Tilden Regional Park GGAS Trip
Sat, 1 Sept 2001 [time stamp was obviously incorrect]
From: Rusty Scalf
This morning 33 people showed for the Golden Gate Audubon Society Tilden Regional Park Nature Area trip.
It was a pretty good trip. Often with that many people it's difficult to see small passarines, but I think we managed pretty well - abetted by two good sized flocks of warblers. The Canada Warbler found by Bill Gilbert yesterday was not seen.
Rusty Scalf
The list:
Great Blue Heron
Mallard
Turkey Vulture
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Mourning Dove
Anna's Hummingbird
Selasphorus hummingbird (Rufous Hummingbird by date?)
Downy Woodpecker
(Nuttall's Woodpecker - heard)
Northern Flicker
Pacific-slope Flycatcher
Black Phoebe
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Steller's Jay
Western Scrub-Jay
Common Raven (quite a few)
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Bushtit
(Red-breasted Nuthatch - heard)
Brown Creeper (well seen)
Bewick's Wren
(Winter Wren - heard)
Swainson's Thrush
American Robin
(Wrentit - heard)
(California Thrasher - heard)
Warbling Vireo
Hutton's Vireo
Yellow Warbler
Townsend's Warbler
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Spotted Towhee
California Towhee
Song Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Lesser Goldfinch
No Shanks - Green or Red - at Arrowhead
Marsh in Oakland
Mon, 3 Sep 2001 14:21:10 -0700
From: Mike Ezekiel
Yellow and Grey shanks were predominant - as in yellowlegs, Willets, Western Sandpipers, and Least Sandpipers.
Yesterday evening, September 1 between 6:15 and dusk at about 7:15, I saw nothing special at Arrowhead Marsh [Martin Luther King Jr Regional Shoreline near the Oakland Airport] except for the Burrowing Owl (which now seems to be reliable on top of its mound along the road in) and 1 or 2 Clapper Rails.
Other birds of some interest were a flock of Savanah Sparrows, Whimbrel, Brown Pelican, lots of Willets, dowitchers, lots of Black-bellied Plover, Killdeer, Marbled Godwits, Caspian Terns and Forster's Terns, Ring-billed Gulls, Western Gulls and one Glaucous-winged Gull, American Avocet and Black-necked Stilts, Snowy Egret and Great Egret, Morning Doves, Common Ravens, and one huge flock of (yuck) European Starlings.
Also, an East Bay Regional Park District Patrol helicopter cruising quite low - although it surprisingly did not flush the birds this time - to check me out on the boardwalk with my scope. I guess I looked suspicious.
Editor's Note: The reference in the subject line and first sentence are to sightings in the past week at Arcata (Humboldt County) of a greenshank and a redshank.
Re: No Shanks - Green or Red - at Arrowhead
Marsh in Oakland
Mon, 03 Sep 2001 18:51:36 -0700
From: Mary
Mike Ezekiel wrote:
Also, an East Bay Regional Park District Patrol helicopter cruising quite low - although it surprisingly did not flush the birds this time - to check me out on the boardwalk with my scope. I guess I looked suspicious.
Have they been having problems with folks with firearms?
Mary
Original Message Subject Index
Yardbirds
Tue, 04 Sep 2001 10:29:59 -0700
From: Kay Loughman
I love September! For those of us retired folks who have the freedom to spend altogether too much time birding, fall migration is the best time of year. After seeing briefly a MacGillivray's Warbler yesterday, I was gazing out my favorite birding window this morning - wishing for warblers - when an Acorn Woodpecker appeared in the top of our neighbor's redwood tree. This species is very uncommon on the bay side of the hills, and it's a new yardbird for me. The bird stayed only a few minutes and did not reappear during the following hour. An adult male Yellow Warbler also showed up - giving me my warbler fix for the day.
Kay Loughman
Berkeley
East Contra Costa County Brown Pelican
Tue, 4 Sep 2001 21:46:14 PDT
From: Steve Glover
Hello all,
This morning on the way home from Piper Slough I had a young Brown Pelican circling over the Iron House Sanitary Plant in Oakley. This is the second for eastern Contra Costa County and only about the fifth (?) for the Central Valley, I think.
Earlier, at Piper Slough at the north end of Bethel Island, I had some interesting birds including 15 Willow Flycatchers, 12 Wilson's Warblers, single Black-throated Gray and MacGillivray's Warblers, a Selasphorus hummingbird, 2 Virginia Rails, a family group of 4 or 5 Blue Grosbeaks, a southbound Prairie Falcon, a Swainson's Hawk and an adult Western Gull, a species I am finding more and more often out there.
Also, for once there was good news out there. After years of bulldozing out there they have recently created a new pond at the south end of the area. Shorebirds have always been unusual out there but today there were 16 Greater Yellowlegs and 2 Lesser Yellowlegs, with promise of more to come. There are also 2 empty ponds that will presumably have water in them at some point. If water levels are maintained this should make a fine birding area even better. Both the Prairie Falcon and the Lesser Yellowlegs were firsts for me there.
Good luck,
Steve Glover
Re: East Contra Costa County Brown Pelican
Wed, 5 Sep 2001 10:26:38 -0700
From: Kirk Swenson
Steve Glover wrote:
This morning on the way home from Piper Slough I had a young Brown Pelican circling over the Iron House Sanitary Plant in Oakley. This is the second for eastern Contra Costa County and only about the fifth (?) for the Central Valley I think.
There have been one or two young Brown Pelicans intermittently present in the Carquinez Straits (frequently in the same area as the Barrow's Goldeneye flock last winter) for much of the summer. There have also been a few White Pelicans there much of the time giving a relatively uncommon opportunity to see them both "together." Yesterday morning as the train went by I thought I saw a young Brown Pelican trailing behind two White Pelicans that were just lifting off from the water as the train went by. I couldn't be completely sure because I didn't look up from my computer until we were past the birds, and by that point I was looking directly into the sun at three pelicans flying away from me, but the third certainly appeared duskier than the others. I wonder if a young Brown Pelican on the straits might follow White Pelicans overland if it were confused enough. In any case, do the Carquinez Straits count as eastern Contra Costa County for the purposes of your records? I didn't even think to submit a report on it.
Kirk
Original Message Subject Index