Birding @ Bayfront Park (Menlo Park)

After work on Thursday I swung by nearby Bayfront Park for a quickie walk before the slog home on 101.  For no good reason, I’ve only birded this park a couple of times, which is silly, as it’s within sight of the office I work in on the odd days when I’m not working at home.

I parked at the end of the access road and walked eastward along the slough.  At the park’s entrance there were many birds (which I would see later), but here the waters were pretty sparse.  A Western Grebe here, a Bufflehead there, two flying Willets, a pair of Mallards on the bank.

 
Anna’s Hummingbird (male)

 
House Finch (male)

The trail turns south by a water treatment area, and in the nearby bushes I had cooperative Anna’s Hummingbird and a few House Finches.  Not exactly uncommon, but nice to photograph anyways.

 
Black-necked Stilts

On a structure on the middle of a water treatment pond, a few dozen Black-necked Stilts rested, a funny juxtaposition of these elegant shorebirds and inelegant rusty metal.

 
Yellow-rumped Warbler

A bright Yellow-rumped Warbler flitted about in some willows, and a Red-tailed Hawk perched on a nearby antenna, peering down at the myriad squirrels in the fields.  On my last visit, I saw a huge number of feral rabbits,  this time there were many hundreds of squirrels, no patch of grass squirrel-free!  Well, no patches except for the tracts occupied by over a hundred Canada Geese.  I quickly scanned the goose flock to see if there were any obvious minima Cackling Geese, but didn’t turn any up.

 
White-crowned Sparrow

A flock of White-crowned Sparrows foraged in some low brush, and I took a futile look around to see if I could spot a Burrowing Owl, which had been reported here a few days earlier.  No luck, although this is a large enough area, with much good burrow habitat, that my hopes weren’t high since I didn’t have a precise description of where it was seen.

 
Northern Shovelers

I finished up my loop by going along one of the old salt ponds, where I saw American Avocets, Ring-billed Gulls, and a bunch of Northern Shovelers, then walked back east along the slough towards the car.

 
Canvasback (female)

In the slough I saw many Green-winged Teal, more Mallards, a bunch of Shovelers, a Clark’s Grebe, Snowy Egret, American Coot,  and more (the same?) Willets.  A pair of Canvasbacks treated me to a take-off display, and with that, I was done.  This was a lovely walk, and I got a number of year birds (mostly ducks), although it’s still easy for me to get year birds at this early point in the year since I haven’t been out all that much!

Location: Bayfront Park, Redwood Shores
Observation date: 2/14/08
Number of species: 23

+ Canada Goose – Branta canadensis 125
Mallard – Anas platyrhynchos 25
+ Northern Shoveler – Anas clypeata 40
+ Green-winged Teal – Anas crecca 50
+ Canvasback – Aythya valisineria 10
Greater Scaup – Aythya marila 7
Bufflehead – Bucephala albeola 1
Western Grebe – Aechmophorus occidentalis 3
Clark’s Grebe – Aechmophorus clarkii 1
Snowy Egret – Egretta thula 2
Red-tailed Hawk – Buteo jamaicensis 1
American Coot – Fulica americana 20
+ Black-necked Stilt – Himantopus mexicanus 20
+ American Avocet – Recurvirostra americana 25
+ Willet – Tringa semipalmata 4
+ Ring-billed Gull – Larus delawarensis – 50
Western Gull – Larus occidentalis 10
Rock Pigeon – Columba livia 1
Anna’s Hummingbird – Calypte anna 5
Black Phoebe – Sayornis nigricans 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler – Dendroica coronata 1
White-crowned Sparrow – Zonotrichia leucophrys 35
House Finch – Carpodacus mexicanus 7

+ = year bird

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

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