Team Members:

Bob Hirt (Leader), Mike Mammoser, Carolyn Straub, Stephen McHenry (Mountain View/Shoreline)

Diane Hart, Peter E. Hart (Rancho San Antonio Team)

David Drake and Leda Beth Gray (in Maine)

Board not Boring

86 Species found on Santa Teresa CP / MV Shoreline Lake team

Best Birds: Black Skimmer at Mountain view Shoreline Lake, Rock Wren at Coyote Valley OSP, Tricolored Blackbird at west end of Laguna Avenue in Coyote Valley, and Lazuli Bunting in Santa Teresa County Park on the Hidden Springs Trail.

Santa Teresa Report: Mike, Carolyn and Stephen and I met at 7:30 AM in Santa Teresa County Park (Bernal Road entrance) and hiked up the Hidden springs Trail. Mike heard and Stephen spotted and Ash-throated Flycathcer to kick off a steep short hike.

Mike found a silent but beautiful male Lazuli Bunting.

After picking up all the regular species, we traveled down to Coyote Valley and found 4 male Tricolored Blackbirds flying across Laguna Ave and the west end. They dropped into the weedy field to the North and we didn’t spot them again. We then went to Coyote Valley OSP’s parking lot and found the very friendly Rock Wren on the wooden parking lot fence. We drove slowly down Hellyer Avenue hoping for Say’s Phoebe or even Roadrunner but we had no luck on that. We did spot 7 Tule Elk up on the hillside though.

Nesting Black Skimmers at Shoreline Lake

Running short of our four hour window, we decided that the Bay would produce the most additional species despite 17 minutes we lost in route.

Our first stop was Mountain View Shoreline Lake. We scoped the island and found the nesting Black Skimmers.

Also on the Lake we picked up Pied-billed and Eared Grebe, Surf Scoter, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Ruddy Duck, Forster’s and Caspian Tern.

Walking around toward the MV Forebay we spotted 2 White Pelicans at a great distance and discovered to our dismay an incredibly low tide. We missed many shorebirds as a result. The forebay however had a pair of Cinnamon Teal and from the levee we spotted a female Northern Harrier and a White-tailed Kite as our four hours expired.

Silliest miss Rock Pigeon (Careless and one taunted us as we went for our picnic lunch at Palo Alto Baylands.)

4 Additional species were added by by Diane and Peter Hart on the separate San Antonio Ranch team: Wild Turkey, Red-shouldered Hawk, Great Horned Owl, and Chestnut-backed Chickadee

David Drake and Leda Beth Gray, former Board members reporting from Schootic Point in Acadia National Pakr in Maine saw 11 Common Eiders, 18 Black Scoters, 2 Black Guillemots, 1 Greater Black-backed Gull,1 Osprey,1bald Eagle, 1 Eastern Phoebe, 4 Black-capped Chickadees, 3Golden-crowned Kinglets,9 Chipping Sparrows, 6 Dark-eyed (Slate-colored) Juncos, 8 White-throated Sparrows, 1 Blue-headed Vireo, 1 Northern (Yellow-shafted) Flicker, 2 Downy Woodpeckers plus other birds we saw on the CA teams. Of course we can’t count them but we can envy their sightings all the same.