Science Olympiad, The Big Game, and a Toast to the 200th

    On 4/12/14 my science olympiad team went to CSU Stanislaus in Turlock to compete in the NorCal state finals. I woke up groggily and anxiously at 4:40 am, walking over to a friend's house in the middle of the beautifully silent wee hours for carpooling. On the way there between brief naps, I scanned the many rural roadsides in a hopeful but fruitless attempt to find barn owls and nighthawks. The sun emerged from the horizon as we arrived at our destination.
    Upon arrival, I saw a very large flock of swallows flying over the early morning campus, most of them being cliff but a few barn were mixed in. We then walked over to where we would set up our home base: an area near one of the campus' ponds. In the cattails were many great-tailed grackles singing their quite piercing yet beautiful songs and displaying their (great) tails, likely a breeding colony. The combination of their raucous chorus with the rising sun was quiet lovely.

Overexposed sunrise

One of the creepiest scarecrows I have ever seen.

Domestic greylag goose

Coot. And as you insist..."being there" credits to Ivy Li (you better be reading this)

    Anyways, after a long day of stressful tests that I admittedly did not prepare for as well as I had hoped for, I went with a friend to a pond near where the awards ceremony was. It was a lovely period of peace in the hectic day with lots of interesting animals. In the water alongside the large goldfish and koi and shoals of mosquito fish, I saw several darting ovals that shimmered in the light near the surface before disappearing to the deeper water that turned out to be water boatmen. Also in the pond were a nesting pair of Canada geese, many mallard ducklings, and cliff swallows nesting below the bridge. I had hoped for birds more specific to the central valley not usually found in Santa Clara County like Swainson's hawks but unfortunately, no new birds were added to my year list.

Some of the many fat goldfish in the pond. These are not koi as they lack barbels. However, I did see a butterfly koi elsewhere in the pond, a very beautiful fish.

Canada goose nest

Yellow-billed magpie. These lovely corvids are endemic to California and are basically found only in the central valley and the surrounding mountains.

Red-eared Slider

Duckling and mom

    Unfortunately, we did not get first place which means no trip to Florida in May. Oh well the day was ultimately a decent experience and I will most definitely work harder next year. 

Lucky beetle that appeared during awards ceremony.....on my neck

    On the next day Sunday 4/13, I went on a birdathon "The Big Game", a competition between Berkeley and Stanford to see which campus yielded the most bird species in 4 hours. As I biked to the meeting spot at Lake Lagunita in the early morning, I enjoyed the sun's rays starting to light up the earth and my near choking on attempting to eat a sandwich while biking without drinking water.

    Upon arrival, we split into groups to search the different parts of the campus: 1 team taking on the main campus, 1 team taking the Stanford Dish Trail, and 1 team taking the part of main campus by San Francisquito Creek. I went with the main campus group headed by the event coordinator Robert Furrow, an absolutely amazing birder in addition to 2 other great birders Joan Zuckerman and Karen DeMello.

    Just as we started birding, I got my 200th lifer, the BLUE-GREY GNATCATCHER, singing and flitting about the blue oaks by the large lakebed. The three groups split off shortly and we went through the main campus, first heading down the eucalyptus-lined Governor's Avenue. I had seen a Bullock's oriole here a month ago and this time, Robert found a nest in an oak.

Excellent, unobstructed shot of one of the blue-grey gnatcatchers 

Western scrub-jay

The nest is kind of hard to see but it's the dark object in the shady area in the middle that looks like a hanging basket.

Fox squirrel

    We then headed down Campus Drive towards the Oval, where Robert spotted a dark bird soaring high overhead that turned out to be a double-crested cormorant. I had seen one of these birds at my last trip to the Stanford Dish Trail and I learned later that day that the Dish team had also seen one of these aquatic birds. Perhaps the Stanford area is an important flyway for their travels between the Bay and lakes in the mountains, Lake(bed) Lagunita not included. Robert then saw a Northern harrier flying by, a fairly unusual bird for this location inside of Stanford's main campus. Continuing to walk, we went to the Gate building, where supposedly a barn owl roosted. Although abundant whitewash was found along with fresh pellets, no owl was spotted. Or no owl was barn. Or no owl was seen at all. The pellet did yield some interesting bone fragments, though.

Soaring cormorant

                    

Skull of some small mammal

Bone fragments scattered over the ground

    We continued walking to Memorial Court, where from the acorn woodpecker-covered fan palms a male HOODED ORIOLE appeared after a recording was played. A walk through the oaks beside the Oval Lawn gave us the first white-throated swifts of the day flying very low (in swift terms) as well as a brief view of a California thrasher before it hopped away into hiding. 

Gargoyle squirrel

Hooded Oriole

Common starling in its natural habitat.

Old acorn woodpecker granary

According to Rob, this was the roosting place of a Western screech owl a few years back.

Lesser goldfinch 

    It was then time to start heading back and we went through the Arboretum and cactus garden in attempt to find a few more birds Rob had seen a few days ago when scouting. By the Bing Concert Hall before reaching the large eucalyptus grove, a young WHITE-THROATED SPARROW was found in a small Zonotrichia flock of late individuals. No Townsend's warblers were found nearby where I had seen them a few weeks back, having mostly migrated northward to their breeding grounds. At the Arboretum, we dipped on the desired brown creeper but did get to see large numbers of band-tailed pigeons and even larger flocks of cedar waxwings descending on the eucalyptus flowers. 

Squabbling acorn woodpeckers

Band-tailed pigeons

White-throated sparrow

Canada geese flyover. The only other waterfowl seen this day was the ubiquitous mallard.

    At the mausoleum, a turkey vulture soaring above was added to the day list along with a Cooper's hawk getting harassed by a crow. No new birds were added within the cactus garden but Robert did find a brown creeper in the surrounding trees. However, due to birdathon rules, 2 people were required to positively see / hear each species and unfortunately none of us got to see the little bird afterwards. The end of the four hours was near and we headed back to Lake Lagunita's fire pit. Along the way, a Cooper's hawk juvenile was seen practicing flight with a watchful parent nearby, an interesting sight this early in the year. Just after the 4 hours ended, we saw barn swallows flying above the lakebed, unfortunately not being able to be added to the list. However, we still beat out the Berkeley team 76 to 64!

Western bluebird

The chase is on, with the hawk being the speck to the left and the crow being the speck to the right.

3 species of tree in one picture! Atlas cedar and coast live oak saplings growing epiphytically on a Canary Island date palm.

    Following our list compilation, I bid farewell to all the great team members and went to the Dish for a short walk. No new birds were added but I did get a much better but not great shot of the never still blue-grey gnatcatcher. A small puddle of water in the dry chaparral + grassland was also interesting to watch with all the visiting songbirds.

Western fence lizard

California ringlet butterfly - one of a lot

Bathing in the puddle

Splash

The lovely little gnatcatcher

Bushtits, White-crowned Sparrows, and Golden-crowned Sparrow enjoying the welcome relief in the dry terrain.

    Well that concludes this post. Hopefully some lucky winds will blow migrants / vagrants to my area of SC County as it's getting to that time of year now. Well anyways, I'll likely be missing some nice birds due to schoolwork but oh well. Until next time, enjoy life and love nature!

Early April Expeditions

    Whew it's been a while since I posted. The past tiring 2 weeks were filled with schoolwork and several other adventures that will be discussed in the next post. For now, enjoy my musings from 4/2. On that lovely day, I visited Ed Levin County Park in an attempt to find some of the arriving summer migrants.
    My first year bird of the day was not a migrant but one of the resident wild turkeys. Later throughout the day I would see several groups of these wild fowl courting, quite interesting to watch. My mom and I then walked around the Spring Valley Unit, circling the lake and visiting some surrounding blooming eucalyptus trees. Highlights of the brief walk were several singing Bullock's orioles, a few Western kingbirds, and a very distant juvenile golden eagle soaring amongst some turkey vultures. We then went along Calaveras Boulevard in attempt to find the bald eagle nest by the reservoir.

Red-eared sliders basking

Excellent view with an even more excellent shot of the golden eagle

Western scrub-jay

    With a narrow road, many blind corners, and often steep drops on the side, sometimes without railings, the trip was not exactly the most comfortable I had ever experienced. Fortunately, I did not die or suffer severe physical damage. Unfortunately, no new birds were obtained, except for a lifer YELLOW-BILLED MAGPIE, which I would see later in the day anyways. I think I found the bald eagle nest: a large pile of twigs on a tower, but no adults nor babies were seen.

Seriously, that blind corner

Dat lack of blurriness. Magpies are quite spectacular when they fly, with their super long tails trailing behind a blur of contrasting black and white wings.

My second golden eagle of the day. This juvenile was also hanging out with turkey vultures.

In case you didn't notice, this was a far better view than of the first bird.

Along the road were a large number of acorn woodpeckers. For those who do not know, these guys store acorns in holes they make on trees, as shown by the little brown acorn slightly below where the bird is. Many times, whole trees are covered in these acorn holes and are known as granaries.

Pretty sure that was the bald eagle nest.

Moo

    After the death-defying experience, we headed to Sandy Wool Lake back at Ed Levin, where the less hazardous-looking surroundings and wider roads were a very welcome relief. I first scanned the trees around the lake to see if any ospreys were present to no avail. I then hiked a short distance with my mom in attempt to find grasshopper sparrows. However, the wind started to really pick up now and birds were becoming less vocal and out in the open so that too was a fail. Following the attempt at finding those two birds, I looked at the red-flowering eucalyptus trees by the trailhead to find the recently reported Selasphorus hummingbirds. Several flocks of birds were present in the tree, including house finches and red-winged blackbirds (didn't know they were so eucalyptus fond). Then, a completely orange-backed hummingbird presented itself while moving too quickly / getting too disturbed by wind for any photo: a RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD. Several hummers with orange and green were also present but I did not get any views of outspread tail feathers to confirm Allen's. I also got a surprise in this tree: my first of year loggerhead shrike. I did not get a chance to get a picture, however, as right after I turned on my camera, it flew away. 

Spiffy looking female turkey

Spiffy looking female Nuttall's woodpecker

Male Anna's hummingbird showing off his gorge gorget 

Giant pig nose

Western bluebird

Black phoebe and captured dragonfly.

    The following day, my mom and I hiked for a short time at Palo Alto Foothills Park. Although no year birds were obtained, the blooming flora was very worth seeing.

Western houndstongue with its forget-me-not like blue blossoms.

Bicolored Lupines. Such lovelies.

Pacific madrone blooming.

Woodland star. What a gem of the forest floor spring.

False Solomon's seal

Common trillium. Almost all parts of this plants are in threes: 3 bracts (the "leaves"), 3 sepals (the "petals"), and 3 stigmas.

Common buckeye about to bloom.

State flowers of both California and close relative of Texas'. Both species are annuals that grow during the cooler wet season and usually die off when dry, warm summer weather hits.

Lovely damselfly by the lake. Pretty sure it's a Pacific forktail.

Pile of basking red-eared sliders.

Red-winged Blackbird male. These songbirds were breeding in the cattails by Boranda Lake.

    On 4/4, I took a brief bike trip with my point-and-shoot through the Matadero Creek Trail and the Baylands. Upon arrival at Mayfield Slough, I noticed several large-ish birds with yellow bellies flying around. They turned out to be Western kingbirds and I saw around 6 of them flycatching in the field of blooming mustards. I then continued to cycle through the area, going through Byxbee Park without anything of much interest. However, as I looked through the eucalyptus trees lining the parking lot, I met another birder, Caroline Lambert, one of the best in our county, who gave me directions to a Eurasian wigeon she saw earlier.

With the kingbirds arriving in larger numbers, it shouldn't be long before the other migrants start to really come in as well.

Clouds over the polefield

Fairly certain not-hybrid Eurasian wigeon

Caroline's vastly superior photograph. If you're reading this, thanks again for showing me where the bird was!

Look at that contrast in the middle between light and dark. The sweep was a bit too wide and the one pier looks like 2 now but I guess it looks pretty interesting

My bike says hi

Pretty views (again, much more impressive in real life)

Meanwhile, the cliff swallows were starting to nest at the Interpretive Center.

The adults gathered in a large flock around the building where because of the strong winds, they seemed to be stationary in mid-air.

A raven (ravin'?) party

    I am still not yet up to date but I will stop here for this post. To make a long story short, my spring break was a great time to go out and go birding but the inclement weather for many of the days slightly sucked. Still, I got quite a few new birds so for that, I am satisfied and thankful for my parents' driving. Until next time, enjoy life and love nature!