Saw-whet Owls in Tilden
Fri, 01 Jun 2001 00:57:10 -0700
From: Richard Mix
One of the Northern Saw-whet Owls along Big Springs trail in Tilden Regional Park (Berkeley Hills) had a little more excitement than we planned last Monday. Ann Callaway and I took the short walk up around 8 PM, finding little but an Orange-Crowned Warbler.
On the way down I was excited to get an answer to my whistling - this was at 8:50, at the second bend down from the top (a little before the very rocky patch where the treetops close over the trail). The answering bird approached from the southeast, and there was another call from the distant southwest. As I maneuvered to get a glimpse of its final approach, some scolding started up right next to me: it sounded like a Spotted Towhee buzzing at first, and I kept thinking it sounded a little off but perhaps like a sleepy towhee, trying again to coax the now-silent owl in from its last perch about 40 yards off. Suddenly there were a few loud chirps and what I for an instant took for an enraged American Robin launched itself at my head, wheeling away at about five feet and looking quite like an owl in the bright moonlight. A life bird, but I was sorry to have been ignorant of the rest of its vocalizations. It did seem to be holding its ground, back in the thick foliage (perhaps even savoring a victory, as I must confess I ducked first), but I worried that it might be stressed and an approaching Great Horned Owl definitely ruled out any attempt at a better look.
The actual "saw" note was an e´´´ with a few e flats for variety; I seem to recall a rock steady c´´´ from a commercial recording. Is this a bird without absolute pitch?
Richard Mix
El Cerrito
Redwood
Fri, 1 Jun 2001 01:32:54 PDT
From: Anthony Fisher
Tardy report from Labor Day [presumably Memorial Day]:
The place was alive with song when I opened the car door at 05:25. The mind, in its typical fashion, began to identify and organize the flood of sounds in an attempt to bring some order to the chaos ... Black-headed Grosbeak, Warbling Vireo, American Robin, Song Sparrow, Purple Finch, Bewick's Wren, Wilson's and Orange-crowned Warblers, etc....
Later, in the redwoods: I arrived at the site of much Sharp-shinned Hawk carnage that I have been checking regularly in hope of finding a nest. The "butcher's block" or "plucking post" is typically a large, horizontal branch within 50 yards of the nest. Some items found below: lots of junco feathers, the still warm carcass of a baby Bushtit (butter talons!). I was given a lesson on how this thing works. I heard kiw! kiw! kiw! kiw! and looked up to see the male arrive on the branch with prey. The female called again and the male flew the few feet between them, tossed her the prey and took off. The female plucked and downed the bird in 2 or 3 minutes, then spent a few moments feaking (cleaning her bill). I watched her closely now, to see if she would now lead me to her nest.
She flew about 25 yards to another tree, did some branch hopping, then settled down on a nice little pile of twigs that were placed on horizontal branches and right against the trunk of a redwood. I'm stoked!
Feeling like the gods were with me, I went to solve a similar mystery involving Cooper's Hawks. I've been checking their plucking post regularly, seen them copulating, but haven't been able to pinpoint the actual nest because there are so many squirrel nests in the area (which "Coops" sometime use). I once surprised the female (she is a first-year bird) with a twig in her bill and, assuming this was a sure thing, sat in a tree waiting for her to make her move. After 20 minutes I began to shiver with the morning cold, descended my perch and she flew off laughing.
On this day, however, my luck was to hold. Doing the CSI thing under the perches produced a bit of rabbit fur, Mourning Dove feathers and a couple of tail feathers and a primary of the female hawk. Checking the stick piles in the trees again I noticed one with a few tiny feathers on it and, climbing a convenient tree nearby, was able to peer down from above. There she was, settled in her nest, staring at me with one orange eye.
Exact locations will not be divulged and names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Ant
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Re: Redwood
Fri, 01 Jun 2001 09:14:31 -0700
From: Mary
Ant wrote:
Tardy report from Labor Day:
That's very tardy, and an unusual time to find baby Bushtits! ;)
Mary, wondering if you meant Memorial Day ...
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Re: Redwood
Fri, 1 Jun 2001 09:25:56 PDT
From: Rusty Scalf
Bushtits do double brood.
While atlasing these past two weekends I saw two different Bushtit nests under construction. Both in Richmond.
But I know what you mean. Everywhere one goes, one sees families of Bushtits, even beginning to coalesce into small flocks.
I always assumed that Orange-crowned Warblers were early nesters, done by June. Yet last Friday I located the first Orange-crowned Warbler nest of my life on an evening hike at Tilden Park. The bird seemed to be incubating or brooding.
Rusty
Original Message Subject Index
Birds of Berkeley website
Fri, 01 Jun 2001 13:16:30 -0700
From: Larry Tunstall
Hi EBBers,
Russ Williams has a new website (parts of it still under construction) called Birds of Berkeley at
If you have suggestions or material for the site, contact Russ directly at the e-mail address given on the site.
Good birding, Larry
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Fri, 1 Jun 2001 20:01:27 -0700
From: John Luther
I had a Rose-breasted Grosbeak at one of my feeders at about 4 PM this afternoon. I have not seen it again, but have not been watching the feeders all the time. If it returns I will post its return and my address in the Oakland hills in case anyone would like to look for it. The feeders can be seen from the street so I would not need to be home for folks to look for it.
John Luther