Dawn in Santa Clara
I’m just now realizing that the new earlier daylight savings time is going to play havoc with the planned Birding BoF at SD 2007 West in a couple of weeks. Sunrise isn’t going to happen till about 7:00 A.M., and I was planning to get going at 6:00.
Can anyone currently birding in Santa Clara County give me a heads up to let me know what’s the earliest you think we could reasonably start on March 21? We could push back the start time a little, but I don’t have much time before I have to get everyone back to the hotel for the 8:30 A.M. first session. Possibly instead of walking back to the hotel, we could simply bird Sunnyvale Baylands Park and then take cabs back. Here’s another question for locals: last year the park gates were open well before their scheduled opening time. Is that reliable? If we drive over, can we be confident we’ll be able to park?
Update: Problem Solved
I’m still not happy about the daylight savings time but I do now have a backup plan. We’ll go to Sunnyvale Baylands County Park as planned, car pooling in private cars so we can drive back at 8:00. If the gates are closed, we’ll drive a little ways down the road to the Donald M. Somers Water Control Pollution Plant instead. They’ve got good birds, public parking, and no gates.
March 7th, 2007 at 12:47 AM
Well, I’m a casual birder in Santa Clara County, but not to the extent I get out the binoculars (but I did notice a kingfisher near work recently!). Anyway, Civil time within CityTime app on my Treo (which I just updated today to account for new DST rules) indicates usable light at 6:48 AM on the 21st, which sounds about right. This morning (6th) sun was well up by 6:45, which will be 7:45 by weekend. Net is you won’t pick up much bird color until after 7, but you could listen for songs and start seeing movement…not to mention catch a nice sunrise!
March 8th, 2007 at 11:28 PM
I bicycle to work along the baylands and keep a camera with me as the morning commute includes an occasional clapper rail on the bike trail, great blue herons, great egrets and various ducks.
The best birding is where San Antonio Road meets the bay, plenty of parking, no gates and it’s a 5 minute walk to the Sunnyvale baylands but there is so much to see within a 1/2 mile radius you might not get to the SV baylands.