Northern Parula still near Livermore
Sat, 23 Mar 2002 09:48:56 -0800
From: Dennis Rashé
The Northern Parula was still at Veterans Park in Livermore as of 7:40 this morning (Saturday 23 March). I saw it with a flock of Orange-crowned Warblers and Bushtits. Also sighted were: Wilson's Warbler, Lesser Goldfinch, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush, Lincoln's Sparrow, Steller's Jay, Acorn Woodpecker ... just to mention a few.
After you have parked, walk down to the creek and turn left. Go past the rangers booth about 50 yards. Stop where the pond empties into the creek. Look across the creek and you'll see a brown and yellow "restricted area" sign. Start looking into the willows that overhang the path on the opposite side.
Good Luck, Dennis Rashé
P.S. The entrance to Veterans Park is after you pass the entrance to Veterans Hospital. If you take a right and go onto a bridge you turned too early.
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Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland
Sun, 24 Mar 2002 17:24:38 -0800
From: Derek Heins
Oblivious to the Bird Blitz in San Francisco (my Golden Gate Audubon Society newsletter arrived later in the day), Saturday morning I was at the front gate of Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland just after it opened at 7 AM for my first walk there. I found it to be a good, close choice for a soggy weekend as there is plenty of pavement near some nice habitat. I walked up the south side to the three ponds, seeing nothing unusual but a nice representation of our local species:
Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Canada Goose
Mallard
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
American Coot
Rock Dove
Mourning Dove
Anna's Hummingbird
Allen's Hummingbird (doing extensive aerial display)
Nuttall's Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Black Phoebe (could almost touch it was so close)
Steller's Jay
Western Scrub-Jay
American Crow
Bushtit
Red-breasted Nuthatch (a pair scolding nonstop a Nuttall's Woodpecker pecking at a cavity at the end of a branch stump)
Bewick's Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Western Bluebird
Hermit Thrush
American Robin (a flock of about 200 or 300 came down the Mountain Blvd corridor)
Northern Mockingbird
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling
Hutton's Vireo
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Townsend's Warbler
Spotted Towhee
California Towhee
Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
House Finch
House Sparrow
Derek Heins
Piedmont
Puzzling bird at Mitchell Canyon
Sun, 24 Mar 2002 22:18:55 -0800
From: Mark Eaton
Early this afternoon, my wife and I hiked a bit in Mitchell Canyon, Mount Diablo State Park, near Clayton. It was wonderfully full of birds and several butterflies, but it's still a bit early for wildflowers. Everything was pretty much expected other than a bird near natural history marker 2 which I am still struggling with, despite looking at it for more than 15 seconds on two different occasions.
A medium-sized passerine notable for being uniformly pale to medium gray over its entire underparts and face with a prominent white eye ring that was slightly thicker at the rear. The bill was medium sized, relatively thin and all dark. The flight feathers appeared dark, though I never had other than a ventral view of the bird. The undertail coverts were white. The bird vocalized a soft peeu note several times, and there may have been more than one bird making the same vocalization in the same area.
I started with Phainopepla (there was mistletoe in the area), though this is clearly wrong due to the eye ring and lack of a red eye and lack of a crest. From there, I went to Townsend's Solitaire, but a solitaire should have concolorous undertail coverts. Also, I think I would have been able to seen the wing patches, but I'm not sure about that. The lack of contrast between the face and the underparts, posture and vocalizations rule out any kind of gnatcatcher.
From there, I went to female bluebirds, and there are many Western Bluebirds in the parking lot, to be sure. However, I'm troubled by the fact that there was no hint of any rusty wash on the breast and the contrast on the undertail coverts, both of which are not good for Western Bluebird, particularly at this time of year. However, female Mountain Bluebird should show at least some blue on the flight feathers and I think I would have seen that.
The most parsimonious explanation would be Western Bluebird, but I really don't understand how a Western Bluebird could be this pale at this time of year, and the undertail coverts are wrong anyway. Yet Mountain Bluebird seems far too much of "how lucky can you get," and thus, my quandry.
Turkey Vulture
Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Mourning Dove
swift sp.
Anna's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Nuttall's Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Black Phoebe
Hutton's Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Western Scrub-Jay
Oak Titmouse
Bushtit
White-breasted Nuthatch
Bewick's Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Western Bluebird
American Robin
Wrentit
Northern Mockingbird
California Thrasher
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Spotted Towhee
California Towhee
Dark-eyed Junco
Purple Finch
House Finch
Pine Siskin
Lesser Goldfinch
American Goldfinch
Best,
Mark
Mark Eaton, San Francisco