Re: Selasphorus hummers at UC Botanical
Gardens
Tue, 12 Oct 1999 20:51:40 -0700 (PDT)
From: Richard Mix
I wrote:
I don't think we saw the mystery birds, but ... One interesting bird looked like a possible Black-throated, but Ann thought there was a flash of red when it flew away.
Les Chibana replied:
Do you mean Black-chinned, as in, Hummingbird?
Yes, sorry, I was writing in haste. What we glimpsed was the profile of a smallish bird with a black gorge not extending above the eyes and seemingly missing white tail spots. I notice that in some photos the Costa's Hummingbird has an almost wine red color, but the pattern certainly seems wrong. As we all know, iridescence is rather tricky, so we made another try today. All the birds were less visible and we missed all but the male Rufous Hummingbird with the slaty wings, but did enjoy the squeaky concert.
I think that the only unambiguous Rufous Hummingbird is a male with an entirely rufous back.
Thanks, I'll tick it then. Should one be equally confident that an entirely green back belongs to an Allen's Hummingbird?
Richard Mix
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Re: Selasphorus hummers at UC Botanical
Gardens
13 Oct 99 09:34:01 -0700
From: Les Chibana
Richard Mix wrote:
Should one be equally confident that an entirely green back belongs to an Allen's Hummingbird?
If it's a definite adult male - i.e., full gorget, no white tail tips, AND an entirely green back - then you could be confident that it's probably an Allen's. How's that for certainty... :-)
Les Chibana
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Re: Selasphorus hummers at UC Botanical
Gardens
Wed, 13 Oct 1999 10:10:28 -0700
From: Rusty Scalf
Les Chibana wrote:
...then you could be confident that it's probably an Allen's.
But now we are left with an extraordinarily late Allen's. The local breeding population here in Berkeley basically cleared out by early August. (Of course when I say that, it's not like I went to every patch of sage and checked.)
The species does nest up to extreme southern Orgeon. So maybe an October bird here is an Oregon bird just dawdling on its way south.
Rusty Scalf
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Red-breasted Sapsuckers
Wed, 13 Oct 1999 12:48:05 PDT
From: Denise Wight
This morning at Hidden Lakes Park in Martinez there were a pair of Red-breasted Sapsuckers. Oddly enough, one was constantly begging and the other was occasionally feeding it. At one point the "parent" struck the head of the begging sapsucker, but this didn't deter the latter for long. The begging calls continued the entire time I watched, about 15 minutes. I had never seen this behavior in Red-breasted Sapsuckers in the Bay Area. Is it a common behavior in returning birds I have just overlooked?
There was also a winter-plumaged Chipping Sparrow in the grass below the sapsuckers.
Denise Wight
Martinez, CA
Re: Selasphorus hummers at UC Botanical
Gardens
Wed, 13 Oct 1999 12:53:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: Richard Mix
Rusty Scalf wrote:
But now we are left with an extraordinarily late Allen's.
Yes, that was only a hypothetical sighting! Besides the all-orange male there were some green-shouldered Monday afternoon.
Richard Mix
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Strawberry Canyon, Berkeley
Thu, 14 Oct 1999 20:47:57 -0700
From: Larry Tunstall
This morning Ore Carmi & I, impelled by all the hummingbird discussion, did some birding in Strawberry Canyon, east of the University of California Berkeley campus.
We started early, from a small parking lot on Centennial Dr between the swimming pools and the Botanical Gardens. There is a trail (fire road, unnamed on my maps) that begins here and works its way up to the ridge between Hamilton Gulch and Claremont Canyon. We walked up the hill for about an hour and a half. There were lots of Hermit Thrush, Townsend's Warbler, and Bushtit, and on our return to the parking lot we saw some Golden-crowned Kinglets almost at eye level in a tree near the trail. This trail, by the way, goes along the lower edge of the Mesoamerican area of the Botanical Gardens, giving fair views of the hummingbirds when the Gardens are closed. A Fox Sparrow was singing quite vigorously among the buzzing hummingbirds!
Then we went up to the UC Botanical Gardens entrance (they open at 9 AM), taking advantage of the free admission on Thursdays. At the entrance we encountered Anthony Fisher with daughter on back, and the three of us spent a couple of hours strolling in the gardens and enjoying the birds and the view. In the Mesoamerican area, we saw a lot of hummingbirds, mostly busy chasing one another. There were a lot of Anna's and several Selasphorus, but we didn't identify any more unusual species. The Fox Sparrow did some more singing from the same spot while we stood very nearby. We then wandered up to the Japanese Pond (where a newt was crawling on the pond bottom - early for mating season?) before calling it a day.
Most interesting bird was a partially albino Red-tailed Hawk soaring above the Gardens entrance. I had seen what almost certainly was this ame bird when we did the Christmas Bird Count in this area. The upper back and parts of the upper wings, as well as some of the top of the head, are white. Before we met him, Anthony had observed this bird at close range perched, and he said that the feathers definitely are white, not simply covered with something (the visual appearance is that the hawk perched underneath some large bird too often).
Here are our lists for the two parts of the morning. First the trail in the canyon:
Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna)
Selasphorus hummingbirds (Selasphorus sp.)
Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) - heard only
Hutton's Vireo (Vireo huttoni) - heard only
Steller's Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri)
Western Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica) - heard only
Common Raven (Corvus corax) - flyovers
Chestnut-backed Chickadee (Poecile rufescens)
Oak Titmouse (Baeolophus inornatus) - heard only
Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus)
Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) - heard only
Brown Creeper (Certhia americana)
Bewick's Wren (Thryomanes bewickii) - heard only
Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula) - heard only
Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
Wrentit (Chamaea fasciata) - heard only
Townsend's Warbler (Dendroica townsendi)
Wilson's Warbler (Wilsonia pusilla)
Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus)
California Towhee (Pipilo crissalis) - heard only
Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca)
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) - heard only
And at the Botanical Gardens:
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)
Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna)
Selasphorus hummingbirds (Selasphorus sp.)
Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)
Steller's Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri)
Chestnut-backed Chickadee (Poecile rufescens)
Bewick's Wren (Thryomanes bewickii) - heard only
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula)
Wrentit (Chamaea fasciata)
Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus)
Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca)
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)
Lesser Goldfinch (Carduelis psaltria)
Good birding, Larry
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA