This past Wednesday (04-13-22) the SCVAS Birdathon Team, the DeDUCKtions spent the better part of a 24-hour time window birding to benefit the SCVAS education program during an all-county tour. We opted for a very different route this year to focus on some south county areas. It didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped...
We only utilized 15 hours of that window, but began birding a 4:30 AM. We had our first bird, COMMON POORWILL (which was awesome!!!), at the Stile Ranch Trailhead. From there we moved across the street to find GRASSHOPPER SPARROW at Ranch San Vicente parking area. Best views ever!
Next south toward Gilroy for LAWRENCE’S GOLDFINCH and SWAINSONS HAWK on San Felipe Road, but missed the Cassin’s Kingbird. Big disappointment. Doh!!
We then made our way Cañada Road, Jamieson Road, Hunting Hollow, Gilroy Hot Springs Road, Coyote Lake Park (Canyon Wren), Ed Levin Park and finally the Bayfront (easy Shorebirds).
We made way too many stops but recovered 129 species with our core "in person" group. Three additional team members birded independently and added another 8 species to the team's final total of 137 SPECIES.
What was really cool is that everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY added at least one unique species to our final team list! That’s just amazing!!
It is clear though that this route was not as productive as in previous years. The lack of species was probably due to the excessive amount of time spent driving between our stops and a total 172 miles! Shameful. We also ended a few minutes before last light… But the leader got tired. We will try again next year.
We were all pretty tired at the end of the day. But we had a lot of fun birding together!!
Team:
Matthew Dodder
Eric Goodill
Cynthia Berg
Emily Kim
Carolyn Straub
Steve McHenry
Christopher Klein
Joan Leighton
Phil Leighton