Skip spots a Turkey
Sat, 01 Nov 2003 15:59:42
-0800
From: Dennis Braddy
EastBayBirders,
On our dog-and-bird-walk this afternoon Skip spotted his first Wild Turkey, actually six of them, on Norris Canyon Rd 100 meters east of its intersection with Bollinger Canyon Rd in San Ramon. As you may know from previous posts, Skip usually takes new life birds in stride, but when the largest hen spread her wings in a rather aggressive display just 5 meters away, she had Skip's full attention.
Dennis Braddy and Skip
San Ramon
Lapland Longspurs at Hayward Shoreline
Sat,
01 Nov 2003 23:27:27 -0800
From: Larry Tunstall
Steve Glover asked me to forward this message to the list:
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2003 22:37:43 PST
Hi all,
This morning I went out to Hayward Regional Shoreline with Gerry Weinberger (visiting from Virginia) to look for longspurs. We found three Lapland Longspurs on Mt. Trashmore. We heard them call several times before we finally saw them on the ground at the far south end of the old landfill. Once we found them, we were able to study two of them at point-blank range for over five minutes. I stated in my birdbox message that they were Chestnut-collared Longspurs so hopefully I didn't confuse anyone. To get to the spot, park at the lot at the end of W Winton Ave in Hayward. Walk just beyond the end of the lot and to the southwest and up onto the site [Mt Trashmore].
After that we took the trail to the bay and found a Surfbird amongst the turnstones at Hayward's Landing. Bob gets them regularly here now but it was still nice. There were also 15 or so Ruddy Turnstones which seems like a fair amount for this location. It certainly is by Christmas Bird Count time as I have done this area for about a decade and not seen this many.
Heading north along the trail we found a Red Phalarope in the first pond you come to on your right (inland). It was moving around the pond quite a bit but not associating with other shorebirds.
Not rare here but always nice were two different Peregrine Falcons on Transmission towers and an Osprey up near the Ora Loma Sewage Treatment Plant.
Good birding,
Steve Glover
Dublin
Posted to EBB by Larry Tunstall
Morgan Territory Regional Preserve
Sun, 2
Nov 2003 07:40:11 -0800
From: Steve Huckabone
Yesterday afternoon I took a drive to Morgan Territory Regional Preserve (between Livermore and Clayton). On the way up to the park I spotted two Golden Eagles soaring with two Red-tailed Hawks. Western Bluebirds are plentiful at the parking area this year. Also around the parking area I collected White-crowned Sparrow, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, Lincoln's Sparrow and Lark Sparrow. During a short walk I located one Red-breasted Sapsucker and many of the usual birds. The most interesting thing was seeing 10 feral pigs. I spotted the pigs on the drive back into Livermore in the area where the road winds along a very steep hillside. The pigs appeared to be heading out for a night of foraging in the open grassland hills, 3 adults and 7 piglets.
Steve Huckabone
Alameda County
Livermore California
Chestnut-collared & Lapland Longspurs at Hayward
Shoreline
Sun, 02 Nov 2003 15:15:05 -0800
From: Dennis & Patricia
Braddy
EastBayBirders,
Timing is everything. When we arrived at the W Winton Ave entrance to Hayward Regional Shoreline at midday today for our third attempt at the oft-reported longspurs, the first person we saw was Sheila Junge. Along with the very helpful local ranger (name?), Sheila led us directly to Bob Richmond who, of course, had several Lapland Longspurs surrounded in the middle of Mt Trashmore. After getting our landfill (sorry) of at least 2 different Laplands, we all proceeded to the extreme northeast corner of the mound where a Chestnut-collared Longspur was feeding in one of the ruts in the road/trail along the eastern lip of the landfill. That made two life birds for Pat in about 20 minutes and my best views ever of Chestnut-collared Longspur.
Dennis and Patricia Braddy
San Ramon
Hayward Regional Shoreline
Sun, 2 Nov 2003
18:43:36 PST
From: Bob Richmond
The following was seen today -
W Winton Ave:
Mt Trashmore:
San Francisco Bay, seen from Mt Trashmore:
Hayward Landing:
Frank's Dump West:
San Lorenzo Community Park:
Good birding
Bob