A Sunday service on Caltrain left me
with some early daylight between dawn and the first train. The AT&T
Stadium, home to the Giants baseball team, is very close to the station at 3rd
St. and Berry. McCovey Cove hugs the bay here and a few Western Grebes were the
first bird identified this morning.
I was avoiding the gulls where
possible, but was confident enough to take the Heerman’s Gulls.
I had planned to invest in a new
Sibley as mine has fallen apart, but forgot that Borders Bookshop on Union
Square had closed down. This was a particular personal sorrow for me as my son
was conceived in the coffee shop there (that’s a whole different story, so back
to Sibley). I find Gulls difficult at the best of times, but without a field
guide, I was not going to work to hard on them today.
Across the bridge, the shore is
buffered with rocks and a small flock of scaup floated beyond the headland. I
needed either of the scaup to round out my Year List, so went in pursuit to
find that these were Great Scaup with the high forehead and large bill spot.
On the foreshore a single Least
Sandpiper picked its way along the rocks.
Upstream of the bridge, some wild
parsley-looking plants held White-crowned Sparrow and House Finch.
Birds seen;
Greater Scaup 6, Bufflehead 4, Horned
Grebe 1, Western Grebe 9, Double-crested Cormorant 3, Least Sandpiper 1,
Heerman’s Gull 5, Western Gull 20, American Crow 3, European Starling 5,
White-crowned Sparrow 8, House Finch 4.
This post will be the first of 3 for today’s trip. Baylands Reserve at Lucy Evans Centre and Mayfield/Charleston Slough will be written up as soon as I get the chance.
In the meantime, previous posts to
the Palo Alto Baylands can be seen at the links below;
Visit the dedicated USA and CanadaPage for more posts from the area including Golden Gate Park
and Crissy Field
Hold on! You can't drop a bomb like "my son was conceived in the coffee shop there" and not explain. It's just not right.
ReplyDeleteThen again, I'm not sure it needs explaining...
@Corey, the worst of it is that I wasn't even there!
DeleteI tell you what, ask your mother about the time lag between insemination and conception.
ReplyDelete