Re: Calliope Hummingbirds
Tue, 1 May 2001 19:28:08 PDT
From: Denise Wight
Hi EB Birders,
Steve Glover wrote of Calliope Hummingbirds in Contra Costa County:
The vast majority of records come from either feeders or from stands of chamise/Black Sage.
My only photo of a Calliope Hummingbird in Contra Costa County was of a male near my feeder, which I photographed with a 50mm lens at a distance of 4 or 5 feet. My guess it that it was exhausted from migration, and too tired to move when I approched. I was beginner at the time, and had no idea what it was, but I knew it wasn't an Anna's Hummingbird.
So, this time of year, keep film in your camera, keep your hummingbird feeder filled, and scrutinize every hummingbird. It may pay off.
Denise Wight
Martinez, CA
Original Message Subject Index
Novice birder - Could it be a Least Tern
in Alameda?
Tue, 1 May 2001 20:03:55 -0700
From: Cynthia Hamilton
Hi there - okay I know I'm a novice so I don't trust my observations. Is it possible that I saw a Least Tern at Crab Cove in Alameda? My books tell me that I'm seeing birds right now in summer plumage in their winter grounds and that this is summer ground for the Least Tern.
It was sitting on the sea wall in between some gulls and some Forster's Terns. It didn't seem much smaller than the Forster's but I couldn't get that close. Everything else fit the book's description.
Thanks,
Cynthia Hamilton
Re: Novice birder - Could it be a Least
Tern?
Tue, 1 May 2001 21:11:04 PDT
From: Mark Rauzon
Least Terns have recently returned to the area. The first sighting was on April 24, at the Alameda colony [on the former Alameda Naval Air Station], as reported by Meredith Elliott, Point Reyes Bird Observatory.
Mark Rauzon
Original Message Subject Index
Costa's Hummingbird continues
Tue, 01 May 2001 21:30:51 -0700
From: Dave Quady
Hello, all:
At 5:30 PM today the male Costa's Hummingbird that Emilie Strauss reported a few days ago popped up onto the power line in front of 1607 Berkeley Way in Berkeley. There it silently preened and flared its lovely gorget for a few minutes before disappearing in the blink of an eye. A woman who lives at 1630 Berkeley Way (approximate - didn't note address) who I spoke to said she had seen it in the apple tree in her back yard a couple of days earlier; she knew it was different, but didn't know what it was.
Thanks, Emilie, for finding and reporting this beauty.
About an hour later, sitting on the deck of my house on the edge of Tilden Regional Park above Lake Anza, I heard my first Olive-sided Flycatcher of the season, this individual doing a very quick quick-three. I haven't been outside listening much the last few days, so the bird could easily have arrived earlier.
Good birding.
Dave Quady
Berkeley, California
Original Message Next Reply Subject Index
Birds from home and Castle Rock
Tue, 01 May 2001 22:20:07 PDT
From: Jim Tietz
Hi-
A Western Tanager and a Bullock's Oriole were singing around the house today in Lafayette. These are apparently new arrivals as I have not heard them here before.
Also, last night, a Barn Owl flew over calling. The first that I have heard since last year. I have yet to hear the Western Screech-Owls or Great Horned Owls this year that used to call every night.
Some noteworthy birds and nest info from the Audubon trip to Castle Rock Regional Recreation Area on April 21st that have not yet been mentioned on this list include 3 Hammond's Flycatchers, 4 Hermit Warblers, and a Western Tanager. The Peregrine Falcons were seen several times and we discovered that they are nesting in the old stick nest on the cliff face. We also found a White-breasted Nuthatch nest and a Steller's Jay nest. The Cooper's Hawk, Western Bluebird, and Hairy Woodpecker nests previously reported on April 16th were all still active. And lastly, Dark-eyed Junco fledglings were near their now empty nest.
Good birding,
Jim
Re: A few highlights of birding in Alameda
County on April 29
Wed, 2 May 2001 12:10:58 PDT
From: Phil Gordon
Jim wrote (to me directly):
Was this double-noted pygmy-owl call like the call of the Mexican population (1 pair every second). I am totally unfamiliar with this call as I am only familiar with birds from the Pacific Coast giving the normal single note once every 2 seconds. Did the bird that you encountered ever give a normal call?
Thanks for this question. When I heard the Northern Pygmy-Owl call (still hearing the male and female Great Horned Owls which were about 250 feet easterly along the forested north-facing canyon slope) the two soft, low notes were about 1.5 to 2 seconds apart, and given in bouts of 14 to 15 seconds apart. It didn't give the normal calls that we are familiar with. Not having actually heard the double noted call of the southwestern Northern Pygmy-Owl, I can only refer to recordings I know of that show a double noted call (each about a half-second [or less] apart) given about 2 seconds apart in contrast to the more extended separation time of the notes and bouts of the Sunol bird. My experience "eye ball to eye ball" with a bird having the longest note time space was in Blairsden, Plumas County at 5,000 feet elevation one morning (about 10:30 AM) in spring when I called a Northern Pygmy-Owl from across a small canyon to a branch above my head; the bird began a series of single note calls that were 3 to 3.5 (some 4) seconds apart, but repeated in a continuos stream. The Northern Saw-whet Owl single note calls I've heard (in Winter at this location and elsewhere) are at the slowest 1 second or less in an extended series of many dozens of notes per bout (the series speeding up if they become agitated).
The Sunol bird apparently flew across Alameda Creek to a tree beside the trail (where I had been calling in an imitation of it) and gave a rapid, short trill so similar to Western Screech-Owl, that I first thought that's what it was. But, it began giving the double note call again. The staccato call or trill was about 12 to 15 notes, wasn't repeated (even with my imitation), and was very uniform without any variation in pitch - unlike like Western Screech-Owl. In his delightful book, The Book of Owls, 1978, Lewis Wayne Walker recounts observers describing all Pygmy Owl "songs" beginning as a "low rolling trill," then ending with three open paused notes. These descriptions were supposedly of Yosemite birds. I may have heard this from the Sunol bird (even if for the first time). The time of day (about 7:45 = dusk) was a bit late for Northern Pygmy-Owl and a bit early for Western Screech-Owl, although they will answer calls a person makes at night. The hill slope (Camp Ohlone Trail along Alameda Creek just east of the second cattle guard) did have a scattering of Gray Pine which I often associate with Northern Pygmy-Owl, and Oaks are well represented but not many Western Sycamores that I usually associate more with Western Screch-Owls.
Once I found what may have been a juvenile Northern Pygmy-Owl on the eastern portion of Sonora Pass (about 7.000 feet elevation) that was giving a chattering trill much like the standard song of Chipping Sparrow. This has been attributed to juveniles by various other observers I've talked to. We confirmed some of our nesting of pygmy-owl by this call in our recently completed Alameda County Breeding Bird Atlas now being prepared for publication.
Lots to yet learn and looking forward to it,
Happy Birding,
Phil Gordon
Original Message Subject Index
Re: Costa's Hummingbird continues
Wed, 02 May 2001 12:26:21 -0700
From: Kay Loughman
The Costa's Hummingbird was still there and being very cooperative when Jean Lucken and I saw it this morning at about 11:15 AM. The bird was hanging out on a telephone wire in front of 1611 Berkeley Way, Berkeley. Nice way to finish an otherwise unproductive (due to wind) morning of Breeding Bird Atlasing in Crockett.
Kay Loughman
Berkeley
Original Message Next Reply Subject Index