The Lost Vagrant: Veteran's Day Adventures

On Veteran's Day I decided to go birding, my first "regular" trip since September.
I started my day at 7 am and did my usual path to Shoreline. At Adobe Creek, I noticed a large number of dead carp floating around. These mortalities likely resulted from the recent mud removal from the waterway that caused extremely low water levels and probably low food supplies. I always wondered how the giant carp survived here in average water depths of something around 2 feet at most or how they got here in the first place. Biking past that area, I briefly stopped and listened to the eucalyptus and arundo-dominated wetland around the biker underpass. Yellow-rumped warblers were back in their normal winter levels but I did not have time to check for the Myrtle subspecies amid the usual Audubon's.
A little bit further up the trail, the shorebirds of Charleston Slough greeted me in the morning light, with flocks of several species. In the Coast Casey Forebay, the gull flock yielded 6 species, with California, herring, mew, glaucous-winged, ring-billed, and Western gulls. My 7th gull species came just a few minutes later as the first of many Bonaparte's gulls I would see this day flew overhead with its graceful flight pattern.

Morning shorebirds

Classic comparison shot of a Western and least sandpiper (2 birds in the middle, with the Western being the larger bird in the back with dark legs and the least the smaller front bird with legs that should be yellow but were covered in mud).

Adult Mew Gull. What a cutie with its smaller profile and short bill.

Western Gull with its dark back and super heavy bill.

Red-tailed Hawk by Shoreline Lake

As I continued my journey, I saw that the diving birds had returned to Salt Pond A1 and A2W. Tons of ruddies and scaup sp. (mostly if not all lesser scaups; didn't have much time to check for greaters) in addition to several eared and Western grebes mingling with the ducks.

Diving gang of lesser scaups and eared grebes. A few gadwalls are also swimming near the upper right.

Cooperate Grey plover at A2E

Adult California Gull in flight.

Multicultural pelicans

Brown Pelicans. Winter-plumaged adult on left and immature on left.

Must be a great year for fish in A2E this year, with so many fish eaters around.

As I passed A2E, I stopped at Moffett Field to find some open field overwinterers such as horned lark. Although I did not see that species, I got a great and unexpected consolation prize in the form of a beautifully-marked adult lark sparrow, my first for the year. I even managed some blurry shots through the fence.

My, what pretty facial markings you have

These lovely little birds have quite interesting songs. This fella gave me a small sample while aggressively interacting with some Zonotrichias.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/lark_sparrow/sounds

Female Common Goldeneyes at Salt Pond A3W, my first sighting of this species for the season

Always a delight seeing Soras swimming. They look so adorable while doing so!

The elusive bird immediately ran into the dense vegetation after it got out of the water. Like most rails, Soras are rather shy.

Finally, at around 10 am I arrived at Alviso Marina County Park. My primary goal was to find the pelagic cormorant which I had unsuccessfully looked for twice last year when (presumably the same bird) it was in the area. Both times last year I realized that a scope was probably necessary due to the bird's distance from the trail. For some reason, I decided that it would be ok this year. And, surprisingly, it was. At the levee between ponds A10 and A11, I scanned through the cormorant flock and with some persistence, found one bird that was noticeably smaller. Focusing on it more, it showed a slimmer profile and even in cloudy weather, a slight greenish tinge.

Bird on edge of levee on the right side.

Preening

As per usual, the salt ponds were filled with many overwintering birds. For example, this Clark's grebe with its topsmelt prey.

What a lovely bird with its simple color scheme and elegant shape.

Going back for more.

Bonaparte's gulls numbers were high all around today for some reason. Previously, essentially the only places where I saw them in the area were in the Palo Alto Baylands and Charleston Slough. Today, I saw the species in numbers nearly everywhere I went.

Not going to complain though, as this is a very lovely gull species.

If only I was better at flight shots...

Another flyer, a lovely Hellula rogatalis, or cabbage webworm moth.

Soon, it was time to return and I bid the bird-filled Alviso goodbye. I need to go back sometime soon as I did not have time to go to look for shorebirds in the other ponds. Additionally, I would really like to see a short-eared owl in the marshland sometime as those are also reported sporadically.

Northern Flicker at the Sunnyvale Baylands. While I passed through, I saw my first spotted towhee of that area, a somewhat unusual species for the location.

First winter Herring Gull at Pond A4.

Red-shouldered Hawk at the Sunnyvale WPCP.

Wilson's Snipe roosting in the Sunnyvale WPCP marsh. Or should I say what remains of it. That day, the marsh was being dredged again for mosquito control. A shame that valuable habitat for birds, muskrats, and Western pond turtles is being destroyed.

Lovely little Killdeer. Fall nights in California are not complete without the ringing calls of this bird from nearby fields.

This individual is showing a bit of its orange rump. In flight, that area is quite shockingly bright.

Stunningly great picture of a Say's Phoebe at Moffett Field. Unfortunately, the Lark Sparrow wasn't around on the return trip for another attempt to get nice pictures.

As I walked back to my bike from looking at the phoebe, a lovely little moth caught my eye.

Spoladea recurvalis, or the Hawaiian beet webworm moth. Not sure how it got its common name, as according to some internet searches, the moth has pretty much a worldwide distribution. Not sure if it's distribution is due to introduction or if the moth is actually naturally occurring in all those locations as no source seemed to address that issue.