On Sunday (November 12), I decided to visit Emily Renzel Wetlands, which are part of the Palo Alto Baylands in northern Santa Clara County, CA. My best sighting there was that of a Raccoon (Procyon lotor), whom I saw loping down one of the wetlands’ levee trails. It moved with supreme confidence, as if it owned the wetlands, and it did not flinch in the slightest when it noticed me standing there, a mere hundred yards away. It continued approaching me for some time before, abruptly, it ducked into the brush along the edge of the wetlands’ north pond and disappeared from view.
These wetlands can be an excellent place to look for wintering waterfowl, but it was just a bit too early for them to have arrived. Several dozen Northern Shovelers (Spatula clypeata) were there, along with an influx of Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) augmenting the local resident population of this species. The rest of the birds there were probably residents, from the Double-crested Cormorant (Nannopterum auritum) that spreads its wings on the small islet in the wetlands’ south pond to the Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) that dove for its breakfast in the north pond. A Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) hunting near the southern tip of the south pond was a nice find, as I hadn’t seen one of those in a while.
Although it was late in the season, insects were not yet completely dormant for the winter. Flitting across the pond were a few Common Green Darners (Anax junius), while a Pacific Forktail (Ischnura cervula) hid itself very carefully within a clump of Common Reeds (Phragmites australis). Cabbage Whites (Pieris rapae) and Common Checkered Skippers (Burnsius communis) darted through the air, intermittently landing on the last of the autumn’s wildflowers for a sip of nectar. Last but not least were the many Asian and Seven-spotted Lady Beetles (Harmonia axyridis and Coccinella septempunctata, respectively) that I saw hunting for prey amongst the vegetation that formed a dense fringe of vegetation around each of the wetlands’ ponds.
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