UC Botanical Garden
Mon, 22 Apr 2002 09:53:00 -0700
From: Tom Condit
We took a stroll up to the UC Botanical Garden above the campus in Berkeley on Sunday, April 21, 2002.
The highlight of the walk was a singing male Black-Headed Grosbeak in Strawberry Canyon between the swimming pools and the parking lot for the fire road.
All along the road and in the garden Spotted Towhees were singing and calling, but we only saw them in the garden. Two of them were doing a pair dance (very similar to the one California Towhees do) on a path in the California section of the garden. The female looked pregnant, but I'm not an expert on avian obstetrics.
We heard hummingbirds all over, but only saw one - and it hid so well inside a folded leaf that we could only tell it had a little red on it. I couldn't even tell what part of the body, but Marsha says the gorget, so probably an Anna's Hummingbird.
Other birds seen:
American Robins
Mourning Doves
Sharp-shinned Hawk overhead
Orange-crowned Warbler
Western Scrub-Jay
Steller's Jay
California Towhees
Dark-eyed Juncos
No chickadees heard or seen!
Tom Condit
April 20 at Arrowhead Marsh
Mon, 22 Apr 2002 12:22:53 -0700
From: Jeff Mohamed
On Saturday April 20 at Arrowhead Marsh, Martin Luther King Jr Regional Shoreline, Oakland, about 90 minutes of birding (from 1:00 PM) produced nothing exciting but only the following:
Eared Grebe
Western Grebes
Canada Geese
Mallards
American Coots
scaup
Surf Scoter
Brown Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egrets
Snowy Egrets
Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawks (mobbed by avocets and stilts)
Willets
yellowlegs
Short-billed Dowitchers
Western Sandpipers
Least Sandpipers
Dunlins
Black-necked Stilts
American Avocets
Black-bellied Plovers
Killdeer
Western Gulls
Caspian Terns
Forster's Terns
Rock Doves
Mourning Doves
American Robins
American Crows
Northern Mockingbirds
Anna's Hummingbirds
Cedar Waxwings
European Starlings
Red-winged Blackbirds
Barn Swallows
Cliff Swallows
House Finches
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrows
Jeff Mohamed
Pittsburg
April 21 at Mitchell Canyon
Mon, 22 Apr 2002 12:35:05 -0700
From: Jeff Mohamed
At Mitchell Canyon (near Clayton) in Mount Diablo State Park on Sunday April 21, I birded the Deer Flat Trail as far as marker #9 between 8:30 and 10:00 AM. My wife and I then birded the same section of trail 4:30 to 6:30 PM. Overall, the afternoon walk produced more interesting birds. Or perhaps it was just that two pairs of eyes produce more birds!
Morning:
Northern Mockingbird
Mourning Doves
Western Scrub-Jays
American Robins
European Starlings
Red-winged Blackbirds
California Quail
Acorn Woodpeckers
Western Bluebirds
California Towhee
Spotted Towhees
Bushtits
Bewick's Wren
Dark-eyed Junco
White-crowned Sparrows
Golden-crowned Sparrows
White-breasted Nuthatch
Lesser Goldfinch
Yellow-rumped Warbler
MacGillivray's Warbler
Violet-green Swallows
Anna's Hummingbirds
Turkey Vultures
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Cooper's Hawk
Afternoon:
Mourning Doves
Northern Mockingbird
American Robins
Acorn Woodpeckers
Downy Woodpecker
Nuttall's Woodpecker
Western Bluebirds
European Starlings
Western Scrub-Jays
Steller's Jays
Anna's Hummingbirds
Violet-green Swallows
Spotted Towhees
California Towhees
White-crowned Sparrows
Golden-crowned Sparrows
Lark Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Golden-crowned Kinglet
American Goldfinches
Bushtits
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Western Tanager
Nashville Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warblers
Jeff Mohamed
Pittsburg
Short-eared Owl at Hayward Regional Shoreline
Mon, 22 Apr 2002 15:25:36 -0800
From: Peter Dramer
Today at 2:40 PM during the hottest, brightest part of the day a Short-eared Owl was perched on a short post in Cogswell Marsh at Hayward Regional Shoreline. Often, these owls favor the same general area and time of day, so this would be a reasonable area to search for one, at least for the next several days.
Along the Bay Trail, about halfway between the end of W Winton Ave and the Interpretive Center there are two long pedestrian bridges. If you draw an imaginary line, across the marsh from the end of one bridge to the end of the other bridge, the owl was along that line about midway.
Peter
Short-eared Owl directions
Mon, 22 Apr 2002 19:18:01 -0700
From: Peter Dramer
To look for the Short-eared Owl at Hayward Regional Shoreline, take the Bay Trail south from the end of W Winton Ave. After crossing the first long bridge, search the marsh area immediately south of the bridge.
Peter
Original Message Subject Index
Quick birding fix in the morning before
work
Mon, 22 Apr 2002 19:26:21 PDT
From: Denise Wight
Need a quick birding fix in the morning before work? If you commute through the Caldecott Tunnel into San Francisco, Berkeley, or Emeryville as I do, stop at the Shakespeare Festival parking lot off Gateway Blvd. A Black-headed Grosbeak was singing and flying about there this morning, and I have seen a variety of other western migrants in the past, including Lazuli Bunting and Cassin's Vireo. Sometimes 5 minutes is all it takes! Do it this week. Think of how wonderful you will feel when you get to work, look at your stone-faced co-workers, and think, "If they only know what great birds I just spotted!"
Denise Wight
Martinez CA