A New Day Has Come

    January first, the beginning of a new year. A new year list for birds, a new year to hone my identification skills, a new year to get better at everything. Bright and early at 5 am, I was.... asleep. An hour later, I still was asleep as well as an hour later. Three more hours passed and like the average teenager I am, I groggily awoke from my bed and then went to eat breakfast, talking to no one. Then, as mentioned in the last post, I wrote the last post. A lovely uneventful day passed and then I went to bed around 11.

Day 1 summary:
Bird list: 0 (I guess technically 5-6 because I heard some things calling around the house, but meh)
Everything else list (compiled): 0

    January second, the second day of a new year. At 6, I woke up and rushed out of the house in the dim light. Opening my garage, I got onto my bike for the first time this year. It was time to go do some goddamn birding.
    To save time, I did not eat breakfast, a viable strategy as my hunger at this point was suppressed by the subfreezing temperature and adrenaline rush. My first stop was at Old Page Mill Road, where I took an extremely inefficient route to but still made it. Although no owls or interesting mammals were seen, I got really nice views of my first varied thrushes of the year. They were quite numerous in the oaks and embarrassingly enough, pretty much the first evidence I had gotten this winter season of the apparent huge irruption they were having all over California. When I decided to bike back down to go through Stanford Campus, my toes were cold but not yet numb so the feeling was quite painful, being protected only by a thin sock and tennis shoe layer. Oops bad idea. So I stood there and watched the thrushes, also eating some of the food items I brought.

Lovely bird it is. 

    When my feet felt slightly less painful / perhaps got a little numb, I biked towards Lake Lagunita to try to search for the wood duck pair I saw on the 30th. Well, no luck with that. The water level in Lake Lagunita (more like Puddle Lagunita) was rapidly falling and the diving ducks were scooping for food at the bottom (insect larvae / worms?) rather than diving. It was quite entertaining to see a group of 8 Bufflehead working almost like Northern Shovelers, dipping their bills in shallow water and working in a tightly packed group to do so.

Frozen water????? Again, my feet did not appreciate my walking through frosty grass.

    I then biked away from Stanford, going on Foothill Expressway towards Diericx Drive. Again, I wanted to see the Evening Grosbeaks and I hoped that fortune would favor me as it did last time. I arrived at Diericx around 11 am and when I was at the spot where the curious finches were seen last, another birder, Vivek Tiwari, was already there. However, he said that he had not seen them in the period of time he was there. A few minutes later, he left but as I had a dentist appointment later in the day, I had time to kill as this was my last stop before then and I was really far ahead of schedule, I sticked around for a bit. That proved to be a good decision as around 10 minutes later, 2 Evening Grosbeaks landed in the pistache tree. Not quite as great of a show as what happened on the 31st but satisfying enough for me.

The birds refused to move any closer so this was actually my best picture through the branches.

    I then biked around the neighborhood, getting a few more year birds as well as killing time. At 12, I arrived near my dentist on West Fremont Drive and sat around, eating some more of my breakfast. My appointment was at 1:30 so I was pretty disappointed that I didn't spend more time at Stanford. At 1, I decided to go in and ask if I could have my appointment earlier (why didn't I do that earlier...). They agreed and the session lasted....2 minutes. So in a nutshell, I wasted over an hour of what could have been quality birding for 2 minutes. Anyways, there was no time to mope. My next stop was the Charleston Road Marsh and I hurriedly traveled along the Stevens Creek Trail to get there.

    The Marsh was similar to how it was on the 31st, being a total finch party. I got my year's first Pine Siskins, Purple Finches, and American Goldfinches there but still missed out on the Northern Waterthrush. I think including last year, I have tried over 15 times for that shy overwintering vagrant. 

    As I approached where the Bay Trail met the Stevens Creek Trail, I was torn with either going through Shoreline and the Baylands, having more coverage, or going through A2E, then doing the former option, having more area but less coverage. I chose the latter option, which proved to be a decent decision. A2E was quite birdy and surprised me with some species I had never seen there such as Surf Scoter, Common Goldeneye, and in the adjacent hill, Greater White-fronted Geese. Additionally, large numbers of Forster's Terns and Bonaparte's Gulls were diving. 

Forster's Terns with their adorable winter "earmuffs".

Bonaparte's Gulls are such attractive little gulls (not to be confused with the similar-looking and also quite attractive Little Gulls)

Alas, my skills with manual focus are not so great, especially with moving targets.

Three yearbirds in a frame. Oh how I love the first birding trip in a year, where everything seen is a year bird, even the very common species as shown.

Grey Plover flock flyby.

It's not often that 3 Greater White-fronted Geese can be seen together in Santa Clara County. Perhaps they were the same birds that I reported on the 31st in the Palo Alto Baylands in the last post?

Look at all those fish eaters. It was interesting seeing how due to the recent storms, the water level rose, enough to cover most of the posts, making the birds appear as if they were standing on water. That could have been the reason for the complete lack of the larger Brown Pelicans at this pond today.

Western Gull showing the effect I mentioned above.

Swirling mass of Northern Shovelers in the Crittenden Marsh

    From there, I went through the kite-flying area, Shoreline Lake, Charleston Slough, and Adobe Creek, gaining quite a few yearbirds (of course).

Merlin scanning over the land

Black-tailed Jackrabbits trying to hide near the kite-flying area

At Shoreline Lake, I encountered the always entertaining scene of a Surf Scoter swallowing a bivalve whole.

This time, however, the bird seemed to choose a clam that was a little too big.

Still at it when I left.

Glaucous-winged Gull at Shoreline Lake.

Lovely Bay Trail afternoon. With the tinge of orange in the sky, daylight was fast running out but there were still birds to see.

Strangely, these five American White Pelicans were my only pelicans seen throughout the entire day.

    With less than an hour left, I arrived at Duck Pond in the Palo Alto Baylands. I quickly scanned through the gulls, unfortunately finding nothing interesting, and continued on to cover the area as efficiently as possible.

Lifer White-winged Crossbill! Or wait...just an unfortunate first year Ring-billed Gull with a beak deformity.

A rare overwintering Yellow Warbler by the ranger station, reported by many. The bird was quite cooperative, appearing almost as soon as I arrived in the area. 

Stop going down stop going down stop going down stop going down.

Western Gull at its usual winter spot by the Interpretive Center.

Cinnamon Teal, the final new duck species added for the day list.

No no no no no no no no no no no no no NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.

    And so, as the sun beautifully set that day, my birding trip came to an abrupt and violent end, with a notable lack of many expected species. 110 species in a day is decent and it beats my previous day record set 2 days ago by 8. However, I missed on some birds very expected on my route such as Brown Pelican (...), Whimbrel, Sora, Great-tailed Grackle, and Peregrine Falcon in addition to many species that were slightly less common but still frequently encountered such as California Thrasher, Green Heron, Common Gallinule, and the always-hidden overwintering American Bittern. Oh well, there's always next time... Also, I think I may have broken the record for Big-Day-By-Bike-Interrupted-Partially-By-Dentist-Appointment-on-January-Second in Santa Clara County! Good job Jasen!

    January 3rd, another day dawning. Basically, I did not intend on going birding but later in the afternoon, my parents were going to head over to the Baylands to take a break from their work preparing the house for dinner guests. I decided to join them, but headed there by bike. 

    The brief birding trip was surprisingly productive, with my first Mew Gull of the year at Duck Pond followed by my first Whimbrel of the year near the Interpretive Center a few minutes later.

If only all birds could be this cooperative. Though it would have been nice if the gull faced the other direction for better light.

Mew Gulls are such attractive and adorable birds with their dainty proportions. 

The Whimbrel was a little farther away than the gull

A very attractive posterior of the Green-winged Teal

The rest of the teal in his full glory.

Male Common Yellowthroat peeking out of the cordgrass

On 1/2, I had heard several Marsh Wrens in various locations but this very well-photographed individual was my first seen one for 2015.

    I then headed away from the main area of saltmarsh and traveled along the golf course towards the San Francisquito Trail exit on Geng Road. Several birds of interest were seen along this short stretch of varied vegetation. Too bad the regular Spotted Sandpiper was a no show.

Three Greater White-fronted Geese hanging out with Canada Geese again? It would be really interesting to study the feeding patterns of these geese flocks.

Another surprise in the form of a House Wren, my first for this year and for this area. Though they are by no means rare, these guys are fairly uncommon in the county during winter so seeing and hearing (it sounded almost like it was pishing) this little ball of energy was quite a delight. The fellow inquisitively jumped around in the bushes a little until some joggers came by, flushing it to the other side of the creek in San Mateo County.

And then there were two more Greater White-fronteds, giving a total of 5 in this golf course, a pretty high number for the area.

    January 4th, and I awoke slightly later than usual; I had set my alarm for 7:30 rather than 7. Realizing my tardiness, I quickly dashed out of the house on my bike towards Shoreline. My primary goal during this day was the Red-throated Loon on Shoreline Lake, which I had managed to always miss for the past month, either passing by the area before the sun rose, giving me no visibility, or too late, when the birds were likely flushed away by boaters. Additionally, late in the afternoon of the 3rd, a Pacific Loon was reported from the area, a great bird for the county and also a potential life bird for me.

As I arrived, fish-eating birds were starting to gather in large numbers on the lake: signs of a coming feast.

Lesser Scaup

Horned Grebe partaking in Surf Scoter behavior with its apparent feeding on some sort of shellfish.

Struggling with the difficult prey.

    I arrived towards the northeast end of the lake and started to scan for my desired birds. I quickly found the Red-throated Loon actively diving. Right then, another young birder, Ozzie Altus, arrived on the scene with a scope and she spotted the Pacific a bit farther out. 

Red-throated Loon with its short, upturned bill and extensive white on the face.

Wonderful picture of the Pacific Loon, capturing some bare minimum field marks such as the rounded head and light straight bill. Additionally, if you really look closely, the back shows light barring rather than spotting.

This is what the views of both loons consisted primarily of.

    I then headed off to the Charleston Road Marsh and as expected did not see much. However on my way to the Palo Alto Baylands, the feeding frenzy at Shoreline Lake was in full swing, quite a spectacular sight.

It's worth it to wake up

A few of the brunch party guests.

It blows my mind  that enough fish live in the small and recreational Shoreline Lake to serve such feeding frenzies for days on end.

At Duck Pond, the cooperative Mew Gull from the prior day was still present, allowing me to obtain a few more pictures.

Plenty of Song Sparrows but still no Swampie at the bird's overwintering spot.

    Long post, but that cleared a lot. I still have to catch up with reports from the school year and the rest of break. I am also currently sick, likely a combination of birding this morning in tandem with my recent wisdom teeth removal and the sudden shock of going back to school. Waking up at 7:30 is really hard... However, until next time, enjoy life and love nature!