San Jose in May and early June

I returned to San Jose for an extended period on May 14th, and on a walk along the creek found that Forster's and Caspian Terns were in, and the Pied-billed Grebes had young.

Forster's Tern

Pied-billed Grebe

I spent time chasing after year bids and had my FOY Lazuli Bunting on Tuesday May 15th, Vaux's Swift on Friday 18th, a Pacific-slope Flycatcher on Wednesday 23rd and a Warbling Vireo on Thursday 24th. My wife and I went to Stanford on Saturday May 19th and stopped at Arastradero for a hike where we ran into a (Western) Northern Pacific Rattlesnake.

On Thursday 31st May I went to Ulistac where a number of interesting birds had been reported.I ran into Sergio and Garrett while there and they found a hooded Oriole for me (by sound). I also saw a new county bird - an Olive-sided Flycatcher - while there. On a very hot Saturday June 2nd my wife and I headed to Sanborn County Park where I added two more year birds - Cassin's Vireo and Western Tanager.

Moss Landing in April and May

On Saturday April 21st my wife and I made our first trip of the year to the coast, and we spent a couple of hours along Jetty Road and the Beach at Moss Landing. We saw all the things we had expected to except Brown Pelicans. The only loon was a Pacific Loon. A surprise was a single Brant near the gulls in the harbour.


We returned when our son was visiting on Saturday May 26th, and this time the Brown Pelicans were back. There were a few Heerman's Gulls on the pier across the harbor, and both Common and Red-throated Loons (but no Pacific.)

Red-throated Loon

Surf Scoter

Santa Teresa County Park

On Friday April 20th I went to the far side of Santa Teresa County Park, by Calero Reservoir following a number of excited posts on the listserve regarding a Calliope Hummingbird.

When I arrived there were a couple of people who had seen the bird, and others looking. In the first hour the bird did not return but I had seen a Rufous Hummingbird go by. I was reminded that Grasshopper Warblers were along the fence line at the top of the slope and I was able to add that species, as well as (a singing) Horned Lark and some Lark Sparrows to my list. Coming back down I ran into a couple from San Francisco and eventually the Calliope Hummingbird came along and gave us close views. That gave me a total of five new county birds for the morning, and took me over the magic 200.

On Saturday April 21st, my wife and I took a late afternoon hike at the Coyote Valley Open Space Reserve. It wasn't particularly birdy but we saw a Western Kingbird as we started off from the car park, and a couple of cooperative Rock Wrens when we returned. We saw a Ring-necked Snake and a Western Black-headed Snake on the 4-mile loop.

Rock Wren

Western Kingbird

Tucson trip

I had to present at an after school workshop on Friday April 6th, and so I drove down on Thursday evening and spent a long morning out and about. The first stop was (of course) Paton's where the Violet-crowned and Broad-billed Hummingbirds did not disappoint, and had luck with many summer birds - Black-headed Grosbeaks, Bullock's Orioles, Plumbeous Vireos, Lucy's Warblers, Green-tailed Towhees and other things that would make their way towards Flagstaff soon,

Green-tailed Towhee

I continued around the loop and stopped at Santa Gertrudis Lane on the look out for Rufous-backed Robins and Ruddy-Ground Doves along the De Anza Trail. But I wasn't quite sure exactly where to look and dipped on both. It was also getting hot, and I passed on stopping to try for the Rose-throated Becard, which is notoriously tough.

On Saturday April 7th I started the day at Madera Canyon, taking my favorite hike from Proctor Road to the Kubo and back. I found the usual birds in the usual places - Bell's Vireos at Proctor, Wild Turkeys at the Lodge - and an Arizona Woodpecker just along the road - and a Rivoli's Hummingbird at the Kubo. I didn't have time to head to the Carrie Nation trail because I had tickets for the opera in Phoenix, and it was really too hot on my short stop at Sweetwater.

Flagstaff in March and April

Arizona's dry winter meant that we continued to get unusual birds in the area. On March 5th I got to see the Vermilion Flycatcher at Frances Short Pond, but I dipped on the Louisiana Waterthrush that BB and Kathie found at the Walnut Canyon Ponds on April 1st, and which stayed around until the 4th. I looked for it on the 4th without luck, but did see yet another Vermilion Flycatcher, and a Neotropic Cormorant.

Vermilion Flycatcher

Of course many summer birds were arriving and I saw Painted Redstarts at Cave Springs on March 31st, and Red-faced Warblers on April 28th among many others.

Portland, Oregon

My wife and I headed to see friends in Portland for the first weekend of my Spring Break. This was my first time in Oregon and I was able to start a state list with 41 birds over the weekend. Of course new places means different birds, and a whole flock of cackling Geese was new for me. Also Nell and Dennis had both Black-capped and Chestnut-backed Chickadees in their yard. But the real highlight was a Varied Thrush on the lawn with the robins.

Varied Thrush

San Jose in March

After returning to San Jose on February 17th we decided to try for a Short-eared Owl that had been reported at Palm Avenue on and off through the previous week. Arriving there not long before sunset we found a crowd there, including Bill who had run the owl class I had attended the previous year. A number of Northern Harriers kept us interested flying low to the ground, but after a while someone called the bird and we had good, but short views of the owl.

A bad thing then happened when Bill got over-excited and charged onto private land to get a better look, only to be met by the 'angry' and disappointed land owner. Bill's careless error was magnified when he was shamed for his behavior by someone on the list serve that evening...

I returned to San Jose two weeks later and hooked up with Sergio for a trip to Ulistac. I added Wilson's Snipe as a county bird, and saw my first Orange-crowned and Townsend's Warblers of the year, and my first Lincoln and Fox Sparrow's of the year.

The following day my wife and I went to the EEC at Alviso and found a Barn Owl in the nest box.

Black-crowned Night Herons

Burrowing Owls

California Towhee

San Luis and Merced

I ran into a lady while birding at Almaden Lake Park on January 19th and she told me all about the San Luis and Merced National Wildlife Refuges just beyond Los Banos. On Friday February 16th my wife and I drove out to San Luis where I saw my first Snow Goose of the year, and while driving a road trail we saw a Ring-necked Pheasant. But San Luis was very dry and the 'lake' outside the visitor center a dry bed of grass and reeds. San Luis was a little disappointing but we did see some Tule Elk.

Tule Elk

We then made our way to Merced, the jewel in the crown, to see thousands of Sand Hill Cranes and both Snow and Ross's Geese. We stayed until dusk when many birds were coming in for the night. We had seen this kind of thing once before with cranes at the Bosque del Apache, but this was better with large numbers of these three species, and also many ducks, pelicans and snipe. The only disappointment was my failure to find any Tundra Swans which had been seen at both places the week before.

Greater White-fronted Geese

Ross's and Snow Geese

Sandhill Cranes

A real bonus at Merced was a Great Horned Owl on a telephone pole in bright sunshine as we drove a road trail there.

Great-horned Owl

On Saturday February 17th we headed home via the main street in Los Banos where Cattle Egrets have a favorite spot.