How the Saturday trip turned out
Mon, 29 Apr 2002 09:02:32 PDT
From: Doug Greenberg
Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions for the Saturday morning land-birding trip I took with my son. We ended up going to three destinations in whirlwind fashion. Highlights:
Sunol Regional Wilderness (Sunol) - Lots of Wild Turkeys out in plain view, many Bullock's Orioles and House Wrens, Cassin's Vireo, a gorgeous Red-shouldered Hawk, a pair of Wood Ducks, and a singing male Nashville Warbler.
Coyote Hills Regional Park (Fremont), Hoot Hollow area - Lots of Orange-crowned Warblers and Wilson's Warblers, Swainson's Thrush, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and an apparently nesting pair of Red-tailed Hawks.
Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve (Oakland Hills) - Lazuli Bunting, Golden Eagle, and Hermit Warbler. Also of interest: a Red-shouldered Hawk flew across Hwy 580 where it traverses Castro Valley.
Doug Greenberg
Original Message Subject Index
Fwd: Courting Northern Harriers in Berkeley
Meadow
Mon, 29 Apr 2002 15:48:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: Corinne Louise Paff
Dear Birders...
I am forwarding a message and link to photos of courting/hunting Northern Harriers in the Berkeley Meadow taken last week. The meadow (north of University Ave and west of the freeway) is part of the new Eastshore State Park that is still in the planning stage. Please help save these harriers and their habitat from plans to make the northwest corner of the meadow into a parking lot, hostel, and boating facility. Harriers have nested there since 1994, and much other wildlife uses the meadow and its seasonal wetlands year round. Last year, I saw the harriers bring materials and later food to the nest, drop-feed the fledges, and watched them practice hunting and flying. Under the current park plans, this will become impossible in the future.
Please attend a special meeting of the Berkeley City Council for public comment on park plans with the planners tomorrow, Tuesday April 30 at 7 PM at the Berkeley Community Theater. Come early to get a chance to sign up to speak.
thanx corinne
forwarded message starts here:
Subject: Eastshore Park, Berkeley Meadow, Northern Harrier photos website
http://eps.berkeley.edu/~cpaff/photos/eastshore/b_mdw_4_25/index.html
Please visit this site to see photos of Northern Harriers in courtship flight and hunting at the Berkeley Meadow last week. This Species of Special Concern (California State Department of Fish and Game designation) deserves our attention and protection!
Thanks for your cooperation and interest,
Charley Paffenbarger
Berkeley
Olive-sided Flycatcher in Oakland Hills
Mon, 29 Apr 2002 20:49:02 -0700
From: Pat Whittingslow
Hi All:
During the past week I have enjoyed hearing and seeing the Olive-sided Flycatcher on three different occasions in Joaquin Miller Park and Redwood Regional Park, near Ascot Dr / Skyline Blvd / Castle Dr (Oakland Hills). This is an early return as in the past years the second week of May seems to be the usual time to hear this wonderful voice.
Lots of hummingbirds in my garden all year at the feeder and flowers, and now they are enjoying my camellias and clematis.
Thanks. Pat Whittingslow
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Olive-sided Flycatcher in Berkeley Hills
Mon, 29 Apr 2002 23:21:01 -0700
From: Larry Tunstall
I heard an Olive-sided Flycatcher singing repeatedly along Nimitz Way not far from Inspiration Point in Tilden Regional Park (Berkeley Hills) on Thursday April 25.
Good birding, Larry
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA
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Early Olive-sided Flycatcher in Berkeley
Hills
Tue, 30 Apr 2002 12:28:36 PDT
From: Collin Murphy
Dear EBBer's,
The contest for the earliest bird continues. An Olive-sided Flycatcher was carrying on at full blast along the Big Springs Canyon Trail in Tilden Regional Park on April 13!
Collin Murphy
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Exotic game bird
Tue, 30 Apr 2002 15:50:30 PDT
From: Sylvia Sykora
Well, from half a block away as I drove up Castle Dr in Oakland this afternoon, it looked like it may be a female Wild Turkey. It was on the same street, Holyrood, where I found a small turkey flock last October. So I reversed downhill and drove in for a closer look. It was a Helmeted Guineafowl, a dead ringer for the one on page 135 in Sibley's guide, walking across the driveway and driving the fenced-in dog next door absolutely bananas. Last seen going down the stairs into the garden.
Sylvia Sykora
Oakland off Skyline Blvd near Castle Dr
Fwd: Briones Regional Park
Tue, 30 Apr 2002 21:12:24 -0700
From: Larry Tunstall
I am forwarding this message for Judi Cooper, who is having trouble getting her e-mail program to send plain text.
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA
Forwarded Message follows:
From: Judi Cooper
To: East Bay Birders Circle
Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2002 4:24 PM
Subject: BrionesThis morning I birded at Briones Regional Park near Orinda with the East Bay Regional Parks birdwalk and then stayed on to bird more by myself. The highlight for me was the Lazuli Bunting, my first for this year. I am looking forward to more and better looks as this one - a beautiful male - did not perch for very long. Miss for the day was the Western Meadowlark.
Other birds seen:
Canada Geese (flew over)
Mallard (flew over)
Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Kestrel
California Quail
Band-tailed Pigeon
Mourning Dove
White-throated Swift
Anna's Hummingbird
Allen's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Nuttall's Woodpecker
Norther Flicker, red-shafted
Pacific-slope Flycatcher
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Black Phoebe
Violet-green Swallow
Barn Swallow
Steller's Jay
Western Scrub-Jay
Common Raven
Oak Titmouse
Bushtit (going into nest)
Bewick's Wren (many)
American Robin
European Starling
Hutton's Vireo (many heard)
Warbling Vireo
Orange-crowned Warbler (many)
Wilson's Warbler
Black-headed Grosbeak
Lazuli Bunting
Spotted Towhee
California Towhee
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Red-winged Blackbird
Bullock's Oriole (copulating)
Purple Finch
Lesser GoldfinchAt Briones Overlook Staging Area:
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
American CootJudi
Olive-sided Flycatcher dates
Tue, 30 Apr 2002 22:56:44 PDT
From: Steve Glover
Hello all,
I thought I would jump into the Olive-sided Flycatcher discussion.
The earliest date I find for the East Bay for an Olive-sided Flycatcher is 20 March 1980 at Oakland, Alameda County (Joe Morlan), though a mid-April arrival date seems more typical.
Most of the records in my notebooks come from birds at locations where they were clearly migrants, which brings up an interesting point. In general, it seems that most of our early arriving neotropical migrants are individuals that will remain to breed here, while the birds detected later will continue on to northern breeding grounds. Olive-sided Flycatchers are a good example. Birds appear on territory in the Berkeley Hills in mid to late April, but most of the records from drier areas where they clearly do not breed such as Mt Diablo or Bethel Island are from May or even early June. This helps to explain why migrant traps that have relatively few breeding species (the end of Winton Ave at Hayward Regional Shoreline, for example) don't see many migrants until deep into April. At Piper Slough I have never recorded a Wilson's Warbler until early April with most records from May, yet on a trip to Pinehurst Rd near Moraga on 31 March 1996 I had 7 singing males, most likely on territory, in a stretch of a little over a mile. I hope this doesn't bore all of you, I find it pretty neat. To take the point a step further, I have had Wilson's Warbler at Bethel Island as late as June 2nd, a bird clearly still heading north to breed, while we have had adults feeding young in Contra Costa County by Mid-May!!!
Finally, if you have gotten this far, you might be interested to know that it doesn't appear that Olive-sided Flycatcher bred in the East Bay until about 1920. Those at the time felt that the spread of planted groves at that time made it possible. It was exactly the same story for Dark-eyed Junco and American Robin. Apparently both of those species were first confirmed [nesting] locally in 1917. You would tend to assume birds as common as juncos and robins would have always nested here, wouldn't you?
Hope you are still awake,
Steve Glover
Dublin
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