The “Board Not Bored” team consists of current and past members of SCVAS’s Board of Directors. This year’s participants were: Bob Hirt (organizer), Barry & Ginger Langdon-Lassagne, Mike Armer, Diane & Peter Hart, Vivek Khanzode, John Richardson, Carolyn Straub and Steve McHenry.
Wildflowers at Smith Creek in Joseph D. Grant County Park. Photo by Barry Langdon-Lassagne
Finished my segment of the four hour SCVAS Birdathon “Board NOT Bored” team with 71 species found today. I was joined (masked and at Safe 6ft distance) in the route by Carolyn Straub and Steve McHenry. They were very helpful especially helpful when I started to rapidly fade after 3 1/2 hours even though we only walked 2.2 miles. I am totally fine now but I am really starting to understand the “Dirty Harry” quote “A Man’s got to Know his Limitations”😊
Anyway, a beautiful day in nature is always a boost to the spirits.
We started at 7:30AM at Santa Teresa County Park. We took the Hidden Springs Trail and quickly heard then found four beautiful male Lazuli Buntings, an Orange-crowned Warbler and an Ash-throated Flycatcher among others.
https://images.app.goo.gl/NmUNc1L5yCG8JPtd8
Male Lazuli Bunting
We then went south into Coyote Valley picking up Eurasian Collared Dove, Rock Wren, Yellow-billed Magpie, Golden Eagle, a pair of Swainson’s Hawks, Common Gallinule and Green Heron.
Raced up north to Mountain View Shoreline Lake with our four hour clock ticking and found 8 Black Skimmers on the lake island along with nesting Forster’s Terns and American Avocets. On the Lake were a couple of Eared Grebes and 3 Surf Scoters but the ducks had gone North already. There was squawking behind us by Black-necked Stilts in the adjacent forebay depression.
I was really fading as my meds were giving out and so was our time but we finished the loop picking up Least and Western Sandpipers and one late Semipalmated Plover. Almost around the Coast Casey forebay depression we picked up Cliff Swallow, Gadwall, Northern Shoveler and Marbled Godwit.
On our (my) last legs we took the grassy trail and found 2 Green-winged and one Cinnamon Teal and 43 Long-billed Dowitchers in fancy breeding plumage. Phew!!
If you would like to support this team please go to:
https://scvas.org/spring-birdathon-2020-teams#teams
Click on sponsor a team, scroll down and find “Board not Bored”. Much appreciated.
All the Best
~Bob
I did a 4 hour strenuous Black Mountain hike looking for birds and got 25 species. The hike was 3 hours and the best birds were either a Pileated Woodpecker (not sure because of very quick looks, but no other woodie is as large here. On e-bird this bird has not been reported at this location, but given the strenuous terrain, I am not sure it is birded enough) or a Great Horned Owl calling (heard only). My FOS CA Thrasher singing was also great. Unfortunately no photos because did not have the right camera with me. The ebird checklist is attached. If any of you decide to donate, please just either donate to the team or to Leena since she is registered.
E-bird checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S67849329
P.S. Ebird checklist only shows 23 species because I did not count the Pileated and the warblers I saw were difficult to ID. There were likely more than one species. Leena who was hiking much farther ahead of me confirmed that she saw Wilson's Warbler for sure.
Best
~Vivek
Ginger and I birded Joseph D. Grant County Park this morning from 8am to Noon for the Board Not Bored Birdathon. On our way to our destination we stopped at the Penitencia Creek Ponds, so the recently-reported SOLITARY SANDPIPER was one of the first birds in our four-hour window. We ran into Matthew and Cricket and exchanged hellos from a safe distance. We found a SPOTTED SANDPIPER there (very nice for comparing against the similar-sized Solitary) and two GREEN HERONs. A MERLIN flew overhead as we were rushing back to our car, with that four-hour timer ticking in our heads. At the car we were pleasantly delayed by two WESTERN KINGBIRDs and a pair of BULLOCK’S ORIOLEs in a nearby tree. Okay, rushing up to Grant Ranch!
Solitary Sandpiper—a county rarity. Photo by Barry Langdon-Lassagne
Spotted Sandpiper—an uncommon, but not rare, county bird. Photo by Barry Langdon-Lassagne
Ash-throated Flycatcher at Grant Lake. Photo by Barry Langdon-Lassagne
We got to Grant Lake before its parking lot had filled, and made our way up the hill to view the lake and quickly scan for birds we weren’t likely to get higher up the mountain. We quickly got ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHER, which was a first-of-season bird for us. The lake had the usual suspects such as TREE SWALLOW, GADWALL, CALIFORNIA THRASHER, and a wonderful flyover from an adult BALD EAGLE.
We did a quick stop at Twin Gates (parking lot about half full at 9am) because there were some mysterious bird calls we wanted to identify. We found more Western Kingbirds and got BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER and WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH there, but never found the mystery birds.
Warbling Vireo at Smith Creek. Photo by Barry Langdon-Lassagne
Ultimately we made it to Smith Creek, which we had chosen for its remoteness (we were the only car in the parking area) and it’s great birds. Now that we were done driving, it felt more like a wonderful birding hike than a mad rush from spot to spot. We were instantly greeted with the songs of NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWs, WARBLING VIREOs and HUTTON'S VIREOs.
Cassin’s Vireo. Photo by Barry Langdon-Lassagne
A HERMIT THRUSH skulked in the underbrush and CASSIN’S VIREOS called a little further down the trail. In the deeper forest, with the creek robustly rushing by, we found a warbler haven: ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERs and WILSON’S WARBLERS were calling all around. As we scanned, we found a BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER and then much to our surprise a bright male HERMIT WARBLER. All those beautiful tiny warblers were eclipsed however, when after fording Smith Creek we found our county-first MACGILLIVRAY’S WARBLER. At first it was just chipping from some wild rose bushes. Ginger recorded the call, then it flew out and briefly perched in a tree for a glorious, if brief, flash of yellow-body-gray-head-white-eye-arcs before dropping back into the brush. We got one other look at it, but were never able to get a photograph. It was undeniably the bird of the day.
Ginger at Smith Creek. Photo by Barry Langdon-Lassagne
Barry at Smith Creek. Photo by Ginger Langdon-Lassagne
We completed our four-hour tour at the end of the Smith Creek trail, where the Sulphur Creek fork comes together with Smith Creek and the waters rush between gray bolders set under a pale green canopy of alders and bigleaf maples. Post-birdathon, we took a nice long time hiking back through the forest to our car.
Our total for our 4-hours is 79 species.
Ebird Checklists:
Penitencia Ponds: https://ebird.org/checklist/S67837663
Grant Lake: https://ebird.org/checklist/S67932930
Twin Gates: https://ebird.org/checklist/S67902122
Smith Creek: https://ebird.org/checklist/S67902137
~Barry & Ginger
Dear All,
Diane and I walked a bit of the San Francisquito Creek rip strip late this afternoon, eBird checklist is here. I think the shortness of the list will earn us the 2020 Birdathon's Red Lantern Award (in bicycle racing, that’s given to the rider who finishes dead last in a race).
But there’s a back story: As most of you know, for quite some time now we’ve been planning to move to The Forum, a senior community at Rancho San Antonio, just down the road from the Ranch. Constructing a bunch of new units there has been slow, with lots of schedule delays even pre-COVID, but it looks like the end is finally in sight. So we’ve shifted into high gear on down-sizing and preliminary packing. There’s lots to do—we’ve lived in the same home since the Eisenhower administration, or so it seems— and that’s where most of today went. We’ll be focused on this in coming weeks, actually more like months. We’re not abandoning SCVAS by any means, but if you see us (especially Diane) around a bit less, you’ll know why.
Hope everybody continues to stay safe and sane,
~Peter
My family and I took a short walk around Oka Ponds yesterday morning, and came up with a rather meager 30 species. Nothing particularly special, though it was fun seeing the goslings.
E-bird list: https://ebird.org/checklist/S67894250
~Mike
Combined bird lists, in taxonomic order:
Team total: 108 species
Canada Goose Cinnamon Teal Northern Shoveler Gadwall Mallard Green-winged Teal Surf Scoter Ruddy Duck California Quail Wild Turkey Pied-billed Grebe Eared Grebe Western Grebe Rock Pigeon Band-tailed Pigeon Eurasian Collared-Dove Mourning Dove Anna's Hummingbird Common Gallinule American Coot Black-necked Stilt American Avocet Semipalmated Plover Killdeer Marbled Godwit Least Sandpiper Western Sandpiper Long-billed Dowitcher Spotted Sandpiper Solitary Sandpiper California Gull Forster's Tern Black Skimmer Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Great Egret Green Heron Black-crowned Night-Heron Turkey Vulture Golden Eagle Cooper's Hawk Bald Eagle Red-shouldered Hawk Swainson's Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Great Horned Owl Acorn Woodpecker Nuttall's Woodpecker Northern Flicker American Kestrel Merlin Pacific-slope Flycatcher Black Phoebe Ash-throated Flycatcher Western Kingbird Hutton's Vireo Cassin's Vireo Warbling Vireo Steller's Jay California Scrub-Jay Yellow-billed Magpie American Crow Common Raven Chestnut-backed Chickadee Oak Titmouse Northern Rough-winged Swallow Tree Swallow Violet-green Swallow Barn Swallow Cliff Swallow Bushtit Wrentit Ruby-crowned Kinglet White-breasted Nuthatch Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Rock Wren House Wren Marsh Wren Bewick's Wren European Starling California Thrasher Northern Mockingbird Western Bluebird Hermit Thrush American Robin House Sparrow House Finch Lesser Goldfinch Dark-eyed Junco Golden-crowned Sparrow Song Sparrow California Towhee Spotted Towhee Western Meadowlark Hooded Oriole Bullock's Oriole Red-winged Blackbird Brown-headed Cowbird Brewer's Blackbird Great-tailed Grackle Orange-crowned Warbler MacGillivray's Warbler Common Yellowthroat Black-throated Gray Warbler Hermit Warbler Wilson's Warbler Black-headed Grosbeak Lazuli Bunting