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Pinole Bayfront Park
Tue, 26 Aug 2003 14:19:58 -0700
From: Terry Coddington

Dear EBBers,

This morning's early birdwalk with East Bay Regional Park District naturalist Alan Kaplan at Bayfront Park in Pinole turned out pleasantly - good numbers of plovers (Black-bellied Plover, Killdeer and Semipalmated Plover), a few sandpipers (Western Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, Willets and a single Ruddy Turnstone). We enjoyed a close look at a passing Osprey, two Nuttall's Woodpeckers in the trees at the sewer plant, both Snowy Egret and Great Egret, House Finches and European Starlings in molting plumages, Song Sparrows at the edge of the marsh, three American White Pelicans and a flock of Double-crested Cormorants. The only ducks on the Pinole Creek delta seem to be Mallard types. The only gulls identified were Western Gulls and Ring-billed Gulls. All the terns were Forster's Terns.

Terry Coddington

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Alameda and Oakland bayshore
Thu, 28 Aug 2003 19:22:44 -0700
From: Judi Cooper

Today Don Lewis (from Lafayette) and I birded in Alameda. First we went to Arrowhead Marsh (in Martin Luther King Jr Regional Shoreline in Oakland) at about 9:30 AM - low tide had been at 7:15 AM. We had the following birds:

• Pied-billed Grebe
• Brown Pelican
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Great Blue Heron
• Great Egret
• Snowy Egret
• Black-crowned Night-Heron
• Canada Goose
• Mallard
• American Coot
• Clapper Rail - approximately 5 at this time
• Black-bellied Plover - many in varying plumage
• Black-necked Stilt
• American Avocet
• Greater Yellowlegs - a few
• Long-billed Curlew - 1
• Willet - many
• Marbled Godwit - many
• Black Turnstone
• Western Sandpiper
• Least Sandpiper
• Dunlin
• dowitcher species
• Ring-billed Gull
• Western Gull
• Herring Gull
• Forster's Tern
• Caspian Tern
• Black Phoebe
• Barn Swallow
• Common Yellowthroat
• California Towhee
• Savannah Sparrow
• Song Sparrow
• House Finch

Next we went to Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary in Alameda and found a lot of shorebirds there on the mudflats. The only new ones were:

• Semipalmated Plover
• Common Murre - 1 lone juvenile
• Surf Scoter

Then we went to Crab Cove (north end of Crown Memorial State Beach) and although there weren't the number of shorebirds there we added:

• Common Tern - 2
• Elegant Tern
• Black Oystercatcher
• Spotted Sandpiper
• Heermann's Gull - 1
• Belted Kingfisher

Then we went back to Arrowhead Marsh to see if any other rails would surface with the rising tide. We got there about 1:00 PM and a sorta high tide was to be at 2:02. We saw Clapper Rails all over the place and they were calling and flying and even walking alongside the pier. We thought we might have heard a Virginia Rail but were not sure, and we never heard or saw a Sora.

Judi Cooper
Moraga

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Sept d'un Coup!
Fri, 29 Aug 2003 16:23:40 -0700
From: Dennis & Patricia Braddy

EastBayBirders,

As we rode our bikes through San Ramon Royal Vista Golf Course on the Iron Horse Trail this morning, 7 White-tailed Kites jockeyed for position in a single tall tree. Our previous record was 4 kites in one tree.

Dennis and Patricia Braddy
San Ramon

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