This weekend was Derby Hill for SFO. In spite of the cool temperature and NW wind, I hope that those who ventured up there were rewarded by at least a few good birds. For those who elected to stay here, I led the "local" group of some dozen folks today.
We began at the Lab, out beyond the third parking lot, with great looks at a couple of singing Swamp Sparrows. The main goal, however, was the reported Virginia Rail. We waited and waited, and I began to wonder if perhaps the cold (low 30's with a dusting of snow on the ground) had forced it to hunker down. Just as we were ready to give up, we heard the distinct "ki-dik, ki-dik" call. And as we stood there smiling, a second rail gave out a "grunt sequence". So there were at least two birds present. >From there we drove to Stewart Park to walk the swan pen, looking for >Yellow-rumped Warblers and anything else that may have come in recently. We >were immediately greeted by a startlingly bright Yellow Warbler, a couple of >Yellow-rumps, and a pair of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. Farther along we spotted a >second Yellow Warbler and the lingering Audubon's Yellow-rump. Then, as were >getting ready to leave, John Confer (leading the Cayuga Bird Club trip up the >lake) came over to point out four Spotted Sandpipers interacting along the >bank of Fall Creek. A part of my agenda today was to show folks birding spots that were new to them. Since many of the participants had heard of the hawthorn orchard but had never been there, we made it our next stop, walked in from the east side, and were greeted by a newly-arrived Brown Thrasher in full song. It is still a bit early for that spot, but we did have a good opportunity to study a couple of Ruby-crowned Kinglets. Our last stop was South Monkey Run where we walked the (rather muddy) east trail from the parking lot out to Rt 13 and back along the railroad bed. Not only was it a bit sloppy, but there were almost no birds! It wasn't until half way back along the RR bed that we encountered several more kinglets, a Carolina Wren, and our first Pine Warbler. It was actively foraging and singing, high up in the red pines but eventually came out briefly, silhouetted against the sky, for a great look. We managed, for most of the morning, to stay out of the wind, but it was still cold, and my gloves only came off when we reached the cars for the ride back to the Lab. Bob McGuire -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
