I was fortunate to run into Gail at the park today, and she pointed the way up the hill to where I immediately found the Black-Throated Sparrow.  The first Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher I've seen this season was also up in the fennel with the sparrows at the very top of the hill. To add to Gail's directions, go up the steep hill at the entrance to the Quarry parking lot, climbing up past the picnic ramada all the way to where you see the first pile of orange lichen-covered rocks in front of you.  Just before those rocks, a trail climbs off to the left to rocks at the top of a hill.  The birds were in the poison oak, on the ground on the trail, and in the fennel at the crest of that hill.  The Black-Throated Sparrow associates with the flock but is often separate from them, on the ground, on the fennel, and on the rocks, and it allows a fairly close look, as does the Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher.  Back by the parking lot, a big young Red-Tailed Hawk was eating
lunch atop the A-shaped roof of one of the picnic ramadas.  As I was leaving the park, a female Ring-Necked Pheasant startled from the brush just before the entry kiosk and flew across the road.
 
At yesterday morning's Ohlone Audubon field trip to the park, we saw 62 species.  Highlights were a Western Wood-Pewee in a snag on the hillside by the entrance to the Corporate Yard at the Visitor Center and a Virginia Rail lurking in the tall grass of an island on the southwest side of North Marsh.  A Loggerhead Shrike has also returned to the Quarry area for another season.
 
Stephanie Floyd
Fremont