Date: 12/26/20 7:28 pm From: Michael Hawk <hawk.mr...> Subject: [southbaybirds] Summary: Rancho Canada del Oro sector Calero-Morgan Hill- CBC
Hello,
This report summarizes the efforts of three birders covering the Rancho Canada del Oro sector of the Calero-Morgan Hill CBC today, December 26. The sector maps are drawn such that Rancho Canada del Oro Open Space Preserve actually spans three sectors, so this team covered the core area, which includes about 1/3 of the public space and 1/2 of the non-public restricted space in Blair Ranch.
Today, we ended up with 50 species on our count, which is higher than the past few years. I think this is partly due to the favorable weather - rain pretty much finished around 6:30 AM, aside from some sprinkles or very brief showers. The overnight rain/clouds meant temperatures were a good 15-20 degrees warmer to start the morning than the last few years.
Some of the highlights that stood out to me: 3 Great Horned Owls calling (heard on Casa Loma Road at 6:15 AM), 1 Pine Siskin, 1 Varied Thrush on Llagas Creek near the overflow parking (and we found the remains of another), Cooper's Hawk, and White-throated Swift. We had a nice selection of woodpeckers too - Acorn, Downy, Hairy, Nuttall's, Northern Flicker, and Red-breasted Sapsucker all accounted for.
The stock pond in the restricted access area had American Wigeon, Mallards, a Pied-billed Grebe, a Great Blue Heron, and a Belted Kingfisher.
The most numerous birds were Band-tailed Pigeons (275), Dark-eyed Junco (150), Acorn Woodpecker (57), California Quail (55), European Starling (40), and Oak Titmouse (29).
Some notable misses: well, House Finch is really the only big miss. We expected to see American Goldfinch, but haven't found them the previous two years either. Golden Eagle are occasional, as are Townsend's Warbler, and we missed both today. Common Mergansers have been on the pond the last two years, as have Wood Duck, so those were also misses, but certainly not expected.
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