Broad-winged Hawks in Berkeley Hills
Sun,
05 Oct 2003 21:40:23 -0700
From: Larry Tunstall
I am forwarding this message to the list for Steve Glover:
Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003 20:32:59 PDT
From: Steve Glover
Subject: Please forward: Broad-winged HawksHi all,
This morning my wife and I headed up to Inspiration Point in Tilden Regional Park in hopes of finding Bob Battagin's Palm Warbler from the day before. We were there from 9:30 AM to 2:30 PM and never found it but we had a great day anyway. Shortly after we got there we were joined by Bob himself.
The highlights were at least three Broad-winged Hawks and the sheer number of migrating raptors.
Highlights in no particular order:
- Lewis' Woodpecker - 3 heading south at 9:35 and then 11 from the north and heading west (west?). A banner year for these guys!
- Acorn Woodpecker - I have no idea how many of these guys are up there because unlike the Lewis', which almost always head directly south, are heading every which way imaginable. I did see 11 at once but I think there are more than that.
- Red-breasted Sapsucker - 2
- Lawrence's Goldfinch - 1
- White-throated Swift - 2+
- Vaux's Swift - flocks of 5 and 15 heading east. I had about 100 on Friday.
Now for the raptors:
- Osprey - 1 at the Reservoir below (local bird)
- White-tailed Kite - 2 locals plus 7 migrants!
- Northern Harrier - 4 migrants
- Golden Eagle - 2 locals
- Red-tailed Hawk - 13 migrants but probably seriously undercounted
- Red-shouldered Hawk - 3 migrants
- Broad-winged Hawk - at least 3 and probably 4, all heading southeast, including two that passed directly over our heads! I am now getting this bird in the county annually now that I am watching the ridgetops.
- Swainson's Hawk - 1 heading southeast, unfortunately after Bob left
- Sharp-shinned Hawk - 14, mostly going southeast
- Cooper's Hawk - 17, mostly going southeast
- Accipiter sp. - 12, mostly going southeast
- American Kestrel - locals only
- Merlin - 1 flying southeast
And the birds were still going by when my wife had finally had enough.
I had a total of 68 species today which is one of the better tallies I have had.
Good birding,
Steve Glover
Dublin
Posted to EBB by Larry Tunstall
Pinyon Jay at Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve
Wed, 8 Oct 2003 17:55:07 -0700
From: John Luther
Hi All,
I had an appointment at Kaiser to give a bit of blood today (October 8) so I thought I deserved the rest of the afternoon off. Knowing of Steve Glover's nice observations at Inspiration Point in Tilden Regional Park last weekend I decided to spend some time at Round Top (1761 feet elevation) in Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. Just after leaving my jeep and walking a short way up the paved road towards the east side of Round Top I heard the call of a Pinyon Jay and I looked up to see it flying roughly northeast from Skyline Blvd (edge of Alameda County) and then over my head (Contra Costa County). It continued northeast over the trees. There may have been more, but one was all that I was sure of. The bird was not very high so the overall light blue color, long dark bill and short tail were obvious. I am sure glad Pinyon Jays call often while flying! This was at about 1:45 PM.
I then spent about 2 hours on the east side of Round Top where there is a dirt road on a grassy hill. The only migrating hawks seen were two Cooper's Hawks and a Northern Harrier. The three of them were flying together. One Yellow-rumped Warbler also flew by. 3 Red-tailed Hawks, an American Kestrel and a Red-shouldered Hawk were also seen, but they are residents there.
I also had an Acorn Woodpecker fly over my house in the Oakland Hills on Monday (October 6). This woodpecker is unusual for the Oakland Hills. As many of you may already know there is a major movement of Pinyon Jays, Acorn Woodpeckers and Lewis' Woodpeckers in California this fall.
Keep listening and looking up!
John Luther
Oakland
Hayward Regional Shoreline
Wed, 8 Oct 2003
21:21:51 PDT
From: Bob Richmond
I spent most of the day at the shoreline and saw the following
W Winton Ave
Mt. Trashmore
Hayward Landing
No unusual birds
Frank's Dump West
Just the large numbers of the usual shorebirds
Re: Pinyon Jay at Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve
Thu, 9 Oct 2003 22:43:32 -0700
From: John Luther
Steve Glover sent me the following to pass on to you all. "John's sighting was the first Pinyon Jay ever recorded in Contra Costa County and it appears that the only Alameda County record was 75 birds flying south over the UC Berkeley Campus on 5 October 1911. I was at Inspiration Point for a couple of hours today (October 8) but had no luck."
John Luther
Oakland
Original Message Subject Index
Pileated Woodpecker in Oakland Hills
Fri,
10 Oct 2003 20:37:56 -0700
From: Larry Tunstall
I am forwarding the following message to the list for Mark Rauzon:
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 19:25:45 PDT
Subject: He's back! Pileated Woodpecker in Oakland HillsToday at 4:45 PM I was walking along Skyline Blvd in front of the Chabot Space and Science Center when I heard the Pileated Woodpecker call twice. I located it resting on a tall dead tree trunk. It was a male that I observed for 10 minutes. It few off to forage in a cypress and called a few more times. There is a lot of evidence of its work on trees around the CSSC. This spot is on the west side of Skyline Blvd. Park at a gray-gravel pullout in front of the domes and walk south to the first No Parking sign. The bowl below the road was where I saw it. Good luck.
Mark Rauzon
Posted to EBB by Larry Tunstall