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From: mjm@oliven.olivetti.com (Michael Mammoser)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Thanksgiving Bird(ing)
Message-ID: <51596@oliveb.olivetti.com>
Date: 29 Nov 89 23:03:52 GMT
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	I had a wonderful four day weekend of birding. I hope you
all did too. Bright and early on Thanksgiving morning I went out
to Matadero Riparian, a small riparian area where Matadero Creek
enters the Palo Alto Flood Control Basin. This area tends to be good
for sparrows in winter; with Song, Savannah, Fox, White-Crowned,
Golden-Crowned, Lincoln's, and the occasional Swamp Sparrow. Not to
mention the other sparrow-like birds such as California and Rufous-
Sided Towhees, House Finch, Lesser and American Goldfinches.

	But it was the Swamp Sparrow that I was after. They are not
too common, although regular, on the west coast and have been seen
in Matadero Riparian in each of the last four years. The only one
I've ever seen was here three years ago on a Christmas Bird Count
and I figured that it was high time that I saw one again.

	I worked the length of Matadero Riparian (about 100 yards)
being serenaded all the way by the scores of Anna's Hummingbirds
staking their claims in the flowering Eucalyptus trees. The sparrows
were all there except Savannah, which I could have found in the
flood control basin proper, and Swamp Sparrow. At the end of the
riparian stretch, in the flood control basin, is a patch of short
scrubby trees, tall weeds, and cattails that is distinct from the
flood control basin proper, which is composed of a low-growing salt
marsh type of vegetation. I walked around this patch to the point
where I had seen the Swamp Sparrow several years ago and "pished".
A Marsh Wren answered. I "pished" again. This time Lincoln's
Sparrows responded and played hide-and-seek through the weeds. More
"pishing" produced a Common Yellowthroat. Every "chip" and "buzz"
had to be investigated, turning up the same old birds. I stayed
there for about an hour and a half, my attention sometimes being
distracted by the gulls flying overhead or the Black-Shouldered
Kites perched a short distance away. Finally a bird popped up that
looked different, but flew off before I could get a good look at it.
I slowly approached the spot where it went down. When it popped up
again, it sat for some seconds before flying off and disappearing
in the weeds. This was the time I needed. It had a very gray face,
an unstreaked gray breast that contrasted with the pale throat and
belly, and buffy flanks with faint streaking. Then it was gone. I
stayed there for some minutes trying to get another look, without
success.

	So I moved off to Charleston Slough to try and find a
Eurasian Wigeon. They were being seen here since September and
I figured that the odds were pretty good for finding one today.
I started scanning through the flocks of American Wigeon, Ruddy
Duck, Northern Pintail, and Northern shoveler. My attention was
immediately drawn to a red headed, pale bodied duck resting on
an island in the slough. Sure enough, it was a Eurasian Wigeon.
They are pretty distinctive and stand out quite well from the
rest of the ducks, so they are not too difficult to locate with
a fairly rapid panning motion. Within a few minutes I had located
a second one swimming not too far from the first.

	I moved over to Adobe Creek, which borders the flood control
basin next to Charleston Slough. I moved up the creek to where the
cattails grow and the water isn't as open; where the Cinnamon Teal
like to hang out. There I found two Blue-Winged Teal; one eclipse
plumaged male and a female/immature. These are fairly rare winter
birds out here and it was nice to see them, although the male
wasn't in his usual nifty plumage. All in all, the day produced
some nice Thanksgiving birds.

	The next day I joined my friend, Grant Hoyt, to do a
census along Coyote Creek for the Coyote Creek Riparian Station,
the local bird banding organization. They run mist nets along the
creek and augment their banding data with census information, to
fully understand how this critical riparian habitat is utilized.

	Today the highlights were of the raptor variety. Of course,
there were the ever-present Red-Tailed Hawks, but the interesting
sightings started with an immature Cooper's Hawk. It was perched in
a tree near the banding trailer, and even from a distance it seemed
too large to be a Sharp-Shinned (it was probably a female). It didn't
stick around long, sneaking away when our attention was diverted.

	The diversion came in the form of a large dark bird perched 
in the top of a cottonwood down the creek. At the distance we were
from the bird it was hard to see field marks clearly and we mused
about the possibility of it just being another Red-Tailed. Then
another possibility leapt to mind when the bird turned its head
and showed its straw-colored nape; Golden Eagle! We moved down the
opposite side of the creek to a point where the eagle was just
above us, and we had a clear view of it. Fortunately, the bird sat
for a couple of minutes, giving us excellent views from a short 
distance, before becoming too uneasy with our presence and flying
off downstream. We passed the eagle twice more that morning while
it remained in the vicinity.

	Further downstream my attention was drawn to the open
agricultural field on the other side of the creek and a flock of
Rock Doves that was wheeling over it; and the large falcon that
was the cause of all the fuss. I called to Grant and we raced to 
an open spot in time to see the falcon flying away low over the
field to a power tower near the freeway. We didn't have an
opportunity to make a positive ID, but surmised that it was
probably a Peregrine.

	Some minutes later as we neared the end of the riparian
area the falcon gave us another chance, as it suddenly reappeared,
flying low right in front of us and scattering blackbirds and
Mourning Doves everywhere. It approached a chain-link fence that
bordered the road and, after clearing the fence, turned back
towards us and cruised along the fence just a few feet above the
ground. The bird was only about eighty feet away and we could
easily identify it as an immature Peregrine. At this point the
bird climbed about twenty feet into the air and made a short
stoop towards the ground, pulling up just short. It repeated
this two or three times over the same spot, until a Mourning
Dove flushed from the spot where it had been diving and took off
straight towards us, with the falcon in hot pursuit. They were
flying only about three or four feet above the ground and in
the space of about thirty feet the falcon had closed the distance
between them. It was only a couple of wingbeats away from snatching
the dove out of the air when a second Mourning Dove flushed at
their approach and flew straight up past them. This seemed to
distract the falcon; for it pulled up and made a half-hearted turn
towards the second dove. But its concentration had been broken
and, as both doves fled for safety, the falcon gave up and flew 
past us back over the creek. After this the rest of the census was 
rather anticlimactic.

	Saturday I joined Grant and his wife, Karen, for a trip
out to the central valley. The plan was to bird along Woodbridge
Road in the delta of the Sacramento River and then head to Gray
Lodge Waterfowl Management Area north of Sacramento. As we left
Santa Clara Valley, raindrops started to fall and continued off
and on for the rest of the day. Whatever birding we did would 
have to be done from the car, for the most part.

	Woodbridge Road is a good place to observe wintering
Sandhill Cranes and we were not disappointed in this respect.
At one point we pulled over with a small flock of cranes on
either side of the road; close enough for excellent binocular
views. They even entertained us with some of their pair-bonding
rituals; leaping high into the air with wings spread and legs
flailing, or grabbing a clump of dirt or grass in their bills
and tossing it high into the air.

	Another field that we stopped at was filled with Killdeer,
with a liberal dose of Black-Bellied Plovers, and a smattering of
Dunlin, Least Sandpipers, and Common Snipe. We estimated that
there were about a thousand Killdeer here; the most that I have
ever seen in one place.

	At another spot we stopped next to a field full of grape-
vines and were watching crowned sparrows and goldfinches in the
bushes and tall weeds along the side of the road. We noticed a
Sharp-Shinned Hawk cruising over the grapevines and watched him
until he dropped below the level of the vines. We thought nothing
more about it until, a minute later, he suddenly popped up at the
roadside bushes, surprising us and the sparrows. Sneaky critters,
these accipiters. He went away empty-taloned, though.

	When we got to Gray Lodge, the numbers of ducks was
impressive. At many times we were able to see tens of thousands
of them in the air at once. There were American Wigeon, Northern
Shoveler, Northern Pintail, Gadwall, Ruddy Duck, Mallard, and
Ring-Necked Duck. We were hoping that we might be able to pick
out a Eurasian Wigeon in the flocks, but the rain prevented us
from walking around or scoping.

	The only thing missing here were the geese, so we left
the preserve and drove along the road north of there scanning the
fields on either side for grazing flocks of geese. Most of the
flocks that we found were too far from the road to get any decent
looks, and when we finally found one close enough, they were
unscopable because of the rain and wind. We could certainly see
that they were Snow Geese, but we needed to scope them to pick
out the possible Ross' Goose, which was a lifer for me. We continued
up the road without finding any more geese, but after a while the
rain abated to some extent, so we turned back to try for one of 
the previous flocks.

	On the way a Merlin flew by, but was gone by the time we
were able to pull over and get out of the car. However, we noticed
thousands of geese flying in and out of an area off in the distance
that had no obvious roads going to it. Many of them were flying
overhead and Grant kept saying "there's a Ross'", pointing out the
size difference between one goose and the rest. However, I was not
willing to accept size difference alone as a positive ID, and we
continued looking for a flock. Finally, we found a flock that was
fairly close to the road at the same time that the wind and rain
were at a minimum. I noticed a small number of Greater White-
Fronted Geese among the Snows, and eventually picked out a couple
of Ross', which I happily ticked off on my life list.

	We ended up doing quite well on this day despite our
"confinement" to the car. I was so pleased with these three days
of birding that I took Sunday off and watched football.

Mike


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