Re: Redheads
Fri, 4 Jun 1999 09:42:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tom Condit
Steve Glover wrote:
[snip] [Redhead] is always a hard bird to find in the county so there are admittedly very few records to compare it with.
The one reliable place I know to find Redheads in Contra Costa County in the winter is Briones Reservoir. Taking the Bear Creek Trail north from the parking lot by the dam, you usually see them around the first or second bend. Any "county listers" wanting to add this species might note this. (You'll see they're on most Christmas Bird Counts for this area.)
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Re: Redheads
Fri, 4 Jun 1999 16:24:42 PDT
From: Steve Glover
Tom and everyone,
Are Redheads (the ducks, of course) really regular at Briones Reservoir? I have never found a record of them from that location although this doesn't mean that there aren't any, it just means that they have never appeared in published sources. I know that the Oakland CBC records Redhead annually but I believe that this is the flock that winters at Emeryville/Berkeley Aquatic Park in Alameda County.
I have recorded Redhead but 3 times at Richmond which is just a couple of miles from where the Emeryville flock winters. I have seen Redhead only twice in Eastern Contra Costa although Bob Richmond used to record them routinely at Clifton Court Forebay near Byron in the early 80s. In recent years the Mt. Diablo CBC has recorded one or two of them every few years in the Walnut Creek area at Heather Farms Park and a couple of the golf courses.
Do the CBCers at Briones Reservoir record this species regularly? If so I would love to know.
My apologies if I am wrong on all of this.
Good birding,
Steve Glover
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Re: Redheads
Fri, 4 Jun 1999 17:27:10 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tom Condit
Steve,
You're right. Going back and looking at my files, I find them at the Briones Christmas count only in 1985 and 1990, both times in small numbers. I don't have records for this area after 1991. Either (a) I'm confusing this with sightings somewhere else or (b) (more likely) I'm mentally confusing them with Ring-necked Ducks.
Tom
Breeding Steller's Jay
Mon, 7 Jun 1999 18:53:45 -0700 (PDT)
From: Graham Etherington
Hi all,
After the recent communications about breeding Steller's Jays, I thought I would mention that I found a Steller's Jay nest on UC Berkeley campus this afternoon. It is on the east side of the Mens Faculty Club, situated on the side of the building behind a drain pipe. Quite an unlikely place I know, but both birds were in attendance when I approached the nest. It is easily viewable from the footbridge that crosses the North fork of Strawberry Creek if anyone is interested in seeing it.
Good birding,
Graham Etherington
UC Berkeley