I took advantage of a brief break in our very wet weather and swung by the Palo Alto Baylands after work yesterday. Although it was heavily overcast and grey, at least it was dry, and I got to use my new Canon 30D dSLR body outdoors for the first time!
There were mostly the usual suspects around the duck pond, and typical shorebirds in the slough. The Black-crowned Night Herons are increasing in number – I saw perhaps several dozen in the treetops, and I wasn’t looking hard for them! There were a few egrets in the palm trees – I expect many more will be arriving in the next couple of weeks.
A gravel area between the ranger’s residence and interpretive center is chained off and has a sign indicating there are Killdeer nesting there, but I didn’t see any. The Eurasian Wigeon made a faraway appearance, and I got my first look at a Black-bellied Plover in breeding plumage (I’ve seen many, but only in winter plumage until now) – they’re rather lovely birds, and quite black-bellied!
I met a nice birder named Peggy who said there were Black Skimmers at Charleston Slough, so I headed over there from the Baylands and sure enough, on the island across from the viewing platform were a couple dozen beautiful Black Skimmers. Unfortunately it was getting late and stormy and they were pretty distant, so my photos didn’t come out as well as I would have liked. Still, they were great to see and watch, and any trip where I get a new tick is okay by me!
The list du jour was:
– American Avocet
– American Coot
– American Kestrel
– Anna’s Hummingbird
– Black Phoebe
* Black Skimmer
– Black-crowned Night Heron
– Black-bellied Plover
– Brewer’s Blackbird
– Brown-headed Cowbird
– Canvasback
– Dowitcher sp.
– Gadwall
– Golden-crowned Sparrow
– Green-winged Teal
– House Finch
– Long-billed Curlew
– Mallard
– Marbled Godwit
– Northern Pintail
– Northern Shoveler
– Peeps sp.
– Red-winged Blackbird
– Ring-billed Gull
– Rock Pigeon
– Ruddy Duck
– Scaup sp.
– Snowy Egret
– Song Sparrow
– White-crowned Sparrow
– Willet
Adam Paul 