Hooded Oriole photo - several months late
Sun, 03 Feb 2002 00:08:15 -0800
From: Mary
I reported a Hooded Oriole in my yard in Fremont last summer. Finally, I got one of the prints scanned.
The picture was taken in June 2001. Neither he nor the female ever touched the orange, but it had no perch. They loved the hummingbird feeder.
Mary
Re: Robin flocks in Oakland
Sun, 3 Feb 2002 11:58:10 PST
From: Mark Rauzon
I have posted this here before, but seems apropo to do so again. I found this bit of bird lore in the Lake Merritt Naturalist files:
Palo Seco Canyon used to be a winter home to thousands of migrating American Robins. Beginning in the mid-1950s until 1970, winter roosting numbers ranged from several hundred to 35,000. In 1968, heavy storms in late December and record low temperatures and snowfall in the Pacific Northwest, drove "phenomenal flocks" of robins in the area. On the afternoon and evening of January 1, 1969, Paul Covel and Mr and Mrs Harry Overmire observed migrating robins from Skyline Blvd and estimated 450,000 had passed on their way to the Palo Seco roost. Fred Barnes, stationed below the roost observed 6000 coming up from the metropolitan area. About 500 Band-tailed pigeons used the area as well as flocks of 10,000 Starlings.
Recoveries of banded robins were from Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. (Incidentally, a similar roost used to occur in Lakeside Park. On 10 January, 1932, 165,000 robins were counted in the trees in the park.)
Mark Rauzon
Original Message Subject Index
Arrowhead Marsh, Oakland
Sun, 03 Feb 2002 13:37:32 -0800
From: Rusty Scalf
Today's Albany Adult School field trip to the Arrowhead Marsh, Martin Luther King Jr Regional Shoreline, Oakland:
19 students, gorgeous day.
One of the finest field trips in my memory. Low tide, and an amazing number
of birds everywhere. Great grebe studies, great shorebird studies, great gull
studies. Wonderful looks at ducks in good light. A great scope view of a male
Merlin in a tree. The finale was a couple of distant Burrowing Owls.
I know that my numbers here are low. There were many, many ducks in the mitigation area, and many diving birds farther out that would have greatly increased these numbers, as well as good-sized flocks of flying gulls. I just estimate numbers of birds that we actually looked at.
Western Grebe - 20
Clark's Grebe - 1
Horned Grebe - 25
Eared Grebe - 20
Pied-billed Grebe - 5
Double-crested Cormorant - 2
Snowy Egret - 1
Great Egret - 1
Great Blue Heron - 1
Canada Goose - 3 (heads seen at a distance in marsh)
Mallard - 25
Gadwall - 6
Green-winged Teal - 25
American Wigeon - 300
Northern Pintail - 30
Northern Shoveler - 75
Cinnamon Teal - 25
Blue-winged Teal - 1
Canvasback - 80
Greater Scaup - 60
Surf Scoter - 40
Common Goldeneye - 4
Bufflehead - 10
Ruddy Duck - 300
American Coot - 250
Black-necked Stilt - 10
American Avocet - 30
Black-bellied Plover - 4
Killdeer 2
Marbled Godwit 50
Willet - 100
Greater Yellowlegs - 3
dowitcher sp. - 50 (some below us on bridge)
Black Turnstone - 5
Dunlin - 100
Western Sandpiper - 100
Least Sandpiper - 40
Ring-billed Gull - 250
California Gull - 150
Western Gull - 25
Glaucous-winged Gull - 5
Herring Gull - 1
Mew Gull - 10
Forster's Tern - 3
Turkey Vulture - 3
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
Merlin - 1
Mourning Dove - 5
Rock Dove - 15
Burrowing Owl - 2
Northern Flicker - 1
Anna's Hummingbird - 5
Black Phoebe - 2
Bushtit - 8
American Robin - 20
Northern Mockingbird - 1
American Pipit - 12
Eurasian Starling - 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 5
California Towhee - 4
Song Sparrow - 2 (full song)
Savannah Sparrow - 1
White-crowned Sparrow - 12
Golden-crowned Sparrow - 2
Western Meadowlark - 4
Lesser Goldfinch - 1
At least two students saw a Long-billed Curlew before class assembled. A flock of Cedar Waxwings flew over the parking lot after the trip ended.
Ferruginous Hawk over San Ramon
Sun, 03 Feb 2002 19:03:32 -0800
From: Dennis Braddy
East Bay Birders,
At 4:00 PM on Sunday, February 3, an immature Ferruginous Hawk was observed soaring near the intersection of Norris Canyon Rd and Marsh Dr in San Ramon. Over a period of several minutes it flapped its wings no more frequently than the nearby Turkey Vultures, which is to say not at all. This hawk (or hawks) has been seen several times in the same general area for over a month.
Dennis Braddy
San Ramon
