Baylands, Baylands, Baylands

    My past week was not great. Poor grades, schoolwork stress, and anxiety problems put together and you get a disaster. However, there were some highlights sprinkled throughout. On Saturday March 1, I decided to enjoy some quality alone time and where else to enjoy it than at the Baylands? It was a great idea from me. You know that feeling when you're biking and then you see something so beautiful that you almost crash in your state of dreaminess? Well essentially that happened the whole time. Previously there was rainy (yay!) weather and the dreary clouds were still present. Combined with the setting sun, the effect was heavenly. Ok maybe I have low standards as every time I go to the Baylands I basically describe something along these lines but WHATEVER. First, I went through Geng Road to get to the trail. In the parking lot, there were tons of puddles left from the rainstorm and they gave me interesting reflections to gawk at in my state of emotional stress. All the pictures were taken by phone as I didn't have my camera (err I wasn't supposed to be there in the first place...)

Oops shoulda done some more cropping

By the shores of San Francisquito Creek

The Trail

View over the airstrip

San Francisquito Creek Delta and my artsy-ish shadow

Dat perfect cloud placement. It's great to have vision.

    I then stopped at the Interpretive Center, locked my bike, and walked down the boardwalk. A dusk chorus of birds emanated from the saltmarsh just starting to begin spring growth.

Good night saltmarsh

    At the end of the boardwalk I was greeted with this lovely scene:

Never knew wet mud could be so reflective

    Yep. I was so impressed that I included 3 pictures of practically the same thing. What made the time even better were several flocks of graceful Bonaparte's gulls gliding in. Gliding. It was the first time that I had seen them doing so as well as the first time I had seen them this year. Three flocks flew over me towards the bay while I was there, the second flock having the most (~60) birds. Thank you nature for brightening up my day with a giant flock of my favorite local gulls as well as getting them checked off of my year list <3. With California, ring-billed, glaucous-winged, Western, herring, mew, and now Bonaparte's checked off, it's just you and me Thayer's. Just you and me (although I wouldn't mind a few rarer gulls).

Oh my gosh seriously though that is beautiful (blegh picture does the real thing no justice).

This would have been such a great comparison picture between greater and lesser scaups if they were side by side rather than awkwardly swimming at opposite sides of the frame towards me. 

Hey egret, what are you doing here?

    So that summarizes March 1st. Oh wait there's more? Yeah on Tuesday (3/4/14) I again went to the Baylands for some alone time (also managed to get some studying done). It was a really windy day and the weather was again quite beautiful. 

Choppy bay waters from the end of the boardwalk.

Probably leftovers of the resident peregrine's recent meal. Or maybe it was the ravens.

    The best bird of the day was a lifer, one of the ABA 1s for Santa Clara County but a surprise for a lowland bayside area: the CALIFORNIA THRASHER. Initially I was listening to a few mockingbirds when from one of the coyotebrushes beside the San Francisquito Creek another mockingbird-sized bird popped up. Hastily looking through binoculars, I saw a distinct curved beak, dark eye, and dark facial markings. I did not get a chance to take a long view as immediately afterwards a cyclist came right by and the bird disappeared. However, the field marks were enough to confirm my view unless it just happened to be that first county record of some other vagrant Crissal's thrasher or something. 

    Whew! We're done right? Nope! On Friday the 7th, I again went for a short trip to the Baylands. Not only was this because I wanted some quality alone time, I also had neglected to eat my lunch and didn't feel like eating it at home. Also, that morning a yellow-bellied sapsucker was reported on Geng Road. Also I just felt like it. Anyways, I spent all 3 hours of my visit searching for the elusive sapsucker, believing that it had moved on only to check listservs the next day and seeing 20 reports of it the bird was incredibly cooperative and I found it extremely quickly, at a speed similar to how quickly I found the yellow-bellied sapsucker at Ed Levin Park last year (well actually much longer as today it took me 5 minutes as opposed to 30 seconds for last time). The original email said that the bird was near the parking lot moving west through the eucalyptus trees near the baseball field but I read it as west of the baseball field. Wow I misread and the bird still showed up. What a wonderful moment that made my day - checking my email on the phone to confirm location then noticing a large-ish bird swooping above me onto the tree. I looked up and bam there it was showing off all the field marks that showed that it wasn't a red-naped: clearly not having a red nape and having a very yellow belly. No picture of the bird as I did not have my camera (obviously as this was after school). 

    I then ate my lunch with lovely ocean bay views of the San Francisquito Creek delta. Although the wind chilled by already just lukewarm food, the beautiful weather more than made up for the minor first world problem.

That's where the other yellow-bellied sapsucker I know of currently resides way over there in the hills.

    Oops no other pictures from that short trip. The only other interesting thing that happened was getting my first swallow of the year. A lone barn swallow was flying around the saltmarsh, a harbinger of the coming spring. Anyways this was a really long post with basically no pictures of animals. Or wait.... there's more? Never mind I'll put that in the next post as next week I for sure will not go birding (for real this time as opposed to last post...). 

    On an unrelated note, tomorrow I will have to change my "About me" portion into "I am an awkward 16 year old" to "I am an awkward 17 year old". Oh the horrors of aging.