Saturday trip to Piper Slough / Iron House
Fri, 21 May 1999 21:21:23 PDT
From: Steve Glover
Hello,
Just thought I would let everyone know that I have a Mt. Diablo Audubon trip to eastern Contra Costa County tomorrow morning and if any of you would like to come along you are welcome to. We will spend the first couple of hours of the morning at Piper Slough where we will find Black-chinned Hummingbird, Yellow-breasted Chat and Blue Grosbeak and hopefully some migrants. Later we will head to Iron House Sanitary District at Oakley where we should hear Black Rail as well as some waterbirds such as American Bittern, Green Heron, Cinammon Teal and who knows what. Black Tern and Great-tailed Grackles are possible at this date.
We will be meeting at 6:30 AM at the southwest corner of the Sun Valley Mall parking lot in Concord. To get there exit I-680 at Willow Pass Road and go west to the mall on your right. We will be meeting in Oakley at 7 AM on Cypress Rd. just east of Hwy. 4 where there is a bridge over Marsh Creek. Hope someone can make it.
Oh yes, they are talking about 90 degrees tomorrow so bring water and sunscreen!
Steve Glover
Re: Tilden and Briones
Fri, 21 May 1999 22:13:55 PDT
From: Gail DeLalla
Hi Larry,
I also see and hear fewer species at Briones and suspect part of the problem is the ever-increasing star thistle. As plant diversity declines, animal diversity declines.
Gail
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Piper Slough and Big Break Trail
Sat, 22 May 1999 23:09:44 -0700
From: Larry Tunstall
This morning Ore Carmi and I joined Steve Glover's Mt Diablo Audubon Society birdwalk in eastern Contra Costa County. We started at Piper Slough (north end of Bethel Island Rd) around 7:30 AM. The wind was blowing strongly enough to sometimes make you stagger, often blowing dust about, and always whipping the vegetation about - not, of course, the best conditions for viewing or hearing birds. Hummingbirds were not seen, and nothing much was visible on the water. We did have several Blue Grosbeak for good looks. The highlights were an Osprey perched on the island across the slough from the docks and houses, and a Burrowing Owl perched on telephone wires along Bethel Island Rd. Also a river otter in the slough among the docks.
The following list includes our observations and what I could catch of Steve's, though I'm sure I missed several of his because I was not always with him.
Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus)
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)
Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus)
Ring-necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus)
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)
Caspian Tern (Sterna caspia)
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia) - along Bethel Island Rd
Western Wood-Pewee (Contopus sordidulus)
Western Kingbird (Tyrannus verticalis)
Warbling Vireo (Vireo gilvus) - heard only
Western Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica)
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor)
Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota)
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus)
Bewick's Wren (Thryomanes bewickii) - heard only
Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
Yellow Warbler (Dendroica petechia) - heard only
Townsend's Warbler (Dendroica townsendi) - heard only
Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas) - heard only
Yellow-breasted Chat (Icteria virens) - heard only
Western Tanager (Piranga ludoviciana)
Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus) - heard only
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)
Blue Grosbeak (Guiraca caerulea)
Lazuli Bunting (Passerina amoena)
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)
Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta)
Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater)
Bullock's Oriole (Icterus bullockii)
House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus)
American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis)
We spent the late morning birding the Big Break Regional Trail north of Ironhouse Sanitary District's ponds. The wind wasn't quite as bad here, and it was beginning to feel quite warm by noon, but it was a bit late in the day for a lot of bird activity. We walked out to the picnic tables (future site of the Delta Environmental Science Center), where many of the shorebirds, gulls, and terns were hunkered down in the mudflats of a nearly drained pond.
Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus)
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)
Great Egret (Ardea albus)
Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)
Green Heron (Butorides virescens)
Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)
Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) - 5 goslings
Gadwall (Anas strepera)
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) - dozens of ducklings
Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata)
Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensis)
Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus)
American Coot (Fulica americana)
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)
Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus)
American Avocet (Recurvirostra americanus)
Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis)
California Gull (Larus californicus)
Western Gull (Larus occidentalis) - one
Glaucous-winged Gull (Larus glaucescens) - one
Caspian Tern (Sterna caspia) - pair copulating, plus others
Forster's Tern (Sterna forsteri) - one
Rock Dove (Columba livia)
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
Belted Kingfisher (Ceryle alcyon)
woodpecker drumming heard
Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)
Western Kingbird (Tyrannus verticalis)
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus) - heard only
Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris) - heard only
Swainson's Thrush (Catharus ustulatus) - heard only
Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas) - heard only
Wilson's Warbler (Wilsonia pusilla) - heard only
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)
Blue Grosbeak (Guiraca caerulea)
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)
Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta)
Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater)
House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus)
Happy birding (and less wind),
Larry
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA