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 collected and posted to south-bay-birds by Mike Rogers and Kendric Smith.
See the Santa Clara County Bird List 1997 or view all the cumulative year lists.
(No records earlier than July 7, 1997)
July 7, 1997
Fall migration is upon us! Shorebird numbers should build in the next few weeks - we need both golden-plovers, Wandering Tattler, Black Turnstone, Pectoral and Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, Stilt and Buff-breasted Sandpipers, and Red Phalarope - all real rarities except for the Pectoral Sandpiper....it will take lots of effort to turn the others up!
261: 6/29/97 RUFF
262: 7/ 6/97 LEAST TERN
August 1, 1997
Shorebirds we still need include Wandering Tattler, Black Turnstone, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Stilt Sandpiper, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, and Red Phalarope. Also, later this month is a good time to start looking for a southbound Dusky Flycatcher among the Willow Flycatchers at CCRS.
263: 7/18/97 COSTA'S HUMMINGBIRD
264: 7/24/97 GOLDEN-PLOVER SP.
7/27/97 AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER
265: 7/27/97 PACIFIC GOLDEN-PLOVER
266: 7/28/97 ELEGANT TERN
267: 7/30/97 PECTORAL SANDPIPER
September 5, 1997
The main highlight this month is the first county record of WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER, seen by many after being located by Nick Lethaby.
Another somewhat belated highlight is the first breeding record of BELL'S VIREO in decades. Steve Rottenborn found this nesting pair on private property on May 13 - unfortunately the landowner prohibited general birder access.
Shorebirds we still need for the composite year list include Wandering Tattler, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, and Red Phalarope.
268: 8/ 7/97 AMERICAN REDSTART
267: observer retracted Elegant Tern
268: 8/17/97 BLACK TURNSTONE
269: 8/20/97 STILT SANDPIPER
270: 8/29/97 COMMON MURRE
271: 5/13/97 BELL'S VIREO
272: 9/ 1/97 BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER
273: 9/ 1/97 BOBOLINK
274: 9/ 3/97 WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER (FIRST COUNTY RECORD, SUBJECT TO CBRC REVIEW)
275: 9/ 4/97 WHITE-FACED IBISOctober 1, 1997
Highlights from September include two second county records: Chimney Swift (first was 9/11/95, also in Alviso) and Black-throated Green Warbler (first was 10/20/94 to 10/30/94 in Los Gatos).
Find those vagrants!
276: 9/10/97 LEAST FLYCATCHER
277: 9/14/97 WANDERING TATTLER
278: 9/19/97 CHIMNEY SWIFT (2nd County record)
279: 9/23/97 OVENBIRD
280: 9/28/97 BREWER'S SPARROW
281: 9/28/97 BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER (2nd County record)
October 22, 1997
We've added so many species to the county year list, that I've decided to send another update a little early this time. Hopefully this will give people ideas of what to look for this weekend! (For instance Tundra Swan, Black or White-winged Scoter, Broad-winged Hawk, a jaeger, Little or Black-headed Gull, Black-legged Kittiwake, Red-naped Sapsucker, Sage or Brown Thrashers, Red-throated Pipit, Blue-heaed Vireo, Tennesse Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, Clay-colored Sparrow, Lark Bunting, Swamp Sparrow, or any longspur.) Think BIG! We are only ten species away from an all time high and only 6 from making 300 for the second time ever!
282: 10/ 2/97 ELEGANT TERN
283: 10/ 3/97 SHARP-TAILED SANDPIPER
284: 10/ 5/97 VESPER SPARROW
285: 10/ 5/97 TROPICAL KINGBIRD (and another bird later!)
286: 10/ 5/97 GREEN-TAILED TOWHEE
287: 10/ 7/97 SABINE'S GULL
288: 10/ 8/97 BLACK TERN
289: 10/12/97 SANDHILL CRANE
290: 10/17/97 COMMON TERN
291: 10/17/97 HEERMANN'S GULL
292: 10/17/97 BALTIMORE ORIOLE (present for 1.5 weeks already)
293: 10/20/97 RED PHALAROPE
294: 10/22/97 RED-NECKED GREBENovember 19, 1997
Well, the pace has slowed considerably - and we still need four species to reach 300 for the year. In past years very few new species have been added during December, despite intense Christmas Count coverage, so it will take work to find four new species by year's end.
295: 10/25/97 MAGNOLIA WARBLER
296: 11/ 2/97 LAPLAND LONGSPURDecember 1, 1997
Well, we made it! Tom Grey's Laughing Gull was the 300th bird species to be reported in Santa Clara County this year. If we find four more species we will set a new record - that may be tough.
A belated report of an apparently healthy adult Pelagic Cormorant was turned in to Bill Bousman by Peter Metropulos. The bird was on the Alviso Salt Ponds on 11/9/97. The next three species, Prairie Warbler, Swamp Sparrow, and Laughing Gull, have already been discussed on south-bay-birds.
297: 11/ 9/97 PELAGIC CORMORANT
298: 11/21/97 PRAIRIE WARBLER
299: 11/27/97 SWAMP SPARROW
300: 11/29/97 LAUGHING GULLPossible targets and areas to find them include:
Brandt's Cormorant - bayside areas
Tundra Swan - Alviso, outer Palo Alto Flood Control Basin
Black Scoter - Shoreline Lake, the bay off Palo Alto
White-winged Scoter - Shoreline Lake, the bay off Palo Alto
Rough-legged Hawk - bayside areas, south county areas
jaegers - bayside areas
Little and Black-headed Gulls - wherever there are Bonaparte's Gulls
Red-naped Sapsucker - look for wells and check every sapsucker!
Mountain Bluebird - Sierra, Felter and Calaveras Rds, San Antonio Valley
Sage Thrasher - bayside areas
Black-and-white Warbler - riparian areas
Northern Waterthrush - Matadero, EEC Alviso, Guadalupe River
Chestnut-collared Longspur - Sierra Rd summit (but none last winter)
December 24, 1997
Thanks to two new species from the San Jose and Palo Alto Christmas Bird Counts we have reached an new all-time high for the number of species recorded in Santa Clara County during a single calendar year! And there are still 7 days to go.
Kevin McKereghan's Clay-colored Sparrow 150 yards north of the Emily Renzel Wetlands pullout (not the FCB as he stated on the Bird Box) was our 11th and latest county record. The next species was Steve's Rough-legged Hawk, followed by another over the Sierra Rd Summit two days later (another probable RLHA was seen over the outer Palo Alto Flood Control Basin on 12/19, the same day Steve had his bird, by Frank Vanslager). The five TUNDRA SWANS flying north west of the Alviso Marina on the San Jose Count tied our previous high and the BLACK SCOTER on the Palo Alto count gives us a record 304 species. This is the 6th county record and farthest south in the bay that this bird has been found (off the mouth of Guadalupe Slough north of Salt Pond A3N).
301: 12/ 8/97 CLAY-COLORED SPARROW
302: 12/19/97 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK
303: 12/21/97 TUNDRA SWAN
304: 12/22/97 BLACK SCOTERDecember’s End 1997
Remarkably, the Mount Hamilton CBC turned up a new species for the
county year list - a male RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER found on the Arnold
Ranch by Jean-Marie Spoelman, Maryann Danielson, and Lee Ellis and
relocated along San Antonio Valley Road the next morning by Mike
Mammoser! So our new record has been extended by one to the nice
round number of 305!
Mike Mammoser had a great New Year's Eve of birding, adding three
county year birds (one a county bird!) to finish at 276, one ahead of
my 275 reached the day before. A lot of activity for December. Steve
Rottenborn, without "doing a year list", still managed 268 species to
finish 3 ahead of Mike Feighner's 265. Steve never bothered to chase
many of the stakeouts found in the county this year but was the only
one of these four observers to find Heermann's Gull, nighthawk sp.,
Chimney Swift, Costa's Hummingbird, Gray Flycatcher, and Evening
Grosbeak. The four year list totals for these observers are all
excellent, exceeding all of the 1995 and 1996 individual totals!
I haven't heard from Kathy Parker in ages, and her total may well be
higher than the 232 listed - a very good total built up by lots of
work in January.
Bob Reiling reports that he hit 228 in 1997, which is 24 above his old
record!. Tom Grey was in hot pursuit with 211. Chris Salander's
finish was hampered by work, which prevented birding for much of the
second half of 1997 - he'll have to wait for another year to reach
that elusive 200.
If anyone else kept track of their Santa Clara County year list in
1997 (Al Eisner?) please let us know.
And now for 1998! Several of our rare stakeouts are still around
(Steve even refound the Prairie Warbler that disappeared for the windy
San Jose count), which should get us off to a good start. Please send
me your trip lists for the first few days of January so I can
construct the new composite list.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Mike305: 12/30/97 RED-NAPED SAPSUCKERSANTA CLARA COUNTY YEAR LIST - 1997
RWR AME WGB MMR MJM KLP MLF SCR CKS COMP SOURCE
377 275 276 232 265 268 186 305
% OF COMPOSITE FOR 1997 90.2% 90.5% 76.1% 86.9% 87.9% 61.0% 100.%
% OF 377 72.9% 73.2% 61.5% 70.3% 71.1% 49.3% 80.9%
1988 TOTALS 136
1989 TOTALS 183
1990 TOTALS 199
1991 TOTALS 214 209
1992 TOTALS 216 234 234 215 278
1993 TOTALS 228 254 250 235 279 295
1994 TOTALS 204 240 245 271 265 194 291 303
1995 TOTALS 201 220 170 257 242 165 262 185 293
1996 TOTALS 203 219 258 253 218 251 195 296
1997 TOTALS 228 275 276 232 265 268 186 305