Last days in San Jose

On Friday January 6th I took a walk through the Santa Teresa County Park in near freezing conditions. (The golf course was covered in frost when I first set out.) The walk began, as it did on January 1st, with lots of American Robins and Cedar Waxwings feeding on the berries in the trees along Bernal Road. I added three year birds on my trip - first a Spotted Towhee from the nature trail before running across a group of 12 Wild Turkey. As I came back along the entry road on the golf course I had a flock of American Goldfinch feeding high in the trees.
 

Cedar Waxwing

American Goldfinch

Saturday January 7th was a rainy day and my birding was limited to two quick stops. A fifteen minute stop at Calero Reservoir was long enough to identify a Clark's Grebe among twenty or so Western Grebes, and also to find my first Common Goldeneye in Santa Clara County. A second stop at a new place, the Santa Clara County Water District Pond, was unsuccessful with the target bird - a Blue-winged Teal - missing. I did find a number of Common Mergansers and a few Double-crested Cormorants.

I had to head back to Arizona and work on Sunday January 8th and did so with 111 species seen in a week in California. Of these 108 were in Santa Clara County, placing me fifth on the eBird list.