Varied Thrush at Tilden Regional Park
Thu, 08 Feb 2001 23:13:25 -0800
From: Larry Tunstall
We had a chilly but beautiful morning for Alan Kaplan's East Bay Regional Parks walk in Tilden Regional Park Nature Area (in the Berkeley Hills) this morning. There was ice on some of the puddles.
One highlight was watching a lot of Ruby-crowned Kinglets flitting about in a sunlit tree, with at least one Golden-crowned Kinglet and a Townsend's Warbler among them.
We heard Varied Thrush and the monotonous one-note song of a Hutton's Vireo, and we saw a couple of Hermit Thrush on the trail. Alan says that a Selasphorus hummingbird has been around for at least a week.
On the way out, a few of us saw a Brown Creeper on a tree right by the road at the entrance to the Nature Area.
On Wednesday morning, Ken Durling and I saw a Red-throated Loon in the bay near the entrance to Marina Bay.
Good birding, Larry
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA
Odds and Ends
Sat, 17 Feb 2001 17:22:49 -0800
From: Larry Tunstall
Hi EBbirders,
Nothing major to report, but I thought I'd better check to be sure the list is still functional!
On Thursday (February 15), I saw the pair of Cooper's Hawks beginning a new nest above Rifle Range Road in Wildcat Canyon Regional Park, a short distance uphill from their nest site of the past couple of years. There were only a few sticks in place, so this may be only a part of preliminary courtship rituals.
At Point Emery near the foot of Ashby Ave in Emeryville, there was a flock of about 30 Black Turnstones and 3 Black Oystercatchers.
On Friday (February 16), there was a Black Oystercatcher and a Pelagic Cormorant at the bay entrance to Richmond Marina Bay (formerly Richmond Inner Harbor Basin).
Good birding, Larry
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA
Lake Merritt
Sat, 17 Feb 2001 20:28:16 -0800
From: Joseph Morlan
East Bay Birders,
This morning I took my ornithology class to Lake Merritt in Oakland. The rain held off all morning and the winds were not too bad, making it a pleasant trip. Unexpectedly the fee gate at Children's Fairy Land was attended at 8:30 in the morning collecting a $2 fee.
All the usual species were in attendance at the north end. The Cattle Egret was at its usual post. Over the years, Greater Scaup have become much more common on the lake. At the duck feeding area this morning, I was astonished to find them almost as common as Lesser Scaup. We were unable to find the female Tufted Duck which has wintered at the lake for several years. Has anybody seen it recently? We located two Thayer's Gulls among the gull flock near the rotary science center. Two female pheasants were in the enclosure. I identified them as one Ring-necked and one Lady Amherst. Is that right? Anybody know?
Land birds were very scarce at the horticultural center, so we opted to car pool down to the outflow near Laney College where we were treated to numerous Barrow's Goldeneyes. They were in the north-most section of the channel closest to the lake, not down by the freeway where I have seen them in past years.
Six Greater White-fronted Geese in the middle of the three segments of estuary leading out of the lake were a surprise. Have these been reported before?
Our composite list with the birds we saw checked may be viewed at:
Joseph Morlan, Pacifica, CA 94044
California Birding; Mystery Birds:
http://fog.ccsf.org/~jmorlan/
California Bird Records Committee: http://www.wfo-cbrc.org/cbrc/