Re: Acorn Woodpecker
Tue, 22 Sep 1998 09:45:13 -0700
From: Kirk Swenson
Steve Glover wrote:
The best bird was an Acorn Woodpecker that was wandering around the hillside. This is the 2nd record for Richmond (the other was 9/9/95).
We had an Acorn Woodpecker on one occasion at Pt. Pinole during our breeding bird atlasing this summer. We thought it a bit odd, but it wasn't showing any signs of breeding activity and so we didn't give it too much thought. I didn't realize they were that uncommon in the Richmond area. Should we be dredging up our records on this sighting?
Kirk Swenson
Correction re plant sale
Tue, 22 Sep 1998 14:58:21 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tom Condit
Oh, boy, when I goof, I really goof. That's OCTOBER 10.
Tom Condit wrote:
... there would be a native plant sale at Merritt College in Oakland on September 10 as well.
Next Reply Original Message Subject List
Re: Correction re plant sale
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 17:35:59 -0700
From: Kay Loughman
Tom,
Are you sure about that date? I have a flyer from Growing Native which lists the sale at Merritt College as being on October 3 & 4.
Kay Loughman
Next Reply Original Message Subject List
A 3 pipilo day
Tue, 22 Sep 1998 21:24:35 PDT
From: Steve Glover
East Bay Birders,
This afternoon I got a call from Helen Holm in Pleasant Hill saying that she had a Green-tailed Towhee in her yard, present since yesterday. I sped over and saw it at about 4. It was my first for the county, finally. The bird appeared to be a first winter based on a very dull crown. The underparts were also completely gray. This is probably the seventh (but maybe the 8th) co[unty] rec[ord] but the first for fall that I am aware of. I did not ask for permission for others to come view the bird but if you really want to see one in the county let me know and I'll see what I can do.
This morning at Jewel L[ake] I heard a Red Crossbill fly over just after getting out of the car. Contrary to every other day this fall, there were lots of birds around the parking lot and the lake. Unfortunately, contrary to every other day this fall, there were no flocks on the hillside to the west. I managed about 25 Townsend's Warblers, 5 Black-throated Grays, a few Wilson's, 3 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, 2 Golden-crowned Sparrows, 2 Hermit Thrushes, 2 Swainson's Thrushes, and 2 Warbling Vireos. It appeared that for whatever reason the flocks normally on the hillside had moved down around the lake.
Steve Glover
Ducks at Lake Merritt
Wed, 23 Sep 1998 14:49:52 -0700
From: Larry Tunstall
Over the past week, the first few wintering ducks have begun to arrive at Lake Merritt in downtown Oakland. On Sept 15, I saw 5 Ruddy Ducks and 1 female scaup (too distant to guess at species). On the 17th, I saw only the scaup. On the 22nd, I saw the scaup and one Ruddy Duck. All of these were fairly close to the islands behind the Rotary Nature Center; I haven't had time to check out the entire lake or the channel to the Oakland Estuary. American Coots are returning in large numbers, and I've seen quite a lot of Pied-billed Grebes. There are a fair number of Double-crested Cormorants around, including several immatures (they nested at the lake for the first time this year). At least once in the past week, there have been sizeable numbers of cormorants and Brown Pelicans engaged in a "feeding frenzy" in the lake.
Among the birds coming up close to visitors at the daily 3:30 PM feeding have been 3 or 4 Brown Pelicans, 4 Great Egrets, one Double-crested Cormorant, several Black-crowned Night-Herons, and very large numbers of Canada Geese, Mallards, coots, and (of course) Rock Doves.
One bird that has interested me in the past couple of weeks is a Great Egret that is about two-thirds the normal size. It definitely is neither a Snowy Egret nor a Cattle Egret. It looks exactly like the other Great Egrets, just not as big. In my experience, the young are as large as the parents by the time they leave the nest, and certainly by this late in the year. Is this much size variation reasonably common?
For those unfamiliar with Lake Merritt, you can find info at
http://www.naturecntr.org/
On Sunday morning, I walked in from Briones Rd to the lagoons in northern Briones Regional Park (south of Martinez). This was my first time in the northern part of the park. Got a very nice look at a Say's Phoebe on the fence around the northern Maricich Lagoon. Also a Black Phoebe, an American Crow, several Western Bluebirds in drab plumage, and some sparrows that I'd guess to be Savannah, though I'm definitely a beginner at Little Brown Jobs (these had strong yellow "eyebrows" and a fair amount of yellow around the throat).
There were ducks in the upper Sindicich Lagoon, but only one showed some possibility of being something other than a Mallard - I guessed Gadwall for that one, but his plumage was still too drab to be sure, and he didn't fly. What surprised me was what I would swear was a Spotted Towhee in the cattails (or reeds or whatever) on that lagoon near the trail. At first it was behaving much like a blackbird in the vegetation, then it suddenly made a nice flycatcher-type sally out in the air and returned to disappear into the cattails. I didn't see it again. Is this reasonable behavior for a towhee, or was I probably seeing something else?
Thanks for all the recent information on the list.
Good birding,
Larry Tunstall
http://www.best.com/~folkbird/
EBbird website:
http://www.best.com/~folkbird/EBBC/
Re: Correction re plant sale
Thu, 24 Sep 1998 08:49:14 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tom Condit
Obviously, oral communications don't go ... Two people who have this in writing have the Merritt [native plant] sale as Oct 3 & 4, so the guy who told me the 10th had it wrong.
Incidentally, he told me that it's possible to go the night before while they're setting up and look over what will be available, so you can cut through the crowds straight to what you want on the actual day of the sale.
Next Reply Original Message Subject List
Tilden Nature Area birds Tuesday 9.22.98
Thu, 24 Sep 1998 15:53:21 -0700
From: Alan Kaplan
Tuesday 9.22.98
I went out for an hour on the Upper Pack Rat trail this morning and found a Fox Sparrow, Towsend's Warblers (8 to 10 of them), Black-throated Gray Warblers (6), a Wilson's Warbler, a Yellow Warbler, a Warbling Vireo. A Kingfisher cackled by overhead, and a Red-shouldered Hawk was extremely vocal for much of the hour!
Alan Kaplan