Saturday, May 2, 2026
For 20 years, the DeDUCKtions has held our team effort on tax day, or at least close to it. This year, we moved the date to the last weekend of April because of the forum I was invited to attend in China. At 6:00 AM we met at Cooley Picnic Area of Stevens Creek Park to find (primarily by sound) our first songbirds of the day. Eric, Andy, Sheila, Mary Ann, Ken, Ashutosh, Emily, Cricket and I logged Black-headed Grosbeak and Western Warbling Vireo within moments of opening our car doors.
We then stopped at Lakeshore Picnic Area to search for Spotted Sandpiper but were not successful. Instead we found a pair of Wood Duck and two Caspian Terns.
Picchetti Ranch OSP is where we found some woodland targets like Wilson’s Warbler and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and a other Wood Duck on the small pond.
Of course we had to stop at McClellan Ranch to search for Black-chinned Hummingbird, which we did find at the feeders. A nice surprise was a male Lazuli Bunting feeding in the meadow, as well as Ash-throated Flycatcher, Western Flycatcher, Hooded Oriole and Northern House Wren.
Next on our itinerary was Palo Alto Baylands, Charleston Slough and Shoreline Lake, Sunnyvale WPCP and Don Edwards. We easily doubled our bird count after working the Bay locations. Highlights included Green-winged Teal, American Wigeon, Black Skimmer, Black Tern, Common Gallinule, and Green Heron.
Finally, we headed up to Ed Levin Park (Sandy Wool), completing our western hills, bay front, and eastern hills agenda. Against the will of all our leg muscles and sore feet, we hiked up the hill to find Western Kingbird, Rufous-crowned Sparrow but were unable to find Grasshopper Sparrow. The wind was quite stiff by late afternoon, so that’s our excuse… Our final stop of the day was at Ed Levin (Spring Valley) where our best efforts failed to find the Say’s Phoebe pair that had been present the previous week. Nevertheless, we had spectacular showing of Tree Swallows, White-tailed Kites, and an adult Bald Eagle.
Our final species count for the day was 122 birds.
Our trip report can be found here: