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