East county Brandt's Cormorant
Mon, 12 Oct 1998 13:37:40 PDT
From: Steve Glover
East Bay Birders,
This morning I awoke to high overcast and no wind and decided to head to east [Contra Costa County]. At Piper Slough there were few migrants but interesting birding. In 20 minutes I watched at least 300 Tree Swallows fly south in small flocks. Migrants included 2 Golden-crowned kinglets, 2 Yellow Warblers, 3 Orange-crowneds, 2 Black-throated Grays and 1 Wilson's Warbler. I heard Sandhill Cranes to the east but was unable to find them. John Robinson reported 26 of them to me at this site yesterday.
At Clifton Court Forebay I was surprised to find the first east county record of Brandt's Cormorant. I watched the bird on the water and flying around for about 10 minutes before losing it. I couldn't say if it stayed or not. There were another 275 Tree Swallows at this location.
Steve Glover
Re: East Bay Parks, Measure W, Briones
Mon, 12 Oct 1998 14:48:28 -0700
From: Sally M. Walters
Lillian and Peter et al.
Regarding dead and dying, vertical and horizontal trees - they are very important to wildlife. Now that the tree is down if you are in touch with the park over this have them leave it lay. The truth is that tree has value now though it is down. I could go on and on about the lack of wildlife (snakes, lizards, pill bugs, centipeds, mice, etc.) where there is no downed wood and debris. Sounds like park maintenance needs some on going education about wildlife habitat. Unfortunately we probably need to be educated about people hazards. Perhaps a very simple fence around it with "keep out" and educational information about why it is being left to lay. I haven't seen the place so I can't say whether it is appropriate or not but worth at try. Thanks for saying something. Sally
Sally M. Walters
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Re: East Bay Parks, Measure W, Briones
Mon, 12 Oct 1998 16:56:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: Peter Rauch
On Mon, 12 Oct 1998, Sally M. Walters wrote:
Lillian and Peter et al. Regarding dead and dying, vertical and horizontal trees - they are very important to wildlife.
Yes, indeed. One of the questions that I ask myself almost every time I walk in one of the EB Parks is how well the existing wildlife is going to fare (in any particular site) once the next fire (or the one ten years from now) roars through the place. Over the past three decades, I've watched as more and more fuel (dead wood, often from trail clearing/renovation, tossed to one side or another of the trail)) accumulating in the parks. It seems that it's collecting at a much faster rate than it's being consumed (decomposing, burning, etc), and that it's going to burn hot and destructively with respect to the local biota.
I know the Park District has been preoccupied with firebreaks, especially along places like the Park/Urban interface, like to the west of Tilden, but the risks of severe burns seems to go deeper into the Park lands than that.
Should we not be concerned, and should be actually be looking forward to the day that the overly-heavy fuel loads burn (and new, invigorated communities arise), or will the cost (to local biotic populations) be too extreme? Obviously, there are both "biological" interesting answers, and "human societal goals" involved in what we want from our Parks.
Will the birds care (will the avifauna change dramatically for many years afterwards; what will the consequence of that be)? Will we be happy with the new bird habitats, changed species abundance/diversity/interactions, etc?
Is it ok to raise such topics on this list?
Peter
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Discussion topics on EBbird
Mon, 12 Oct 1998 18:40:11 -0700
From: Larry Tunstall
Peter asked about continuing on this list the discussion about East Bay Regional Parks maintenance policies and their effects on birds and other wildlife.
As the list owner, I'd say that so far this topic is very appropriate. Just stay reasonably close to birds in the East Bay, and keep the discussion calm and rational. If it turns into a flame war, I may feel a need to call a halt to it. But then we birders would never be so aggressive as that, would we? :)
By the way, you should know that at least two EBRPD employees are subscribers to this list, and their copies go to park offices where all incoming e-mail passes through the hands of office personnel before reaching the subscribers. Just in case anyone cares who's reading their comments.
Larry Tunstall, "list mom"
http://www.best.com/~folkbird/
EBbird website:
http://www.best.com/~folkbird/EBBC/
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Report from Coyote Hills Regional Park
Mon, 12 Oct 1998 20:06:19 PDT
From: Bill Scoggins
Sunday, 11 October 1998
Hello East Bay Birders,
At Garin Regional Park, Tamarack entrance off Mission Blvd, we had a wonderful view of a red-shouldered hawk with the morning sun on its beautiful reddish breast. We also saw a northern flicker, oak titmouse, Say's phoebe, western scub jay, red-tailed hawk, ruby- crowned kinglet, western meadowlark, dark-eyed junco, Bewick's wren, black phoebe, American crow, and others.
At Coyote Hills the highlights included a peregrine falcon, Cooper's hawk, American kestrel, golden-crowned kinglet, red-breasted nuthatch, warbling vireo, California thrasher singing in front of the visitor center, 6 adult California quail at Hoot Hollow, fox and song sparrow, white and golden crowned sparrows and hermit and varied thrush. Yellow-rumped warblers seemed to have taken over the park. Maggie Clark found a western garter snake about 18" long at Hoot Hollow.
Good birding,
Bill Scoggins
Castro Valley
P.S. On 10 Oct, Sat., I birded with Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society at Coyote Hills and the highlights included a common yellowthroat, golden-crowned kinglet, and two American bittern. All were seen near the Quarry parking lot.
Sunday at Crown Beach
Mon, 12 Oct 1998 21:33:55 -0700
From: Larry Tunstall
On Sunday Oct 11, we joined the EBRPD birdwalk at Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary at the south end of Crown Memorial State Beach in Alameda. Leader was Anthony Fisher instead of Susan Ramos, who will not be back from her maternity leave until next Crab Cove season.
We spent most of the time at the southern viewing platform, reached by taking the dirt trail southeast from the corner of Broadway and Shore Line. This platform has a good view of extensive mudflats at low tide, and we spent a lot of time helping the less experienced birders work on their shorebirds.
It will come as a surprise to most of the birders on the walk, but we had great views of a Clapper Rail. Just after most people left, with just Fisher and two of us picking up and getting ready to go, the rail came strolling out of the vegetation and along the edge of the mudflat toward us. It was only out in view for a minute or so, but in that time it came very close to us, with its tail cocked up at a strong angle. Is it just me, or are the Clapper Rails much easier to see this year? If so, is that because there are more of them?
Other birds seen: Brown Pelican, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Cooper's Hawk, American Coot, Black-bellied Plover, Greater Yellowlegs, Willet, Long-billed Curlew, Marbled Godwit, Sanderling, Western Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher, unidentified gulls, Forster's Tern, Northern Flicker (red-shafted), Black Phoebe, Bushtit, House Sparrow.
Then we moved to Crab Cove. In addition to many of the same birds, we added Common Loon (first loon I've seen this fall), Horned Grebe, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Canada Goose, Mallard, American Wigeon, Red-shouldered Hawk, Ruddy Turnstone, Least Sandpiper, Dunlin, Rock Dove, Mourning Dove, Western Scrub-Jay, American Robin.
There we ran into Bob Lewis with his birding class from Albany Night School. I hope Bob & Rusty Scalf will post the results of their weekly walks to this list - it should give us a very good survey of what is around.
Last Tuesday (Oct 6) at Lake Merritt, I saw near the islands 40 Ruddy Ducks and 1 male scaup. I haven't been to the Lake since then, but will check it out again tomorrow.
In my yard in El Cerrito, I saw 3 Chestnut-backed Chickadees dropping in for a little nip at the hummingbird feeder a few days ago, and today saw a Red-breasted Nuthatch for the first time this fall. Still have lots of goldfinches (both American and Lesser) around, and quite a few White-crowned Sparrows now.
Good birding,
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA
http://www.best.com/~folkbird/
Re: East Bay Parks, Measure W, Briones
Mon, 12 Oct 1998 21:42:16 -0700
From: Lillian T. Fujii
Thank you to Sally, Peter and Larry for comments. One more note and I will give you all a break.
1. The downed tree was stacked in a pile, so I don't think that the Park District intends to leave it for its wildlife value. I did not even think about the wildlife value of the downed tree, and will write to the District again. BTW, since the tree was over 4 ft in diameter, there was a HUGE pile of wood.
2. I am not an expert on fire management, and can't answer many of Peter's questions. But, having read numerous Nature Conservancy and other articles on the fire managment, I agree with Peter that leaving behind too much brush from trail clearing will increase the fuel load. I also know that the trunk portion of large downed trees are important and does not create the kind of fuel-loading that will result in the kind of devastating fire such as we had along Icehouse Road (?) on the way to Tahoe, and that the devastating fires are the result of unnatural fire suppression measures such as that employed by the forest service, particularly in the past.
Lillian Fujii