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!