San Mateo County Bio-Blitz's Journal

Journal archives for August 2013

28 August, 2013

Bio-Blitz Scheduled for October 5th at Laurelwood/Sugarloaf Mountain

The San Mateo County Bio-Blitz will get a boost on Saturday October 5th, when we hold the first Sequoia Audubon-sponsored one day Bio-Blitz at a park in our county. I chose Laurelwood/Sugarloaf Mountain, because it was fairly compact, but has a variety of different habitats, and is remarkably underbirded and under-studied in general. The date was chosen to coincide with the height of hawk migration, in the hopes of coming to an understanding of this park's role in our area's raptor movement. Please go to Eventbrite to respond to the invitation and to get more details - http://www.eventbrite.com/event/7704086129

Jennifer Rycenga

Posted on 28 August, 2013 03:27 by gyrrlfalcon gyrrlfalcon | 0 comments | Leave a comment

31 August, 2013

Some Bird Species currently Missing from the San Mateo County Bio-Blitz

Today, while hosting the ongoing Orchard Oriole at my house, I had three active iNat-ters for the county present - myself, DPom, and KSchneid. We discussed two matters of interest to the San Mateo County Bio-Blitz. One is the fact that the sea-boundaries don't go very far, which would exclude a lot of pelagic species. I will look into how to stretch those boundaries a bit.
Secondly, we did a quick-and-informal look at the bird list, to see what was missing. Not a lot of easy species were left! But here's a short wish list:
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Northern Saw-whet Owl (remember, audio files can now be used)
Long-eared Owl
Short-eared Owl
Vaux's Swift
Common Tern
Gull-billed Tern (from the famous appearance a few years ago)
Willow Flycatcher (and all empids except for Pacific-slope Flycatcher)
Pacific Golden-Plover
Rhinoceros Auklet
Long-tailed Jaeger
Yellow-billed Loon
Laysan Albatross
Ashy Storm-Petrel
Black Storm-Petrel
Least Storm-Petrel
Wilson's Storm-Petrel
Yellow-crowned Night-heron (another famous appearance from the past)
Prairie Falcon
Purple Martin
Lewis's Woodpecker

Most of these are quite rare, but some have had recent appearances that were likely well-photographed. Comb through your archives, friends!

Posted on 31 August, 2013 22:49 by gyrrlfalcon gyrrlfalcon | 11 comments | Leave a comment