These older entries were found in the 1997-2001 South-Bay-Birds mailing list archives that Chuq von Rospach has kindly hosted all these years. These updates were posted to south-bay-birds by Kendric Smith based on the data gathered by Bill Bousman.
See the Santa Clara County Bird List 2000 or view all the cumulative year lists.
January 31, 2000
The new birds (for a total of 190) are: Tufted Duck, Ferruginous Hawk, Black Rail, Ruff, Greater Roadrunner, Lewis' Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Phainopepla, Hermit Warbler, Green-tailed Towhee, Sage Sparrow, Red Crossbill.
February 2000
Bill Bousman has reported the February birds. The new ones are: Sandhill Crane, Lesser Yellowlegs, Allen's Hummingbird, Violet-green Swallow, Nor. Rough-winged Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Clay-colored Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, Black-headed Grosbeak
The total is now 200 for the year.
March 2000
Bill Bousman has updated the Santa Clara Bird List for 2000. The total is 209 as of March 31. The recent additions are: Brant, Rufous Hummingbird, Pacific-slope Flycatcher, Cassin's Kingbird, Western Kingbird, Warbling Vireo, House Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Palm Warbler.
April 2000
Before corrections the March 2000 tally was 209 species for Santa Clara County. I've done a little clean-up, and the following six records are changes from my previous summary. Five are new while the House Wren is a date change.
42 Wood Duck 1/12/00 TRy 3
160 Glaucous Gull 1/28/00 AJ 5
266 House Wren 3/19/00 JY, AL 2
320 Wilson's Warbler 3/10/00 MJM 1
324 Western Tanager 3/27/00 KPa 3
367 Hooded Oriole 3/21/00 LY 3This brings the total to 214 for March.
April is, of course, the rush of returning birds, and we've added 27 species, including one "6", a Broad-winged Hawk, for a total of 241.
6 Common Loon 4/15/00 DLSu 4
29 Cattle Egret 4/22/00 AME 5
78 Broad-winged Hawk 4/20/00 MMR 6
79 Swainson's Hawk 4/22/00 MJM 5
112 Solitary Sandpiper 4/25/00 KPa 5
134 Stilt Sandpiper 4/16/00 PJM 5
163 Caspian Tern 4/3/00 TRy 2
186 Long-eared Owl 4/26/00 MDo 5
191 Common Poorwill 4/3/00 JMa 3
194 Vaux's Swift 4/15/00 DLSu 4
199 Calliope Hummingbird 4/6/00 RCo 5
215 Olive-sided Flycatcher 4/14/00 JMa 2
216 Western Wood-Pewee 4/23/00 JMa, MJM 2
219 Hammond's Flycatcher 4/9/00 MMR 5
226 Ash-throated Flycatcher 4/14/00 DL 2
236 Cassin's Vireo 4/2/00 JY, AL 2
253 Bank Swallow 4/23/00 PJM 5
275 Townsend's Solitaire 4/20/00 DE, CV 5
276 Swainson's Thrush 4/29/00 m.ob. 2
293 Nashville Warbler 4/9/00 MMR 4
301 Black-throated Gray Warbler 4/9/00 m.ob. 3
317 MacGillivray's Warbler 4/23/00 AV 4
321 Yellow-breasted Chat 4/29/00 m.ob. 5
330 Chipping Sparrow 4/2/00 JY, AL 3
355 Blue Grosbeak 4/30/00 DG 5
356 Lazuli Bunting 4/15/00 GHa 2
377 Lawrence's Goldfinch 4/9/00 MMR 3As of the end of April we have all the "1's" and are missing only two "2's": Wilson's and Red-necked Phalarope. Early May has already erased Red-necked Phalarope, and we'll certainly see Wilson's next month if not in May. All the "3's" are in except Brown Pelican, which will show up in summer. Thus all the easy birds have been found. The rest of the year will be a struggle as we try to make 300 species.
May 2000
(No entry?)
June 2000
"June brought two new birds, both "6's". An Ovenbird was in Milpitas on 6/12/2000, found by Jim Danzenbaker, and a Great-tailed Grackle pair showed up on 6/22/2000 (Tom Ryan). This brings the year to 254.
July 2000
Five new species were found in July, to one degree or another, all expected.
Brown Pelican, Little Blue Heron, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Common Tern, Least Tern.
This brings the year's total to 259.
August 2000
The county list increased by seven birds in August, mostly shorebirds.
The total is now 266.
However, the big news was the Gray Catbird found bathing in a San Jose yard for the first record for the county.
Ruddy Turnstone, Red Knot, Pectoral Sandpiper, Elegant Tern, Black Tern, Willow Flycatcher, Gray Catbird.
September 2000
September, as expected, was the vagrant month and added 15 species. In going over the list I found I had never added Black-chinned Hummingbird. This was probably found in May--I'll add it next month. Thus, we've added 16 birds to August's 266, and this brings us to 282 and striking distance of 300 birds.
The big news, of course, were two new birds for the county list: Arctic Warbler and Painted Bunting.
There are only two "4's" not found this year: Tundra Swan and White-winged Scoter. We have an excellent chance for Tundra Swan in December, but White-winged Scoters have been down in recent years. There are only 12 "5's" left and we are unlikely to get them all. To reach 300 we will have to really do well on the "6's."
American Golden-Plover, Pacific Golden-Plover, Wandering Tattler, Black Turnstone,Baird's Sandpiper. Parasitic Jaeger, Black-chinned Hummingbird, Red-naped Sapsucker, Arctic Warbler, Brown Thrasher ,Blackpoll Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, Brewer's Sparrow, Painted Bunting, Bobolink, Yellow-headed Blackbird.
October 2000
Only one species in October, the Lapland Longspur that Mike Rogers and Mike Mammoser found on 10/7/2000. That brings us to 283 for the year, 17 shy of the magic 300 species.
There are two "4s" left: Tundra Swan and White-winged Scoter and, as I am writing this on 11/9/2000, the Tundra Swan has already been recorded for November. Also, in early November, birders have picked off a "5" and a "6". So the County List for November is already at 286.
November 2000
The total county list reached 287 in November. The new species were Rough-legged Hawk (4 Nov, John Mariani), Tundra Swan (7 Nov, Chris Illes), Summer Tanager (8 Nov, Harriet Gerson, Lou Beaudet), and Tropical Kingbird (26 Nov, Dick Stovel).
There is only one "4" left to see, White-winged Scoter, and this is probably misclassified--it should probably be a "5". There are only 11 "5's" left, but some, such as Gray and Dusky Flycatcher are most unlikely. But Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow and Evening Grosbeak are excellent December possibilities. However, December even with all the CBC activity usually doesn't bring in more than two or three new species. So, 290 is my rough estimate for the year, but don't let me discourage the active birders!
December 2000
The total for 2000 was 289 birds. As expected December did not add many birds, only two. But one, a BLACK-BACKED WAGTAIL found by David McIntyre on the San Jose CBC, was new for the county list. The other new birds was an AMERICAN REDSTART found by Mike Mammoser. For the composite list I've also changed the first record of Summer Tanager to be 11/1 for the bird Kristie Nelson found along San Francisquito Creek.
The year's list of 289 is well below the 1993-2000 average of 296 and may reflect the absence of Mike Rogers' cheerleading or, more likely, Steve Rottenborn's move to Virginia. Interestingly, although the total is down, there were four new species added to the county list in 2000 which is quite a total: ARCTIC WARBLER, GRAY CATBIRD, BLACK-BACKED WAGTAIL, and PAINTED BUNTING. Three of these were "flash" birds, they were here a moment and then gone. The Black-backed Wagtail has hung around, but only behind "No Trespassing" signs.
My candidates for the biggest misses of the year are Snowy Plover and Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow.