Possible Pacific Golden-Plover at Hayward
Regional Shoreline
Sat, 25 Aug 2001 08:48:22 -0700
From: Jennifer Rycenga
Yesterday at Hayward Regional Shoreline, in the last half-hour before high tide had completely covered the sandy beach near Frank's Dump West (about 2:00 PM), I saw what I believe was a likely Pacific Golden-Plover. I watched it for about twenty minutes. It appeared to be a molting female. It had some color on the back, and an unevenly faded/fading black on its chest. The pattern and depth of color on the chest suggested a female bird. It had a prominent eyeline, and the short stubby bill I associate with the Pacific Golden-Plover (which I have observed by the hundreds on visits to Hawai'i). When it flew, it had no underwing patch, but I never got a fully satisfying look from below. The combination of gold-speckled back and molting black on the chest seemed to rule out a colorful juvenile Black-bellied Plover. I never got to see it next to a Black-bellied Plover for a size comparison. When I saw the bird, it was active on the shoreline, about 500 yards south of the southern boundary of Frank's Dump West. I feel about 80% sure on this.
Other birds of note include one Ruddy Turnstone, lots of Red Knots and Snowy Plovers, and one Peregrine Falcon. The show that occurred when that Peregrine buzzed Frank's Dump West at high tide was spectacular, as thousands of shorebirds took off as one. Their mortal danger was, I ruefully admit, aesthetically thrilling to me....
Jennifer Rycenga
Berkeley
Red Knots at Martin Luther King Jr Regional
Shoreline
Sat, 25 Aug 2001 23:39:25 -0700
From: Mike Ezekiel
This evening (Saturday, August 25) there was a whopping high tide about 6:30 PM when I arrived after work at Arrowhead Marsh area in Martin Luther King Jr Regional Shoreline near the Oakland Airport. The whole New Marsh [Mitigation Marsh] area was under water - around the edges of the lake were great clots of shorebirds (probably 3,000 or more) including hundreds of dowitchers, Marbled Godwits, Black-bellied Plover, Willets, Black-necked Stilts, Western and Least Sandpipers, Killdeer, Semipalmated Plover, several Long-billed Curlew, Forster's and Caspian Terns, egrets, etc. As there was limited mud flats, the birds were in large groups on the "shoreline" especially visible near the first small parking lot as you drive in.
Amidst the large groups of birds, were 3 to 4 Red Knots, at least 2 of them with salmon-red breasts and bellies.
I did not see the Burrowing Owl, but the official census takers from Golden Gate Audubon did.
I was so transfixed by the flights of shorebirds that I did not get out to Arrowhead Marsh, but the tide was surely high enough to have sent some Clapper Rails up to the tops of the pickleweed - it would be worth checking if you need a Rail fix tomorrow about 6:30 PM or so - tide should be nearly 7 feet again.
Great Birding
Mike Ezekiel
Oakland
Common Murres in Richmond Marina Bay
Sun, 26 Aug 2001 11:17:49 -0700
From: Neil Whitehouse
Yesterday Lina Prairie and I saw 3 Common Murres within the yacht harbor at Marina Bay in Richmond [former Richmond Inner Harbor Basin].
Neil Whitehouse
Lewis' Woodpeckers at Tilden
Tue, 28 Aug 2001 16:37:15 PDT
From: Brian Fitch
Camp ended with a nice flourish; around 10:30 AM, at the top of Vollmer Peak in Tilden Regional Park (Berkeley Hills), we saw 3 Lewis' Woodpeckers fly low over us heading north as an Acorn Woodpecker flew past heading south. We had already seen the Acorn (or others) twice earlier, and there were also at least 2 Western Tanagers up there. Yesterday, at the Albany Waterfront Park (foot of Buchanan St), we found another Willow Flycatcher along the central trail right where the bulb begins to widen out from the isthmus.
I'm heading back into the school yard tomorrow; maybe someone can keep an eye out around Vollmer Peak, as it's been such a great migrant trap this summer. It's the big hill northeast of the steam trains, near the intersection of Grizzly Peak Blvd and South Park Dr.
Brian Fitch
San Francisco
Richmond Marina Bay
Wed, 29 Aug 2001 14:35:18 PDT
From: Carolyn Wegner
Sorry this info is not as current as I would like, but we keep going round and round with AOL about sending plain text e-mail. I think we have the correct settings now.
Last Sunday, August 26, we saw a single Black Oystercatcher at Richmond Marina Bay near the children's play structure. Just past the restaurant we saw two Common Murres, but unfortunately one of them was dead. But the most exciting sighting for us was a Clapper Rail in the slough east of the bay trail [Meeker Slough]. We spotted one in the same area about three weeks ago.
Carolyn Wegner