Vollmer Peak, Tilden Regional Park, Berkeley Hills
Wed, 21 Jul 2004 10:01:17 EDT
From: Brian Fitch
It had been a very quiet birding summer for us in summer camp until last Wednesday, when the sun finally broke out on Vollmer Peak in Tilden Regional Park (Berkeley Hills), and 44 species swirled around us for over an hour. The only unusual bird was a juvenile Chipping Sparrow, a species we've never seen in the East Bay in summer. The bird was alone, well past the fledgling stage, yet not very wary.
Yesterday, a few midsummer returnees showed up at Albany, including 10 Semipalmated Plovers, the Wandering Tattler mentioned by Bob Brandriff, 2 Spotted Sandpipers, and a flock of 15 or more Elegant Terns flying southward off of the bulb.
I'm wondering if anyone has heard or seen Olive-sided Flycatcher this season in Tilden? There are usually birds holding territory near the nature center, above Lake Anza, and at the golf course near Big Springs, but we've seen nothing of them this year.
Good Birding,
Brian Fitch & crew
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Re: Olive-sided Flycatchers
Wed, 21 Jul 2004 07:18:02 -0700 (PDT)
From: Bob Power
Brian, Tilden Regional Park isn't alone in its missing Olive-sided Flycatchers. Your note got me thinking. Field trips this spring/summer to Sunol Regional Wilderness, Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve, Redwood Regional Park, and Valle Vista Staging Area near Moraga all have a blank next to Olive-sided Flycatcher. The only consistent location that I can think of this year has been Mitchell Canyon near Clayton in Mt Diablo State Park. Others may have thoughts on the flycatcher's relative scarcity. Thanks for bringing it up.
Bob Power
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Re: Olive-sided Flycatchers
Wed, 21 Jul 2004 07:57:19 -0700 (GMT-07:00)
From: Rusty Scalf
I heard Olive-sided Flycatcher across the road from the Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve parking lot in the Oakland Hills last May, I think the first weekend. But not since. That bird might well have been a migrant.
Rusty Scalf
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Re: Olive-sided Flycatchers
Wed, 21 Jul 2004 07:58:22 -0700
From: Roger Hartwell
We usually have an Olive-sided Flycatcher right out front of Watershed Headquarters at the upper [south] end of San Pablo Reservoir near Orinda, but I didn't notice it this year. However, we have been compiling point-count data relative to the thinning of the Monterey pine forest across the reservoir (uplake of the launch ramp). I show one each in 2002 and 2004. There were none recorded there in 2003.
Roger D. Hartwell
EBMUD, Fisheries and Wildlife
500 San Pablo Dam Road
Orinda, CA
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Re: Olive-sided Flycatchers
Wed, 21 Jul 2004 10:21:50 -0700
From: Terry Coddington
Dear EBBers,
Larry Tunstall reported, on June 3, an Olive-sided Flycatcher sighting from Alan Kaplan's early morning bird walk.
Keep up the good work.
Terry Coddington
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Re: Olive-sided Flycatchers
Wed, 21 Jul 2004 11:57:34 -0700
From: Larry Tunstall
I have four records of Olive-sided Flycatcher this year, all in Tilden Regional Park or Tilden Nature Area:
Good birding, Larry
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA
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Re: Olive-sided Flycatchers
Wed, 21 Jul 2004 14:52:05 -0700
From: Sylvia Sykora
I've noted a gradual decline in Olive-sided Flycatcher calls and sightings over the last 5 years. This year we first heard and saw a bird on April 25, with calls and sightings continuing in the neighborhood, off and on, through last weekend, when a few calls were heard on July 17. This may be the same bird I've heard and seen flycatching along the nearby West Ridge Trail in Redwood Regional Park near Moon Gate. Last year's last recorded calls (going on all day) and sightings were also from July 17; in 2002 last heard on July 19; in 2001, on July 31.
Sylvia Sykora
Near Skyline Blvd & Castle Dr
Oakland
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Re: Olive-sided Flycatchers
Wed, 21 Jul 2004 15:33:00 -0700
From: Roger Hartwell
Cornell Labs' Birds in Forested Landscapes project included Olive-sided Flycatcher (OSFL) in their survey species in 2001 and 2002, but left them out in 2003 (limiting remaining surveyed species to accipiters). During that time we found one singing male OSFL on 14 June 2001 near the San Pablo Creek Footbridge about 1000 feet down the Orinda Connector Trail. Then while "not looking" for them in 2003, we found a nesting pair on April 23 and May 22 in a cypress tree about half a mile above the Shakespeare Stage in Siesta Valley (not open to the public, but probably audible from surrounding trails).
Roger D. Hartwell
EBMUD, Fisheries and Wildlife
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Heather Farm Park, Walnut Creek
Wed, 21 Jul 2004 15:34:42 -0700
From: Hugh Harvey
This morning I had another of what I call a five-heron day at Heather Farm Park in Walnut Creek: 7 Snowy Egrets, 3 Great Egrets, a Black-crowned Night-Heron, a Great Blue Heron, and a young Green Heron. Every morning I have checked for the past two weeks has produced similar results. There is also a continuing female Wood Duck, usually in the shade of the north side of the island in the natural pond. Today also produced a Spotted Sandpiper which flew in to land on the rocks in front of the island when viewed from the wooden railing near the parking lot.
Hugh Harvey
What happened to Pied-billed Grebe nest in Berkeley Aquatic Park?
Wed, 21 Jul 2004 18:04:08 -0700 (PDT)
From: Alan Howe
Hi, all.
I rode my bike through Berkeley Aquatic Park yesterday and stopped to check the Pied-billed Grebe nest. I was surprised to see virtually no nest where it had been. There was an adult grebe swimming nearby, but no sign of chicks or even a mate. (I did note a heron, probably Black-crowned Night-Heron - I didn't have my binoculars - in the tree right above the nest site.)
I'm assuming the nest failed. When I saw it a week or 10 days earlier, when an adult was setting, there were 2 or 3 eggs that had rolled (?) down the sides. So it looked like they were having a hard time then.
Does anyone have any info on what happened?
Thanks,
Alan Howe
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Re: Olive-sided Flycatchers
Wed, 21 Jul 2004 20:09:28 -0700
From: Dave Quady
Hi, Brian and other EBBers:
We live straight up the hill from Lake Anza in Tilden Regional Park; my lot ends on Wildcat Canyon Rd.
In those dear, departed days when I arose early to go to work, I looked forward to the first morning of the spring when I could hear an Olive-sided Flycatcher (OSFL) singing when I awoke. First dates ranged from May 1 (in 2001) to May 21 (in 1991). Of course, I could have missed the first day of singing because of travel, sleeping in, wax in my ears, etc. Most always the bird seemed to be calling from the north - toward the Wildcat Canyon Rd / Park Hills Rd intersection.
This year I heard my first OSFL on May 22. This year, and for the previous three years, "my" birds have generally sung from south of my house; i.e., from the direction of the Wildcat Canyon Rd / Shasta Rd intersection. A couple of times I've also heard them sing in the morning from the top of redwoods on The Crescent. I haven't noted a bird's song from the north since 2000.
In a few years I've heard them sing late into the summer, the latest being July 1, 1996, (5:05 AM, for about half an hour). Earlier this month I heard a bird pip! pip! pip!ing on a few mornings. It was nearby, and I couldn't quite believe it was an OSFL. But on Saturday I tracked it down, and found it perched atop a deciduous tree along The Crescent.
Bottom line: I still hear one, sometimes two, singing birds from my house, now generally from the south. Always a treat.
Dave Quady
Berkeley, California
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