Chukars at Roberts Regional Recreation Area
Thu, 12 Dec 2002 15:19:53 -0800
From: Tom Condit
This morning at 11:40 AM there were three Chukars at Roberts Regional Recreation Area in Oakland. They were at the beginning of the trail from the lower parking lot down to the Graham Trail, just above the playing field.
Please don't scare them - we want them to still be there Sunday for the Christmas Bird Count.
(Am I hallucinating a memory, or were there some Chukars who escaped years ago from Dunsmuir House? If so, maybe these are their descendants.)
Tom Condit
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Tassajara Creek Regional Park
Thu, 12 Dec
2002 20:13:45 -0800
From: Steve Huckabone
Yesterday during lunch break I saw a juvenile Golden Eagle and a juvenile Ferruginous Hawk at Tassajara Creek Regional Park (northeast corner of Dublin).
Steve Huckabone
Alameda County
Livermore California
Geese at Arrowhead Marsh
Thu, 12 Dec 2002
22:47:44 -0800
From: Courtenay Peddle
Hello folks.
The nine Greater White-fronted Geese continue at Martin Luther King Regional Shoreline in Oakland. Six of the birds are adults, three are juveniles - three families?
Today these geese were alone on the lawn adjacent to the second (middle) parking lot. Often they are with the many, many Canada Geese. The Canadas were across the airport channel today at Doolittle Beach, on the grass near what used to be the Beach Cafe. Tantalizingly among them was one white goose. Possibly the Ross' Goose that has been here, on and off, for a month.
I hope these birds are still around for the Christmas Bird Count folks on Sunday.
Good birding!
Courtenay Peddle
Golden Eagle in Fremont
Fri, 13 Dec 2002 10:43:04
-0800
From: Rich Cimino
Yesterday at 4 PM a single Golden Eagle was riding a thermal with several Turkey Vultures over the intersection of Warm Springs Blvd and Mission Blvd in Fremont.
Also last week near this intersection in the pines along Mission Blvd was a Townsend's Warbler - it is now gone.
Also near this intersection in the parking lot of 940 Mission Ct directly behind the 940 Mission address marker, are several redwood trees which have a roosting Black-crowned Night-Heron. Look for the white-washed branches and droppings underneath. Each day as I enter work, I stop to see what he has eaten the night before. There are splattered droppings on the sidewalk. Lately the night-heron has been eating crawfish.
Rich Cimino
Fremont~Pleasanton
Re: Chukars in Oakland Hills
Fri, 13 Dec 2002
15:56:39 -0800
From: Tom Condit
Last night I called Joelle Buffa, who knows a lot about Chukars from field experience. Her feeling is that the birds at Roberts Regional Recreation Area have to be either releases or escapees from captivity. Wild Chukars are very wary and would never have tolerated the kind of close examination I gave them. So I don't think we'll be adding a new resident species to our area for the Christmas Bird Count Sunday, but we will make note of their presence.
I'd still go look at them if any of you have a chance who haven't seen Chukar before. What I most noticed was how different their bills were from the pictures in the National Geographic Guide and Sibley - they looked longer and thinner, with a very pronounced curve at the end.
Of course, if they're releases, they might even be Rock Partridges, but it would take seeing them in much better light than we're going to have in the next couple of days to make that distinction (see Johnsgaard on partridges for field mark distinctions). Maybe nothing will eat them before the good weather returns. They're very fat and healthy looking.
Tom Condit
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Merganser flock behavior
Fri, 13 Dec 2002
20:39:44 PST
From: Lois
Dear Folks all,
I've been watching a flotilla of mergansers on Lake Cascade in Orinda the past few days, and it seemed that they all dove at one time and resurfaced at the same time except for one male. Do mergansers keep a sentinel bird on lookout? I'm new to watching water birds and would appreciate recommendations for learning about their behavior.
Thanks,
Lois
Re: Chukars in Oakland Hills
Fri, 13 Dec 2002
21:37:38 -0800
From: Kathy Robertson
Tom & EBB:
A few months ago, I noticed several Chukars in the domed cage near the Lake Merritt nature center. I asked one of the staff where the birds came from. She informed me that they are sold live in Oakland's Chinatown. Apparently, well-meaning citizens sometimes purchase them and then "give them their freedom," often in urban Oakland parks. When the nature center has rounded up a few (there were 4 in the cage that day, and another loose one they knew about), they try to find a property owner in a more rural area that will allow them to be released on their property. She also mentioned that the birds are quite tame, showing little fear of humans, and some have holes drilled in their bills for the attachment of rings and chains.
Kathy Robertson
Hayward, CA
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