I had a short and chilly stop by the Baylands on the way home from work yesterday to see what was afoot. It was only about 40 minutes before sunset when I arrived, so I didn’t get to complete my usual walk before it got too dark to bother, and I missed the area where a Eurasian Wigeon was recently spotted.
Winter is upon us – I dind’t see a single Egret in the palm trees by the duck pond and just a couple of lonely Black-crowned Night Herons. Raptors were out more than I’ve recently seen, with a Cooper’s(?) Hawk, which posed nicely for a few photographs, a White-tailed Kite, which did no such thing, and a buteo seen between the duck pond and the Palo Alto Airport.
The list du jour was:
– American Avocet
– American Coot
– Anna’s Hummingbird
– Black-crowned Night Heron
– Black-necked Stilt
– Buteo sp.
– Canvasback
– Cooper’s(?) Hawk
– Dowitcher sp.
– Golden-crowned Sparrow
– Green-winged Teal
– Mallard
– Marbled Godwit
– Northern Shoveler
– Peeps sp.
– Ring-billed Gull
– Ruddy Duck
– Song Sparrow
– White-tailed Kite
Adam Paul 
Wonderful list of birds here! I bet it was fun seeing the Anna’s Hummingbird and the Kite! Next time you will see the Wigeon.
Yep, the winter birding at the Baylands is generally pretty darned good. I suppose Anna’s aren’t common where you live – it’s a fairly rare birding outing that I _don’t_ see one. Any other hummingbird is noteworthy, however – just lots of Anna’s!
I just love the Kites – not too uncommon either, but such fun to watch them do their flappy dance mid-air while scouting for mice! They’re my personal impossible-to-photograph bird, though – I’ve seen them many dozens of times, but they’re always soooo shy and/or distant. My best photos of them are fair at best.