Scouting for the BoF
I headed over to Sunnyvale Baylands Park first thing this morning to see if we could get in early enough for Thursday morning’s Birding BoF. The gates are open, and you could probably get in at 3:00 A.M. in the morning if you wanted to. There isn’t enough light to see by until 6:45 A.M. or so, though. However, it seems to have been a very dry year. The marshes have turned into baked mud flats, and few birds were seen.
Fortunately, I had a backup plan in hand. The Donald M. Somers Water Pollution Control Plant just down the road was in a lot better shape, and a quick 30-minute spin around the big hill (probably a landfill?) turned up 18 species including this Common Moorhen:
I think we’ll come here on Thursday instead. Other species seen included:
- Canada Goose
- Gadwall
- Mallard
- Northern Shoveler
- Green-winged Teal
- Ruddy Duck
- Pied-billed Grebe
- Great Egret
- Red-tailed Hawk
- Common Moorhen
- American Coot
- Ring-billed Gull
- American Crow
- Barn Swallow
- Marsh Wren
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
- Song Sparrow
- Red-winged Blackbird
