I got back earlier this week from a week long trip to San Jose and back. I
managed to get some birding in and will report some of the highlights. At
The Villages in SE San Jose where by sisters live I saw BLACK PHOEBE & WILD
TURKEYS. The Black Phoebe is a pretty bird and we saw at least one at most
of the areas we visited. For the whole trip I recorded 61 TURKEY VULTURES.
If Diann MacRae is interested I can provide details on where the sightings
were made. Most were 1-3 birds at a time with one kettle of 12 circling
overhead.

We took the auto tour at the Sacramento NWR and saw a number of WESTERN
MEADOWLARKS, 3 WHITE-TAILED KITES, 30 GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE, 20
WHITE-FACED IBIS, 100+ BLACK-NECKED STILTS, 15 LONG-BILLED CURLEW.

At the Carmel Beach State Park, we saw 1 WHITE-TAILED KITE, 1 LONG-BILLED
CURLEW, 3 MARBLED GODWIT. The bay at Carmel was covered with kelp out to
about 2-300 yards and there were 4 GREAT EGRET & 2 SNOWY EGRET standing way
out on the kelp and feeding. In Carmel, ACORN WOODPECKERS were very
numerous.

At Elkhorn Slough near Moss Landing in CA, we only had time to walk to the
viewing overlook. We saw 2 WESTERN BLUEBIRD, 1 WHITE-TAILED KITE, 30 BROWN
PELICAN (BRPEs were seen at most locations thruout the trip), 20 AMERICAN
WHITE PELICAN, 3 WESTERN GREBE.

Our last birding stop was a Arcata Marsh in CA. The tide was very high and
all the birds were concentrated on rocks on the shore of the ponds and on
the few small islands that were above the water. They were all waiting for
the tide to go out so they could starte feeding again. Occasionally, there
put in flight by a hawk flying by. I estimated the following number - 200+
WESTERN SANDPIPERS, 20 GREATER YELLOWLEGS, 500+ MARBLED GODWITS, 30
AMERICAN AVOCETS, 20 BROWN PELICANS.

Hugh Jennings
Bellevue, WA
hughbirder AT earthlink.ne