Last Saturday I led my DeDUCKtions Birdathon team on a whirlwind tour from the East Hills to the Bay and then finally to the West Hills. This cross section of the county was fast paced and efficient compared to some of our previous routes, giving us access to a variety of habitats with fairly, short intervals of driving. Participants were Matthew Dodder, Kelly Dodder, Eric Goodill, Mary Ann Allan, Brooke Miller, Ashutosh Sinha, Ellyn Corey, Cathy Loewen, and Ally Romanow
We began at Spring Valley (Ed Levin) at 8:00 searching first for any Selasphorus Hummingbirds or Orioles at the large eucalyptus tree by the corral. We only heard one Selasphorus and it never appeared long enough for us to identify it, and found a pair of Bullock’s Orioles. We had good luck with the Lawrence’s Goldfinches, but the Phaiinopepla has been absent for about two weeks now and so didn’t appear for us. A pair of Golden Eagles appeared over the ridge and one White-tailed Kite was hovering above the trees by the lake. Early on our visit, Eric spotted an Osprey flying away from the lake.
At Sandy Wool (Ed Levin) we continued to hear Lawrence’s Goldfinches near the hang glider landing area as well as Lark Sparrow. Our real target was the Grasshopper Sparrow along the steep trail to Agua Caliente. Luckily we found it long before the steepest part of the trail. We also had our season first Lazuli Bunting here. Obviously, the lake presented a few water birds like Black-crowned Night Heron for us as well as Great-tailed Grackle.
After leaving this area, we drove to Don Edwards and birded the entrance road to the Environmental Education Center (EEC). There we found a treasure trove of new birds for our list including Semipalmated Plover and breeding-plumaged Dunlin. At the native garden beside the facility we scoped the ponds finding a few new species such as Forster’s Tern, Western Grebe and Canvasback
From there we made a quick stop at Sunnyvale Water Pollution Control Ponds just long enough to add Caspian Tern, and our target Green Heron and Common Gallinule. Marsh Wren was easy to hear at this location as well, but since we had already found them at Don Edwards we were more excited by the House Sparrows that were hanging out along the channel.
A quick stop at the Kite Flying are of Shoreline Park provided distant views of Burrowing Owl, but we also found Western Kingbirds and a lingering Merlin that landed on a power tower above the kiosk—a spot I’ve often seen this species perch.
We birded both the clubhouse area and the Terminal Blvd section of Shoreline Lake. The Black Skimmers, Black Oystercatcher and Lesser Yellowlegs were all found but we did not locate the female Common Goldeneye. I wish we had had time to look at A1 more thoroughly, but we were getting quite tired by late afternoon and still had three stops to go.
Pichetti Ranch OSP was not very birdy, perhaps because of the cool temperatures and the slight drizzle we encountered. This didn’t seem to discourage the revelers at the picnic tables… In fact, much of the day was less active as far as birds than we had hoped, but we still managed to pick up a bird or three, namely Wild Turkey, Orange-crowned Warbler and Black-throated Gray Warbler.
At the nearby Lake View Picnic Area overlooking the Stevens Creek Reservoir we were not optimistic about finding our target since the water was so high and litter exposed shoreline was available. A careful scanning of the entire lake however gave us what we came for a Spotted Sandpiper!
Finally, just before our clock ran out, we caravanned to McClellan Ranch where our Black-chinned Hummingbird female, the bird that I had reported just a day earlier, put in a brief appearance at the feeder before streaking off again. Sadly, two birds we missed on our 10-hour effort eluded us completely. Today however, when I arrived at work and opened my car door the two birds mocked me with their familiar calls. Both Brown Creeper and Western Flycatcher just wanted to rub it in…
We ended up with 124 species, which was eleven more birds than last year. Mission accomplished!