Re: Alameda County Little Blue Heron
Thu, 19 Aug 1999 13:04:53 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tom Condit
Mike Feighner wrote:
I don't recall hearing of a Little Blue Heron reported for several years in Alameda County. Does anyone know when the last record was?
I saw a Little Blue Heron at the Hayward Regional Shoreline (Winton Avenue end) on September 11, 1988. Bob Richmond saw what was presumably the same bird the next day. My 1982 edition of the Alameda-Contra Costa bird list doesn't list the species even as an accidental, so this may be the only previous county record. The current one, of course, is far better - it's hanging around for people to see.
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Previous Little Blue Heron Sightings
Thu, 19 Aug 1999 14:15:47 PDT
From: Peter Dramer
For those seeking info on historic sightings of Little Blue Heron in Alameda County, I have a record for Coyote Hills Regional Park for 19 May 1993.
Peter Dramer
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Re: Previous Little Blue Heron Sightings
Thu, 19 Aug 1999 15:53:50 PDT
From: Steve Glover
Hello all,
The first Alameda County record was indeed the Hayward Regional Shoreline record from 1988. The second as far as I know was an adult on 19 August 1991 at the Albany Crescent, Alameda County, also seen flying across the county line into Contra Costa for that county's first record. I had not heard of Peter's record - that would be the third. The fourth was at the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge on 15 August 1993. That was an immature bird. Including Peter's record the recent Coyote Hills bird would be the fifth for the county.
Happy birding,
Steve Glover
Big Break Regional Trail
Thu, 19 Aug 1999 19:29:45 -0700
From: Larry Tunstall
This morning Ore Carmi and I headed out to Big Break Regional Trail in Oakley to look for the Tricolored and Yellow-headed Blackbirds that Steve Glover reported. We saw a lot of Tricolored Blackbirds in the marsh north of the picnic area (many of them were flying in from the vineyard to the east defended by the noisy imitation guns). This was our first experience with this species, and at first we were confused by the fact that many had buffy rather than white margins to the wing patch. However, there were a few with unmistakeably white margins, and we soon learned to recognize the harsher more crowlike call of the Tricolored, as opposed to the more liquid call of the Red-winged Blackbirds, which are present in numbers nearby. I thought I saw one Yellow-headed Blackbird flying at a distance, but could easily have been mistaken. We spent a lot of time looking at the large flock of brownish birds (females and immatures, or birds in molt?) hanging out in the field with egrets, gulls, and a few stilts. Some of these in the right light seemed to have yellowish heads, but we never saw a bird that was convincingly an unmistakeable yellowhead. Steve, are the yellowheads in less-distinctive plumage at this time of year?
We saw a few Green Herons in various locations, as well as a few shrikes, and we had a good chance to learn the latter's distinctive call. An immature Common Yellowthroat emerged from the willows to poke around just a few feet from us for some time. Huge numbers of swallows were all over the place, particularly near the Ironhouse sewage ponds. We heard some rail-like calls from the marsh, but were not experienced enough to identify them - perhaps the Virginia Rails that Steve reported. Quite a few lovely tiger swallowtail butterflies around the marsh.
Here's my list of our observations in walking from the trailhead at the north end of Jordan Ln to the bridge over Dutch Slough (Marsh Creek):
Western Grebe or Clark's Grebe (Aechmophorus sp.) - far away in sewage pond
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)
Great Egret (Ardea albus)
Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)
Green Heron (Butorides virescens)
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata) - a few in sewage pond
White-tailed Kite (Elanus leucurus)
Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus)
American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)
Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus)
Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca) - heard only
Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa) - flyover at picnic area
unidentified gulls (Larus sp.)
Forster's Tern (Sterna forsteri)
Rock Dove (Columba livia)
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
Nuttall's Woodpecker (Picoides nuttallii)
Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)
Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)
Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)
Western Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica)
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor)
Northern Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis)
Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota)
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris) - everywhere, most only heard
Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas)
Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus)
California Towhee (Pipilo crissalis) - heard only
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)
Tricolored Blackbird (Agelaius tricolor)
Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) - heard only
Yellow-headed Blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) - possible
House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus)
American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis)
With our time running out, we made a quick visit to a bit of the Marsh Creek Trail just north of Cypress Rd. We added a large Red-tailed Hawk perched on a telphone pole near the road, a visible Western Meadowlark, and (to make it an official fieldtrip) a Turkey Vulture. We also had the pleasure of watching a pair of American Kestrels with what appeared (from behavior) to be a young male offspring. And we had a hawk that we couldn't identify - no patagial markings, dark wingtips and trailing wing edges, buteo shape, perhaps a dark throat. We didn't get a good enough look to convince ourselves, but it might well have been a Swainson's Hawk.
Good birding, Larry
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA
Western Gull nesting at Lake Merritt
Thu, 19 Aug 1999 21:19:59 -0700
From: Larry Tunstall
Rex Burress has confirmed the successful Western Gull nesting on one of the islands near the Rotary Nature Center at Lake Merritt in Oakland. See his new essay at
http://www.best.com/~folkbird/EBBC/Rex/pelican.html
Good birding, Larry
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA
Hayward Regional Shoreline
Sat, 21 Aug 1999 19:11:49 -0700
From: Larry Tunstall
This morning I and several others joined Sheila Junge's Ohlone Audubon Society walk at the northern part of Hayward Regional Shoreline. We began at the W Winton Ave parking area and walked out to Hayward's Landing. Tide was coming in, so only a few shorebirds were there. We then walked north to find lots of shorebirds on the inland side of the trail both north and south of Sulphur Creek.
It was a lovely day with warm sunshine and hardly any wind.
Highlight of the trip was a large number of Snowy Plovers (Sheila counted 28 at one time, but there must have been many more) in the area just south of Sulphur Creek. There were almost no birds at all on the Bay. Swallows were numerous, including what appeared to be a lot of young Barn Swallows at the bridges, though we didn't see any feeding. We saw only one Cliff Swallow all day, and we never did see a Red-tailed Hawk.
After everyone else had left, Bill Scoggins and I were talking in the parking lot and added two more birds to the day's list: half a dozen white pelicans and a couple of crows flying over.
Here's the list for the day, as compiled by Sheila, Bill, and I:
American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos)
Double-crested Cormorant (Palacrocorax auritus)
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)
Great Egret (Ardea albus)
Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)
Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)
Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
White-tailed Kite (Elanus leucurus)
Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus)
Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)
American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)
Black-bellied Plover (Pluvialis squatarola)
Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus)
Semipalmated Plover (Charadrius semipalmatus)
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)
Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca)
Willet (Catoptrophorus semipalmatus)
Long-billed Curlew (Numenius americanus)
Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa)
Black Turnstone (Arenaria melanocephala)
Red Knot (Calidris canutus)
Western Sandpiper (Calidris mauri)
Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla)
dowitcher (Limnodromus sp.)
Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus)
Western Gull (Larus occidentalis)
Forster's Tern (Sterna forsteri)
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna)
Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)
Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota)
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus)
Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris) - seen before heard!
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
California Towhee (Pipilo crissalis)
Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis)
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)
House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus)
American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis)
The list will be operating on autopilot for a few days. Messages won't get posted onto the website until about Thursday.
Good birding, Larry
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA