It's sightings like these that drew Willow Glen resident Jennifer Peritz to an internship with the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society.

"You can't be around Audubon without getting into birding," says the 25-year-old Santa Clara University graduate who works as the local Audubon chapter's education and volunteer school coordinator. She finds studying birds interesting because the diversity of bird populations shows the health of the environment. And identifying a bird is like a game that is solved by figuring out the clues such as a bird's behavior, color and size, she says.

"Feeling the fresh air and seeing the wildflowers is all a part of birding," Peritz says.

The chapter she works for supports the national branch's campaign for the San Francisco Bay but also works locally on land-use issues and the riparian habitat.

"Creeks are little highways and wildlife corridors," she says. "When we protect a bird habitat, all other animals benefit."

She adds that the upstream portion of Coyote Creek is one of the healthiest habitats in the South Bay and is home to many species of wildlife.

Yet Willow Glen residents don't have to go far to appreciate all that nature has to offer. Monica Johnston and Gary Westendorf, whose Willow Street backyard faces the Los Gatos Creek, have a daily bird's-eye view of what's up in the trees and down in the water.

"It's like having your own amusement park," 48-year-old Westendorf says. His interest began after he met Johnston, his second wife, who has loved birds ever since a friend in college brought over baby barn owls to keep warm in her oven.

Always an outdoorswoman and with a degree in biology, Johnston says her birding evolved naturally from her other interests.

And she adds that it's an inexpensive hobby, with only binoculars and an interest required.

But for those who do birdwatching regularly, it becomes a culture, the 49-year-old registered nurse says.

"You can be a very intense birder, but be relaxed," Johnston says. "Or you can be competitive. But it's nice to find a balance and not feel like an idiot when you misidentify a bird."

Johnston says she has seen 40 bird species in San Jose from the casual comfort of her backyard lawn chair. She and Westendorf also like to combine their birding with hiking trips like the one they took to Pinnacles National Monument, where they saw the release of a condor.

"It was a fluke that we saw one," Johnston says. "I've waited 25 years to see a condor in the wild."

Westendorf says he has learned the most from tagging along with Johnston and hanging out to watch the green heron and kingfisher below his yard in the creek. "You absorb it by osmosis, and your own level of excitement will fuel it," he says.

With three birdhouses in their backyard and their property line splitting the creek, Westendorf and Johnston have prime territory for their own small bird refuge.

Vicki Silvas-Young, who lives near Bird Avenue and Willow Street, is also an avid birder and keeps her binoculars close at hand.

Silvas-Young says the variety of birds in the area is incredible and notes that it's not uncommon to see migratory birds that have been blown off course in a storm or transported in a jet stream. The 60-year-old was recently rewarded with the sighting of an off-course traveler, a yellow-breasted chat that flew into her backyard.

"It was the highlight of my day," she says.

And Willow Glen resident Elaine Gould, who lives on Richland Avenue, also prizes the wealth of natural resources locally that attract an array of native and migratory birds.

The 72-year-old retired schoolteacher and Audubon member says that she once saw a mob of crows pestering another creature on Foxworthy Avenue. When she got closer she saw it was a great horned owl. And the owl is not the only bird that gives her pause. "Hummingbirds fascinate me," says Gould, adding that she saw one become so territorial in her backyard that it knocked another one in the pool twice.

In 1989, while she was a teacher at Hacienda Elementary School, she and another Willow Glen resident, Allen Royer, who teaches in the Oak Grove School District, field-tested the Audubon Society's bird-education curriculum for elementary schools throughout Santa Clara County. The teachers took their classes to the Charleston Slough on the border of Mountain View and Palo Alto to educate students about the importance of the environment and its inhabitants. Their major focus was on learning how to identify various species of birds and developing a respect for these creatures of flight.

Even after retiring from a 12-year teaching career, she didn't say goodbye to the classroom; she just permanently moved it outdoors by volunteering three days a week on field trips. And every spring and fall, she helps lead the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society's wetlands field trips.

Every year, the Santa Clara Valley chapter takes 750 to 800 children on wetlands field trips. The chapter is so committed to educating younger generations that it pays for the buses that transport the students to Charleston Slough.

The slough, which is on the edge of the Bay, is a major thoroughfare for migrating birds.

"The San Francisco Bay Area is extremely important," Gould says. "It's the last big wetlands in the migratory stopover between here and San Diego."

Birds that breed in Canada and the Arctic begin flying south in August, she adds, and return north each spring. Some species fly up to 12,000 miles going from the Arctic to the Antarctic annually.

Within the United States, California is one of the best places to go birdwatching, or birding, because of its variety of habitats, from the Central Valley to the Sierras to the Monterey Coast, Gould says.

And the amount and variety of birds that flourish near her home mean the environment is pretty healthy, she notes, and she says that she couldn't imagine her life without the birdsong she enjoys every day. Yet naturalists are concerned about the songbirds' fate, with the decline in numbers of songbirds over the last 30 years.

The primary culprit in their decline is "technified" farming in the coffee industry. The newer methods of coffee farming clear-cut the South American rainforest—home to a variety of migratory songbirds—and create fields of coffee plants that are void of insects and wildlife. Prior to the use of these methods, coffee was only grown in the undergrowth of the rainforest. Sustainable farming still cultivates coffee crops under the shade of the forest canopy—a symbiotic relationship for migratory songbirds and small-farm coffee growers.

Organizations like the Audubon Society have helped raise awareness about this issue and promote the purchasing of shade-grown coffee to ensure that natural bird habitats are protected and songbirds continue to thrive.

Royer takes part in these awareness campaigns by participating in annual events such as the International Migratory Bird Day on May 8, a day that is jointly sponsored by the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society and the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory. For birders, it is one of the pinnacle moments of the year, with tours and activities at the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Alviso.

Royer attended and took part in the day, which included bird banding—catching birds in soft nets and attaching metal identification bands around their legs—and counting bird populations. He also brought his 8-year-old daughter, so that she could share in this unique, hands-on experience.

His work to help the birds is a labor of love, from an interest that lay dormant until he took a science class in the mid-1970s at San José State University for already credentialed elementary school teachers. He says he always wanted to learn more about bird species, but didn't know how to go about it. After a field trip with his professor, Royer was hooked.

"I was really amazed people could recognize the bird, let alone remember its name," says 56-year-old Royer, adding that he's lived in California his whole life and never knew about the diversity in the state's plants, geology and birds until he took the class.

A few years and a trip to Africa later, Royer was no longer a bird-watching rookie but a member of the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory and American Birding Association.

"The best thing about bird-watching is getting others involved, because it makes the organization stronger," Royer says. "It adds another voice to the conservation effort and helps people appreciate nature and know what's out there."

He says the optimal time for watching birds is the morning and evening, and he often goes to Charleston Slough or Alum Rock Park. His favorites are the colorful birds such as the western oriole and western tanager that come through the area.

And there's nothing like a group of fourth-grade students for enthusiasm, he says.

"I've had kids take field guides and field glasses out to recess," Royer adds. "Some kids really get grabbed by it."

Once on a field trip with his class, twin girls saw a tern dive and catch a fish and they both applauded, he says.

It is learning to love the environment and its inhabitants that has struck a lasting chord with Royer, and he hopes his daughter and the students he teaches will grow to appreciate and preserve them, too.

"I hope that my daughter will be able to see all the birds that I've seen," he says.