Costa's Hummingbird in Berkeley
Thu, 25 Mar 1999 11:25:46 -0800
From: Bob Brandriff
East Bay Birders:
My wife Barbara saw a beautiful male Costa's Hummingbird in our front yard yesterday morning off and on from 10:50 to 11:30. Barbara and Mike Feighner saw it again today briefly at 10:45. Apparently it is not going to the hummingbird feeder. Feel free to drop by if you're interested in looking for this bird.
Bob
Bob Brandriff
1061 Park Hills Rd
Berkeley, CA 94708
(510) 548-1504
Piper Slough
Thu, 25 Mar 1999 15:38:26 PST
From: Steve Glover
East Bay Birders,
This morning I birded Piper Slough at the north end of Bethel Island. Just before the end of the road there is a flooded field on the right that had a Lesser Yellowlegs amongst several Greaters. There were also Northern Shoveler, Cinnamon Teal, Green-winged Teal.
Highlights at Piper Slough were:
Common Raven / A pair
Lincoln's Sparrow / 11
Sora / One in the ditch at the end of the road, possibly the first I've ever actually seen there
Virginia Rail / Now only one
American Bittern / One, one of only a few I've seen there
Orange-crowned Warbler / 4
Canada Goose / 2 very large birds that landed on the slough. I detect Snow, Ross's and Greater White-fronted Geese much more often out there than Canada. My guess is that these birds are part of the still expanding introduced population.
Yellow-rumped (Mytrle) Warbler / 4, the first out there this spring
Celasphorus Hummingbird / 1 female-type not seen terribly well
The wintering House and Winter Wrens appear to have pulled out.
A Western Kingbird was on wires on Mountain House Rd, Alameda County, just at the base of the hills. Every year I hear talk about March Western Kingbirds being early and yet every year there they are. The first birds always arrive out there in late March.
Good birding,
Steve Glover
Ironhouse Sanitary District, Oakley
Thu, 25 Mar 1999 17:53:25 -0800
From: Larry Tunstall
This morning Ore Carmi and I joined Mike Moran's East Bay Regional Parks birdwalk at Ironhouse Sanitary District in Oakley. The weather was lovely, and there were lots of birds. In fact, we saw so many birds along the trail by the ponds that we had only a quick few minutes out in the marsh area by Big Break Trail. We saw two river otters in the marsh ponds inside the Sanitary District fence there. Other highlights included an American Bittern and a Green Heron. Here's a list for the group, including a couple of birds that Mike saw and I never did spot:
Eared (?) Grebe, American Bittern, Great Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, Green Heron, Mallard, Cinnamon Teal, Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Canvasback, scaup sp, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Ruddy Duck, Turkey Vulture, Northern Harrier (at least 3), Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, American Coot, Killdeer, Greater Yellowlegs, Long-billed Curlew, Bonaparte's Gull, Mew Gull, California Gull, Rock Dove, Mourning Dove, Belted Kingfisher, Black Phoebe, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Barn Swallow, Western Scrub-Jay, American Crow, Marsh Wren (heard), Northern Mockingbird, American Pipit, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Song Sparrow (heard), Red-winged Blackbird, Western Meadowlark
The Ironhouse grounds are not open to the public except on EBRPD walks, which Mike does every month or two. However, the Big Break Regional Trail is now open to the public. From Hwy 4 (Main St) in Oakley, go north on Vintage Pky, turn right on Walnut Meadows Dr, and then left on Jordan Ln (a block before entering the Ironhouse property). The trailhead is at the end of Jordan Ln. You can now walk this trail north and then east between the Ironhouse grounds and Big Break (getting a good look into some of the Ironhouse ponds and fields), cross a bridge over Marsh Creek (Dutch Slough), and connect to the Marsh Creek Regional Trail leading into Brentwood. All of this is flat paved trail, suitable for bicycles, strollers, or wheelchairs as well as walking.
Another item of possible interest. The Underground Mining Museum at Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve in Antioch has reopened after some years. This is in the Hazel-Atlas Mine near the vanished mining town of Somerville. The museum is open to guided groups on weekends from March through November, but you need reservations. You can use MasterCard or Visa by calling (510) 562-2267 or (925) 676-0192. If you don't want to use the plastic, you need to make your reservations at the Black Diamond office. The fee is $2.50 per person, and children under age 7 are not allowed. Mike says that the tours have been consistently filled, so you do need the reservations. Information about weekday tours for school groups (3rd grade and up) or organizations is available at (925) 757-2620. The tour lasts about an hour and involves walking about 400 feet underground.
Best wishes for good birding or underground exploring, Larry
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA
Lake Merritt fish planting
Thu, 25 Mar 1999 17:56:32 -0800 (PST)
From: Tom Condit
The Oakland Museum exhibit on the "California Dream" has a little subitem on rainbow trout plantation (from Oakland to the world, as it were) which includes the fact that rainbow trout introduction into New Zealand resulted in the destruction of about 1/3 of the native species of fish as well as a number of entire fisheries on which the Maori were dependent, much like the introduction of largemouth bass into one lake in Guatemala for the purpose of attracting sportfishing tourists from North America wiped out an entire fishery along with a species of flightless grebe dependent on it, only on a much larger scale. If people want to fish, let them go where the fish are.
Tom Condit