SANTA CLARA COUNTY BIRD LIST DISCUSSION ARCHIVE 2024
| January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September| October | November | December |
Compiled by: Brooke Miller. Please email additions, corrections, or comments to Brooke at idbirds@me.com. Monthly reports are made up of eBird sightings, postings on South Bay Birds, and direct email reports.
Please post all your sightings at southbaybirds@groups.io and/or eBird. You can use eBird to follow first-of-the-year sightings. Due to the fact that not everyone uses eBird, not all sightings will be included, however. To see first-of-the-year sightings in eBird do the following:
Click on "Explore Data" at the top of any eBird page
Select "Explore a Region"
Type in "Santa Clara" and wait for the page to fill it in
Select "Current Year" and click "set"
Click on "First Seen"
Go back to the Santa Clara County Bird List 2024 or view all the cumulative year lists.
January
We started off 2024 with 160 countable birds seen on January 1, and a total of 214 countable birds for the month of January. The average for January 1st is 157, and the average for the month of January is 202. There were 3 birds that were not ABA-countable in January (see below). Thank you to everyone who birded, and took the time to report birds either on SBB, eBird, or send emails directly to me.
Of the countable 214 birds that were recorded for January, there were 4 birds rated as rarity (6), and 8 birds rated as rarity (5). As a reminder, here is what each rarity code means:
**Rarity Codes:
1 = common, always seen in habitat in season.
2 = fairly common, usually in habitat in season, but missed sometimes.
3 = uncommon, always around, but sometimes you can't find.
4 = rare, occurs yearly in the county, but not always in same places.
5 = very rare, does not occur every year.
6 = casual or vagrant, generally fewer than 10 records.
Rarity Code 6’s for January 2024:
Pelagic Cormorant, 1/1/2024, in Salt Pond A1, by Richard Jeffers and Mike Rogers
Tropical Kingbird, 1/1/2024, near Salt Pond A4, by Richard Jeffers and Mike Rogers
Chestnut-sided Warbler, 1/23/2024, at Mitchell Park, by Mike Rogers
Williamson’s Sapsucker, 1/26/2024, at Cuesta Park, by Gary Koerzendorfer
Rarity Code 5’s for January 2024:
Black Rail, hidden date, location, and observer – ‘sensitive species’
Red Crossbill, 1/1/2024, at the pond at Bear Creek Redwoods OSP, by multiple observers
Palm Warbler, 1/1/2024, along the San Francisquito Creek Trail, by multiple observers
Ruddy Turnstone, 1/2/2024, at the mouth of San Francisquito Creek, by Brad Keitt
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, 1/3/2024, found by Garrett Lau on Santa Clara Street
Red-necked Grebe, 1/6/2024, found by Steve Rottenborn at Lake Cunningham
Summer Tanager, 1/13/2024, found by Carter Gasiorowski, at Chris Hotts Park
Rose-breasted Grosbeak, 1/27/2024, found by Alice Liu in her yard in San Jose
The 3 ABA non-countable birds for January were:
Red-masked Parakeet, 1/3/2024, seen by Garrett Lau at Las Palmas Park
Scaly-breasted Munia, 1/19/2024, seen by Leo O’Neill, at the Santa Clara Valley Water District Headquarters
Red-whiskered Bulbul, 1/26/2024, seen by anonymous birder in a backyard
My monthly reports are made up of eBird sightings, postings on south-bay-birds, and direct emails. The monthly cumulative lists are archived on the SCVAS website at https://scvas.org/sc-county-cumulative-year-lists. Please post all your sightings to: south-bay-birds@groups.io or to www.ebird.org .
Please contact me if you find errors or omissions, or have questions or comments.
Brooke Miller
February
Last month I made a mistake on the total number of species. Instead of 214, we had 215 species. For February we had a total of 7 species, so that brings us to 222 species at the end of February. The average for February is 9, and the average total is 202. Thank you to everyone who birded, and took the time to report birds either on SBB, eBird, or send emails directly to me.
The birds seen in February are as follows:
Hermit Warbler (3), 2/3/2024, found by Brian Ahern at Sanborn County Park at the Sunnyvale Mountain Trailhead
Brandt’s Cormorant (6), 2/7/2024, found by Ray Trent at Harvey Marsh
Harris’s Sparrow (6), 2/11/2024, found by Noah Eckman at Emily Renzel Wetlands
Lesser Black-backed Gull (5), 2/16/2024, found by Desi Sieburth and Cameron Tescher, at Salt Pond A13
Red-naped Sapsucker (5), 2/16/2024, found by Mike Mammoser at Ogier Ponds
Northern Rough-winged Swallow (2), 2/18/2024, seen by Charles and Jillian Sismondo
Dickcissel (6), 2/20/2024, seen by Matthew Dodder at a Cambrian Park home
March
For March we had a total of 13 species, so that brings us to 235 species at the end of March. The average for March is 13, and the average total is 224. Thank you to everyone who birded, and took the time to report birds either on SBB, eBird, or send emails directly to me.
The birds seen in March are as follows:
Cliff Swallow (1), 3/1/2024, seen by Tristan Yoo along the Coyote Creek Trail—Tasman Drive to CA-237
Laughing Gull (6), 3/3/2024, found by Garrett Lau at the Sunnyvale WPCP
Rufous Hummingbird (3), 3/7/2024, seen by Garrett Lau at Ed Levin CP—Spring Valley Area
Vermilion Flycatcher (6), 3/8/2024, found by Howard Friedman at Joseph D Grant County Park
Nashville Warbler (4), 3/9/2024, found by Ariel Potter and John Scharpen at Agnews Historic Park
Warbling Vireo (2), 3/10/2024, found by Linda Sullivan at La Rinconada Park
Nelson’s Sparrow (5), 3/11/2024, found by Dani Christensen at the Sunnyvale WPCP—East Pond
Hooded Oriole (1), 3/13/2024, seen by Janna Pauser in her yard
Western Flycatcher (1), 3/15/2024, found by William Webb along Morrill Road in Los Gatos
Cassin’s Vireo (2), 3/21/2024, found by Mike Beggs at Guadalupe River Park
Western Kingbird (2), 3/22/2024, seen by Dave Weber at Ed Levin County Park—Sandy Wool-Elm Area
Vaux’s Swift (3), 3/23/2024, seen by Ozzie Altus at Los Gatos Creek County Park and Oka Ponds
Common Poorwill (3), 3/31/2024, found by Tim Miller at Blue Oak Ranch Reserve (restricted access)