Least Terns
Tue, 30 May 2000 20:22:22 PDT
From: Brian Fitch
At 11:00 AM today, there were 8 Least Terns on the pilings on the north side of the Albany landfill fields ["Albany Bulb"?], and 2 or 3 of the male terns were performing courtship displays. I saw 2 of the approached females accept the offered fish. I don't know if this portends a new East Bay breeding site, but I've not seen this behaviour at Albany before. It'll be interesting to watch the new shellmounds and the Costco roof. There were more Least Terns (5+) across the bay flying over the mounds [north edge of Albany Mudflats or Albany Crescent]. In addition, there were 3 Black Oystercatchers on the small north-pointing spit east of the pilings.
Brian Fitch
Least Terns at the Albany Mudflats
Tue, 30 May 2000 20:51:12 -0700
From: Bruce Mast
Went out this morning to see these Least Terns for myself. I found them on the most westerly shell mound on the north side of the mudflats [Albany Mudflats or Albany Crescent]. For county listers, the mounds are in Contra Costa County. It looked to me like at least one bird may be sitting on a nest. It remained crouched down and motionless the entire time I observed it (maybe 10 minutes). The other birds visible on the mound strolled around casually and preened themselves. If they are breeding at all, I'm guessing there are several more nests on the opposite side of the mound away from the shore.
Also at the mudflats, I saw
Caspian Terns
Forster's Terns
American Avocets sitting on nests, one with 4 chicks
Black-necked Stilts
Long-billed Curlew
Western Sandpipers (?)
flock of Canada Geese with numerous large goslings
Killdeer
egrets
Western Gulls
the usual passerines
happy trails
Bruce Mast
Albany, CA
Contra Costa birds
Wed, 31 May 2000 09:31:09 PDT
From: Steve Glover
Hello all,
Just a few sightings from the past week or so.
On 25 May I visited McNabney Marsh near Martinez hoping to find signs of nesting from the Great-tailed Grackle. I didn't. But I am sure that there are even more birds there than I previously thought. There appear to be at least 4 males. I saw only one female. At the south end there was one male Great-tailed Grackle as well as a male Blue-winged Teal. The teal was in the company of a female teal but the light prevented me from deciding whether it was a Cinnamon or a Blue-winged. There was also a Loggerhead Shrike feeding a very loud fledgling near the tunnel that leads to the sewer treatment plant. Throughout the marsh were many broods of Canada Goose, Mallard, Cinnamon Teal, Pintail and Gadwall. A single American WHite Pelican drifted over.
Yesterday, 30 May, I birded the south end of Los Vaqueros Reservoir. It turns out that this area is currently closed while they construct the #@$%&!+%#$@ marina but nobody but a sheriff's officer seemed to care. There were fledglings everywhere!
I confirmed nesting for the following species along this road, which I should mention is basically savannah, with some blue oak woodland near the south end of the reservoir. All of the following involved either begging fledglings or adults carrying food unless otherwise specified:
Bullock's Oriole, Northern Mockingbird, Nuttall's Woodpecker, Brewer's Blackbird, Western Kingbird, European Starling, Mourning Dove (building a nest), Western Scrub-Jay, Loggerhead Shrike, White-breasted Nuthatch, Bushtit, Western Bluebird, Oak Titmouse, Red-winged Blackbird, Ash-throated Flycatcher (occupied nest), Violet-green Swallow, and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Also of interest was a Caspian Tern carrrying a fish away from the reservoir and heading southwest. Last week Bingham Gibbs had 46 Caspian Terns at the reservoir, some of them copulating, and wondered where they would nest. A bird carrying a fish to the southwest suggests that it is returning to the south bay! There is certainly no nesting any closer than that.
Steve Glover
Dublin, CA
Least Tern at Arrowhead Marsh
Wed, 31 May 2000 15:11:09 -0700
From: Courtenay Peddle
Hello folks,
I saw my first Least Tern of the season foraging in San Leandro Bay, adjacent to Arrowhead Marsh [in Martin Luther King Jr Regional Shoreline, Oakland], Wednesday afternoon. It was a single adult. Also noted an adult Glaucous-winged Gull amid the flock of nonbreeding gulls at Pond #1 (the one nearest the road) in Mitigation Marsh. Also, I saw neither Black Skimmer nor White-faced Ibis today.
Good birding!
Courtenay Peddle