Time for some fledgling and nestling photos

June 1st was a banner day for birding. Heidi and I not only visited Shoreline in Mountain View, but we also visited Palo Alto Baylands. And the best part about visiting on the first of June was the number of "baby" birds that were roaming around. Here are a few of the photos I took of the "youngsters" at the Baylands.

Above is a fairly young American Avocet walking around on its own. Mama or Papa was probably watching closely. I think the parent was no more than twenty feet away. Below is another American Avocet with its chick in the mudflats. I would assume the chick was in no danger. Can you imagine how muddy this little one was? I'm glad it wasn't one of my own!

This babe is a black-necked stilt. Again, a parent wasn't too far off.

And here is another parent with its chick. This one didn't really look like it was ready yet to go into the water. These little chicks are so fluffy, and they don't stay that way for long. I'm glad we got to see these little offspring. That was quite a treat.

And here are a couple of cliff swallow nestlings. I'm sure by now they are no longer nestlings or fledglings. I'm fairly certain they are flying around with their folks all over the Baylands.

And, of course, we had to get at least one photo of a mother mallard and her darling little ducklings. This mama had nine ducklings following her.

I have more photos to post from this outing, although these were the only "baby" photos I had. Hopefully, I will post the next set of photos sooner than it took me to post this one!

Wordless Wednesday

Chinese goose at Palo Alto Baylands
May 4, 2009

Another visit to Palo Alto Baylands - part 1

Early in October Red and I went to Palo Alto Baylands to see what was there and what we would find interesting enough to photograph. I found that I had so many photos to post I decided to split this trip in two parts. This will be the "scenic" part, and part 2 will be the birds we saw.

One of the most common wildflowers seen around here in riparian and scrub brush areas.
(Don't forget to click on the images if you want to see a larger photo.)
With daylight savings time still in effect Red and I went in the afternoon around 3 p.m. and stayed until just after sunset (around 6 p.m.). The photo above was looking toward the East Bay; and the photo below was looking north with the Dumbarton Bridge in the distance, one of the two bridges that connects the East Bay with the Peninsula. The Peninsula (more or less) consists of cities north of San Jose, such as Mountain View, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Redwood City, and San Mateo.

The history behind this great birding place is quite interesting. Red and I met a gentleman photographer while we were there and he mentioned to us that the history behind this place was that it once was a boat launch and yacht club. So I checked on the web to see if I could find historical info on it and found two good resources. The first one regarding the history is found here. Here is an excerpt from that web page: "Byxbee envisioned the development of the Baylands as a park and recreation center and in January 1921, the Board of Public Works recommended the initial purchase of 40 acres of marshland. Nine years later, Byxbee submitted a plan that included a municipal airport, a salt-water swimming pool, a yacht harbor -- yachting was his main recreation -- and clubhouse, a basin for seaplanes, and areas for playgrounds, picnic grounds, golf course, and a game reserve. The cost was estimated at 2.2 million dollars."

The second resource I found is here. Both resources are excellent reading about Palo Alto and about the Baylands in particular.

Photo above is looking south toward Mountain View with the Moffett Field hangars in the near distance. The U.S. Navy used to own this property, and then closed in the mid-1990s. These hangars were used to store blimps/dirigibles and have been landmarks to spot the cities of Sunnyvale and Mountain View. I do believe that the property now belongs to NASA. Here is a link to the history of Moffett Field.

Photo above is Mount Hamilton, located on the east side of Santa Clara valley. Atop Mt. Hamilton is the Lick Observatory, run by the University of California. Here is a link to its history.

Again, I'm looking across to the East Bay foothills. Notice the alpenglow. It was such a beautiful day there at the Baylands.

And here (above) is a shot of the sun setting in the west (of course!). And below another shot a few minutes later of the alpenglow.

This alpenglow shot was looking east, just south of Mt. Hamilton. I hope you enjoyed the scenery. Next post will be the birds Red and I saw along the trail of the bay and at the duck pond.

Snowy Egrets at Palo Alto Baylands

The other day I posted the photos of the black-crowned night herons nesting at the Palo Alto Baylands. While walking around between the ranger's station and the fenced-in migratory bird area I saw these strange looking geese. Canada geese they are not! And as far as I can tell I would say they are "hybrid" geese. If anyone in blogland can identify these birds for me I would be appreciative. Meanwhile, we'll just call them hybrid geese. Feel free to click on any of the photos to get a larger view.

This pair of snowy egrets were in the palm trees closest to the pathway, closest to the fencing. And as I said last year seeing these birds nesting in palm trees, I never would have believed it if I didn't see it with my own eyes. Imagine, snowy egrets nesting in palm trees. Only in California (and possibly Florida).
This water area was also behind the fenced-in area, not far from the palm trees. Notice the flora looks like chaparral - shrubs between the water source and the palm trees.

This picture shows the chaparral and the base of one of the palm trees in the background. I guess you can say these Canada Geese were "visiting" the snowy egret rookery area. It seems that neither species was upset about the other sharing their territory.

Palo Alto Baylands revisited

Last year, in June, my husband and I visited the Palo Alto Baylands for the first time. It's a really good place to go birding, and easily accessible. This year, we decided to make an earlier visit, so we went in May, on Memorial Day weekend. One of the things I missed last year was the location where the Black-crowned Night herons were nesting. I had been told they were around the ranger station which is one place we had missed. So this year I wanted to be sure to check out the area around the ranger station and see if I could find any nesting BCN herons. While approaching the ranger station area I found this beautiful plant called statice growing in the garden area. Be sure to click on the photos to get a larger view.

Here is a close-up of the flowers.
While walking around we could hear some birds making a ruckus, but at first I couldn't see them. Then my husband pointed to the top of some trees where we could see a few Black-crowned Night herons. The nests were very difficult to find because it seems they nest in very dense-leaved trees. Nonetheless, one could certainly hear them. I couldn't get any photos of the nests or the birds in the nest because it was so shady and it was too dark for taking decent photos.
Here is a close up of a pair.

I also saw lots of snowy egrets nesting near the duck pond. There is a fenced off area with signage saying "Migratory Bird Sanctuary." The snowy egrets seemed to nest in a different spot this year. Last year they nested in the two palm trees closest to the fenced area. This year they seem to be nesting farther back. I will post those photos next time.

Trip to the Palo Alto Baylands

Earlier this week, Adam Paul (see his blog) visited the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve and his post inspired me to visit since it's about a 20-25 minute drive from where I live. I asked my husband if he would like to accompany me. He isn't "into birds" like I am, but he does enjoy the outdoors and walking/hiking. So we took off about 8:30 this morning, getting there about 9 a.m. The first thing we wanted to check out was the rookeries for both snowy egrets and black-crowned night herons. We parked near the Duck Pond to see what was there. We did not know that the egrets' rookery was located there. But that was quite a sight to see. Here is a shot of a small portion of the rookery. The palm trees were full of snowy egrets. I never would have thought that egrets would nest in palm trees!Below is a snowy egret in the duck pond. Check out that beautiful reflection. I wonder if he/she was admiring its beauty. :)

This egret was taking off.
And here is another shot of a snowy egret in the palm tree.Below is a picture of mama and offspring.

While standing there watching, marveling and listening to the snowy egrets I found this black-crowned night heron perched among the egrets. Isn't he handsome?
And here is a close-up shot of him. I would have loved to have seen the herons' rookery, but I didn't realize they were located near the ranger's station which we missed. Oh well, maybe next time.
Across the way, on the other side of the road, there was this American Avocet. Another handsome looking bird. We also saw a couple of black-necked stilts, but I couldn't get a decent picture of any of them.Other birds we saw but I couldn't or didn't get pictures of were: mallards, Canada geese with their goslings, Brewer's blackbirds, red-winged blackbirds, American coots, ring-billed gulls, a pair of mockingbirds, rock pigeons, and a couple of song sparrows. We also saw many cliff swallows in flight, but couldn't get any pictures of them, until we went toward the nature center. As we walked around the deck of the nature center I looked up and saw many nests with nestlings peeking out. Below is a nest with 2 little ones staring out. Aren't they cute? As Dave (my husband) and I walked out on the boardwalk toward the mud flats, about midway there was this raucous sound that came from below. It certainly startled me, and I had no idea what it was. After Dave described it, I realized it was most likely a couple of California clapper rails. Too bad I never saw them; I could have marked it down as a "lifer." Oh well, maybe another day, another time.