Lucy's Warbler
Tue, 18 Jan 2000 14:17:10 -0800
From: Sheila Dickie
The Lucy's Warbler that appeared in my North Oakland back garden December 26 and stayed until January lst reappeared this Saturday, January 15. I watched the bird come and go over a period of about 45 minutes before I had to leave. I also saw the bird again on Sunday over a ten-minute period in the morning, and a group yesterday got brief looks at the warbler feeding among the Eucalyptus flowers in the morning. As I don't have a computer at home it's hard to get the word out at the weekend other than leaving a message on the bird hot line.
The warbler spends its time in the Eucalyptus flowers and traversing through a large fig tree when it is not getting chased away by a yellow rumped warbler. I have a sunflower feeder in the fig tree which attract other species. Over the weekend I saw (numbers equal the most of any species seen at one time): l Steller's Jay, l American Robin, 5 White-crowned Sparrows, 15 House Finches, 2 Dark-eyed Juncos, l Ruby-crowned Kinglet, 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler, l male Anna's Hummingbird that sat and sang for me for quite a while, l Chestnut-backed Chickadee, l Mourning Dove, l Townsend's Warbler, and l Oak Titmouse.
At first I thought I had two titmice as the bird kept returning to the feeder within minutes. On closer observation it is just one bird which appears to be storing parts of the sunflower seed in the tree as I have seen it flying up into the tree with a fragment of seed in its beak which it seems to be burying into the bark. Is this behavior characteristic of the bird?
Sheila Dickie
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, Ca
Martinez Shoreline ducks
Tue, 18 Jan 2000 20:52:37 PST
From: Denise Wight
Hi EB Birders,
Sunday, 17 January 2000, at the far west end of Martinez Regional Shoreline, there were at least 3 Barrow's Goldeneyes - 2 males and 1 female. There were also a few thousand scaup (mostly Greater) with Canvasback, Ruddy Ducks, Surf Scoters, and Common Goldeneyes interspersed. The flock extended far down the edge of the water to the west. I searched, but didn't find any Tufted Ducks.
Denise Wight
Martinez, CA
Administrivia
Tue, 18 Jan 2000 20:36:13 -0800
From: Larry Tunstall
Apparently, some subscriptions to the list had been suspended over the past months, presumably because of returned e-mail - but without any notice to me or to the suspended subscribers. It appears that I can't do anything about this characteristic of the list server. Since Verio bought out Best, they seem to have dropped all support for the e-mail lists (which don't bring in any extra revenue).
At any rate, I think I've gotten all the subscriptions restored, and I'll try to check fairly frequently to kickstart any that get cut off again. Meantime, if you've missed messages, you can catch up in the archives at
http://www.best.com/~folkbird/EBBC/
If you have problems with your subscription, please drop me an e-mail and I'll try to get things sorted out.
Thanks, Larry
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA
EBbirds@aol.com
Fwd: [SBB] Barrow's Goldeneye status
Tue, 18 Jan 2000 21:14:02 -0800
From: Mike Feighner
Posted to EBbird by Mike Feighner, Livermore, CA
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 16:48:31 -0800
From: Nick Lethaby
Subject: [SBB] Barrow's Goldeneye status
Sender: South Bay Birds listAll:
The last couple of winters, Barrow's Goldeneyes have become much harder to see at Shoreline Lake and elsewhere in Santa Clara county. Looking at the RBAs, it's my impression that they seem to be less common in San Mateo County (Foster City and Redwood Shores) and Alameda counties than 5 years ago. For example, I haven't seen any significant counts from Lake Merritt the last couple of years. Is this because no one is reporting them to the RBA, or are they actually declining?
Could someone forward this to East-Bay-birders for comment.
Thanks, Nick
Nick Lethaby
Emeryville Crescent freeway landscaping
Wed, 19 Jan 2000 20:23:32 -0800
From: Larry Tunstall
On January 5, Tom Condit asked about landscaping being done by Hwy 80 along the Emeryville Crescent (mudflats) between Powell St and the Bay Bridge. Peter Rauch forwarded the question to a Sierra Club e-mail list, where an answer was received from someone at CalTrans. Peter forwarded the answer to me to post to the group.
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2000 08:50:33 -0800
From: Russell Ruhlen, Calif. Dept. of Transportation
To: Tom Condit
Cc: Peter Rauch
Subject: Re: I-80 landscapingThe work you observed along I-80 is part of the Caltrans Emeryville Crescent Shoreline Mitigation Project associated with the freeway reconstruction projects within the corridor. The project was required by the US Army Corps and the BCDC. From a short description of the project:
The contractor's activities within the tidal zone were restricted and modified where necessary to avoid damage to existing native stands of pickleweed, cord grass and other plant species. Tidal debris was gathered, sorted and placed in large cargo nets then extracted by helicopter, where it was then transported to the appropriate waste facilities.Approximately 6.7 acres of ice plant was removed and converted to higher quality buffer habitat through plantings of native species such as Saltmarsh Baccharis, California Sage Brush and California Blackberry. Native plantings incorporated into the project were grown from seeds and cuttings collected from the project site or nearby sources. An automatic irrigation system was installed to establish the transition/upland plant species. Gravel shoulders, containing high concentrations of aerially deposited lead, were excavated then replaced with clean imported soil, seeded and revegetated with native plantings.
To ensure success of established mitigation goals required by the Resource Agencies, the project will be maintained and monitored for a period of five years.
The current contract will close out in a couple of weeks. Then another 2-year plant establishment contract will kick in several months from now to continue to establish the plants. The plant stakes (which can look like survey stakes) are to identify locations of native plants that CT has to keep alive to satisfy Resource Agency permit requirements. Without the stakes the plants, which the contractors are being paid to maintain, would be lost in the weeds.
Posted to EBbird by Larry Tunstall
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