The Subspecies Birdathon Trip Report

The "Subspecies" toured Santa Clara County for the SCVAS 2020 Birdathon yesterday! Below are stories, photos and checklists from the team members.

Matthew Dodder & John Richardson

Five team members moved separately in a "distributed" effort to cover the Northern areas along the bay (Matthew Dodder and John Richardson), the Western Hills (Raminder Bajwa), the Eastern Hills (Jim Dehnert), and the South County (Emily Kim). After I compiled all the checklists it appears we located 115 species, pending review. Each participant has a story to tell and they may want to chime in, but let's just say the 2020 Birdathon is definitely alive and well. It was a blast, in fact. Between our separate efforts we found Allen's Hummingbirds, Bullock's Orioles, Greater White-fronted Geese, Golden Eagles, Yellow-billed Magpies, Rock Wrens, and so much more! The rain wasn't bad at all, and oh, what a rainbow we got!! 

Matthew and John keeping a healthy distance from each other. We had to yell sometimes...

Matthew and John keeping a healthy distance from each other. We had to yell sometimes...

For me and John Richardson we dipped on the Black Skimmers… they just weren’t on their island when we visited Shoreline. The Hooded Oriole I had staked out the previous few days was no where to be seen, and even our Peregrine Falcon in Alviso was MIA… Those things happen. We had an early MERLIN, and GREEN HERON at Shoreline Lake, 6 GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE along the entrance road of Shoreline Park, COMMON GALLINULE, and WHITE-THROATED SWIFTS at Emily Renzel, CALIFORNIA THRASHER, HERMIT THRUSH, TOWNSEND’S WARBLER and FOX SPARROW at Ulistac, MEW and HERRING GULLS in Alviso.... We had so much fun racing against the clock and watching the results form the other team members trickle in.

See the individual ebird checklists for full list of species. And be sure to check out the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society Facebook page where we are posting team highlights and adventures!

I encourage you to sponsor 2020 Birdathon as before, and join one (or more) of the many exciting new teams assembled to observe CDC health recommendations. SCVAS needs your financial support now more than ever.

Amazing full double rainbow at Charleston Slough!

Amazing full double rainbow at Charleston Slough!

Stay healthy everyone. Keep your distance... but don’t be a stranger.

~ Matthew Dodder

Raminder Bajwa

Raminder is all smiles at Rancho San Antonio

Raminder is all smiles at Rancho San Antonio

Got off to a slightly delayed start and headed to Rancho San Antonio. About 30 minutes into my walk it started pouring pretty bad. Since it had been relatively quiet and then the rain, I decided to move on.  

Next stop was Arastradero-Pearson Preserve. Right from the parking lot I got to see a White Tailed Kite and a Raven above. Then I made my way over to the other side of Arastradero road and chose to follow the Lake trail. A couple of hundred yards on, right by the side of the trail in a clump of trees was a flock of bushtits and other birds feeding on the fresh growth, buds(?)/insects(?). Spotted some Chestnut Backed Chickadees and the Orange Crowned Warbler among the birds flitting around.

Orange-crowned Warbler at Pearson-Arastradero Preserve

Continued on, lots of swallows in the meadows, Acorn woodpeckers in the Oaks. Found a Ring Necked Duck pair at the Lake, more swallows, Yellow rumped warblers and ruby crowned kinglets as well. All in all it was fun and the weather was beautiful and sunny by the time I got to Arastradero. 

Ring-necked Duck on Felt Lake at Pearson-Arastradero Preserve

Was disappointed that I did not get more at Rancho San Antonio. Arrived late and not having birded there before I wandered around a bit initially. My experience visiting Rancho for hiking has been that it is always very crowded but now I might try birding on weekdays during the lockdown as it was fairly sparse there in terms of people this morning, barely a third of the parking lot was full. 

Looking forward to the next one :)

~ Raminder

Jim Dehnert

Hi teammates,

This was fun!  Although, of course, company would be better.  But those are the times we live in.

Jim’s shot of Lark Sparrow along Marsh Road

Jim’s shot of Lark Sparrow along Marsh Road

I pretty much followed Matthew's suggestions, and it worked out well.  Even the weather pretty much cooperated.  It started out pretty cool—there was snow on the mountains much higher—but it wasn't bad in spite of a period halfway around Sandy Wool Lake with a cold breeze and rain. 

Jim’s shot of Great-tailed Grackle at Sandy Wool Lake

Jim’s shot of Great-tailed Grackle at Sandy Wool Lake

I started at Ed Levin CP, near the dog run above Sandy Wool Lake. I walked all around the lake, and on the trail up the hill. I think the weather suppressed the birds a bit, but I ended up with 38 taxa.  But I'm afraid most of Matthew's targets did not appear -- no kingbird, oriole, selasphorus hummingbirds, special sparrows, or owl. The best were a Red-breasted Nuthatch and a nice collection of Great-tailed Grackles, with the males strutting their stuff for the females.  The Red-winged Blackbirds (CA bicolored) were also displaying their magnificent epaulets, and the Wild Turkeys their tail fans. It was also nice to see four swallows (Tree, Violet-Green, Northern Rough-winged, and Barn), and a large complement of Yellow-rumped Warblers (but no others).  Most of these presumably overlap the west county birds. https://ebird.org/checklist/S66214308

Next I headed out to Marsh Road, a first for me and a beautiful drive. Before hitting Marsh Road proper, I had Wild Turkeys and a Yellow-billed Magpie. Along the way out and back, I added Matthew's targets (except kingbird):  two Golden Eagles circling together far above, and later patrolling the hills down low, more Magpies, a Northern Flicker, and half a dozen Lark Sparrows for dessert on the way out.  https://ebird.org/checklist/S66214308

I had half an hour left for the Spring Valley unit of Ed Levin CP. These were mostly duplicate birds, but there was a Greylag Goose, looking quite different from the other pair reported recently in the county, but more like the Sibley drawing.  I'll add photos to https://ebird.org/checklist/S66214834  .

So, I definitely enjoyed myself, saw some areas I hadn't before, and probably added a few species to the collective list. I hope the rest of you also had a successful morning!  I'll add some photos to the above checklists later, but I'm afraid I forgot to take selfies in the landscape—sorry about that...

~ Jim

Emily Kim

Emily holding down the fort at Coyote Valley OSP

Emily holding down the fort at Coyote Valley OSP

I went to Coyote Valley this morning.

Coyote Valley OSP was gorgeous, sunny, and green when we arrived.

The parking lot was a good place to hear the orchestra of meadowlarks, red-winged blackbirds, juncos, along with a White Crowned sparrow and Anna's hummers.  

Walking to the entrance, I heard and saw a male Bullock's oriole!  Then heard the incessant calling of 2 rock wrens.  Later, I saw and heard 2 more rock wrens! Yellow-billed Magpies were not to be outdone and added to the chorus. Walking up to the overlook, I saw or heard—house wrens, brilliant blue Western Bluebirds, a Say's Phoebe. These were the highlights of the day.  It did start to rain a bit. 

We drove over to Laguna Road, which was popping with yellow flowers—very beautiful, if not too forthcoming with bird life.  2 kestrels were the only raptors I was able to see here.  No Tricolor blackbirds. I did hear a common yellowthroat.

We still had time so drove up to Calero Reservoir which was closed. I pulled up next to the gate and got out my scope. Pretty cloudy by this time—but there were 56 Western grebes, 3 bufflehead on the lake, as well as tree swallows. 

Missed a lot of targets—no Eagles, no Lark Sparrow, nor Pipits.

All in all, a great morning of birding!

GO TEAM!

~ Emily

Ebird Checklists for The Subspecies Birdathon: