou
Spectacular day in the Davis area watching Swainson's Hawks with great people. We observed over 70 Swainson's with all morphs and some neat behavior and had nice looks at Yellow-headed Blackbirds, 3 species of owls (burrowing, barn and great horned). I will post photos later but here is a video for now.
Watching this REDDISH EGRET at the San Diego River mouth right now! Such a clown of the waders. Also a few LITTLE BLUE HERONS! Other target observed are Royal Terns.
A peak at what the SF Bay Salt marsh historically looked like.
Good morning from the South Bay Salt Ponds.
On the August 13 Excursion searching for terns and shorebirds this is site we will visit and the show we will witness. A few spots left! Sign up.
Black Rails this morning at Alviso Marina. At least 2 vocalizing! Now onto co-lead a raptor workshop. Happy Saturday! Get outside and go birding.
There are some species that will sing from the nest. We witnessed a male BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK singing from a nest on our excursion today. Check out this not so good video of it. Neat behavior.
Part of our big day today was filled with biking. Here is a clip at the end of the day.
Breeding season is on and migrants are starting to trickle in! "Who is that handsome dude on my territory?"
-Song Sparrow, Palo Alto Baylands
Anyone need to connect with nature or a moment of meditation? Watch hundreds of foraging Violet-green Swallows. From Oka Ponds in Los Gatos.
