January Joys Part 2

     In continuation of this exciting January saga filled with blood, tears, and drama, on the 24th, I again went to chase the Ovenbird, this time to hopefully get some pictures. As per usual, the trip there was quite lovely, with a beautiful sunrise over Shoreline Lake.

Greater White-fronted Goose antics at the kite-flying area.

My, what trippy wing patternings you have.

Female / immature male Townsend's Warbler peeking out from a magnolia.

Wilson's Snipe peeking out of the cattails in the Charleston Road marsh. Almost missed the motionless bird as I biked by.

Standard issue Oregon Junco.

Speaking of mockingbirds, I guess I have mixed feelings about Harper Lee's sequel. I was already 100% satisfied with the ending of To Kill a Mockingbird but still, I'm really eager to read anything else this brilliant writer has to offer. 

Bewick's Wren foraging in a pot's rim. Probably looking for some tasty spiders to snack on.

Find the Ovenbird

    The nervous wreck of an Ovenbird stayed under the row of trees the entire time I was there. It allowed for some pretty good looks but no good pictures. After about 20 minutes of satisfactory viewing, I biked back towards home.

Such a nice rufous crown.

How lovely of a shot.

Canada Goose making a bold fashion statement to the rest of its kind. 

Preening Ring-billed Gull at Duck Pond.

Greater Scaup with that big, black nail at the end of his bill.

Greater Scaups really are pretty birds when you can get close up views. Duck Pond seems to be the only place where they are this cooperative. I guess technically though, this is not really good as it happened due to the dux getting accustomed to human feeding when they come here for the winter.

Green-winged Teal showing a tiny sliver of his green speculum beneath the wing.

Crap. What's my dad doing here?

    You know one of those sights that are so beautiful that they make you wonder if there truly is a higher order? Me neither. But a situation close to that happened on the 31st, as I biked out to Alviso. At around 6 am, I was passing by Salt Pond A2E and a trace of orange started becoming visible from the East. As the sky was exposed on my right side while traveling pass a hill (more like big pile of dirt), the following phenomenon appeared.

Yeah this picture does a horrible job of conveying what I saw / felt but imagine the sky darker and the long cloud brighter and much more colorful. It showed a full spectrum of colors, from red on the left to blue to the right. Even though this strange streak in the sky was likely formed by a passing plane or something of the like, it was still one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. I even felt a bit emotional.

The next interesting phenomenon was seeing a large flock of gulls circling overhead in the tiny amount of pre-dawn light while I was at Salt Pond A3W. It felt almost sinister as the sky was still a deep purple and the gulls looked menacing as they gathered in that background. This picture, however, was taken just before sunrise at Salt Pond A4, as the sky turned a lovely shade of blue...

 ...and after another half hour, this beautiful pink near Saratoga Creek.

    At around 8 am, I arrived at Alviso and started the 9 mile loop. Almost as soon as I started the trail by Pond A12, I began hearing 2 Black Rails calling. I could practically pinpoint the elusive points to within 3 feet of where they were but the birds decided to stay hidden within the saltmarsh. Although Alviso was extremely birdy, with tons and tons of gulls and shorebirds, most of the birds were very far out. As I didn't bring a scope, the birding was not as good as I had hoped and due to the distance, my pictures were quite limited.

Hunting Northern Harrier

Snowy Egret party.

Common Raven eating something meaty.

Said the raven "croak croak"

Lesser Flamingo trying to blend in with ducks at A14. This most likely captive escapee has usually being reported at the Sunnyvale WPCP. Apparently the restored salt ponds of the San Francisco Bay are similar enough to African alkaline pools that this bird has survived for so long.

Just a small sampler of the gulls seen over the day. This picture also exemplifies how lighting often adds an additional element of confusion during identification as originally from a distance, I almost thought that this was a flock of purely Glaucous-wingeds due to the strong backlighting.

Yay Thayer's Gull

Turkey Vulture chillin' on the trail

The much coveted Blue-winged Teals in Mallard Slough did not show themselves but this pair of Cinnamon Teals were quite easy on the eyes.

Speaking of eyes, check out his!

Rather unimpressive shot of Lesser Yellowlegs

    As I was crunched for time, it was now time to leave Alviso and head back home. Along the way in the Sunnyvale Baylands, I was surprised to see at least 8 or so Monarch butterflies, perhaps spending the winter in the park's small Eucalyptus grove. I don't remember seeing them here last winter but due to this year's especially warm weather, they may have begun to overwinter further north.

Perhaps my best flight shot

Significantly worse but I really love this lighting.

I also really love this shot for no apparent reason.

A much less cringe-worthy picture but also somewhat less interesting to look at.

First odonate of the year - a Variegated Meadowhawk in the Sunnyvale Baylands test garden. This tough dragonfly has a year-long flight period in the area.

Brown-headed Cowbird

Lovely headwear of the Green Heron

After looking at the Green Heron, I turned around and saw a Western Pond Turtle resting on a small island. Unfortunately, as soon as I moved towards it, it slipped into the water at light speed. At least I still got this head shot showing my second reptile of the year.

Various "red" dux around A3W with a Redhead and Red-breasted Merganser

Small group of Aleutian Cackling Geese mingling with the Canada Goose flock at Shoreline. These birds were my final year bird of the day: #157 in general and #149 for my county green year list.

Three goose species in one shot. Too bad the Ross's didn't seem to be invited to this party.

My second Virginia Opossum of the year - just like that Ellie Goulding song in Divergent, it was dead in the water. I could smell it quite well.

    And that marked my final birding trip of 2015's amazing January. Our winters are so nice for wildlife viewing and as February is also coming to a close, I hope to make the most of it. Until next time, enjoy life and love nature!