Hayward Regional Shoreline
Thu, 11 Nov 1999 19:49:38 -0800
From: Larry Tunstall
Today from around 10 AM to 1:30 PM, I explored the area of Hayward Regional Shoreline accessed from the end of W Winton Ave. I was primarily looking for the Horned Larks and Lapland Longspurs that have recently been reported on this list, but I didn't find them. All I found on the disked fields were very many American Pipits, some Western Meadowlarks, and several Savannah Sparrows that flew up into bushes on the borders of the fields as I approached. There also were White-crowned Sparrows on the margins of these fields.
I did not have a scope, and many birds flew away before I could get good looks at them, with remaining pipits seeming relatively unperturbed by my fairly close approach. James Rising (in A Guide to the Identification and Natural History of The Sparrows of the United States and Canada) says that longspurs allow close approach and even walking into the flock upon a slow approach. I certainly did not see any patterns resembling Horned Larks, but for birds too distant to get good binocular views, I was relying mainly on their running rather than hopping to classify them as pipits. All of the field guides I have checked describe longspurs as sparrows, so it seems logical in the absence of other comments to assume that they hop. However, deep in Rising's discussion, he quotes Audubon's description of them "running and hopping" and then comments parenthetically that he [Rising] has never seen them hop. Seems to me that this should be a major item in the field-guide descriptions of this species! Or is it true of all longspurs?
I was there near high tide, so most of the shorebirds were huddled up on high spots, many of them beyond binocular range, and I'm sure that I could have found many more species with a scope. Raptors on the power poles also were out of binocular range - I'm pretty sure that the Peregrine Falcon was there, but I couldn't identify it with any certainty from the view I had. I looked for the Burrowing Owl without success, though I didn't try to go up and roust it out of its burrow. There were surprisingly few ducks (other than a big flock of shovelers) in this part of the shoreline today.
On the way home, I stopped briefly by Lake Merritt, where it appears that all of the common wintering ducks (including Barrow's Goldeneye and Common Goldeneye) have arrived. Those looking for Barrow's should note that it typically moves into the channel between the lake and the estuary within a few weeks after arrival, leaving only Common in the lake around the islands. I didn't see the Cattle Egret or any of the rarer ducks such as mergansers or (pardon the expression) Oldsquaw.
Here's my list for Hayward Shoreline:
Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps)
Eared Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis)
Clark's Grebe (Aechmophorus clarkii)
Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus)
Great Egret (Ardea albus)
Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)
Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)
American Wigeon (Anas americana)
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata)
Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensis)
White-tailed Kite (Elanus leucurus)
Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus)
American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)
American Coot (Fulica americana)
Black-bellied Plover (Pluvialis squatarola)
Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus)
American Avocet (Recurirostra americanus)
Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca)
Willet (Catoptrophorus semipalmatus)
Long-billed Curlew (Numenius americanus)
Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa)
Black Turnstone (Arenaria melanocephala)
Western Sandpiper (Calidris mauri)
Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla)
Dunlin (Calidris alpina)
dowitcher (Limnodromus sp.)
Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis)
Western Gull (Larus occidentalis)
Forster's Tern (Sterna forsteri)
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna)
Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris) - heard only
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
American Pipit (Anthus rubescens)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Dendroica coronata)
Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis)
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)
White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys)
Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta)
House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus)
American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis)
Good birding, Larry
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA
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Barrow's Goldeneyes at Lake Merritt
Thu, 11 Nov 1999 21:26:54 -0800
From: Tom Condit
Larry Tunstall wrote:
Those looking for Barrow's [Goldeneye] should note that it typically moves into the channel between the lake and the estuary within a few weeks after arrival, leaving only Common in the lake around the islands.
Don't they sometimes hang around by the 12th Street dam as well? I've had pretty good luck seeing them in that area. Also, they are sometimes right down by the mouth of the channel, under I-880 and toward the estuary from there (visible from the boat-launching ramp at Estuary Park or by clambering down to the side of the channel on the land side of the railroad tracks).
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Common Murre at Richmond Marina, other
Thu, 11 Nov 1999 21:40:27 -0800
From: Lillian Fujii
Hi birders.
Dorothy Furseth and I got a very late start to birding this morning. At Richmond Marina, we had a Common Murre. It was swimming (paddling) quite close to shore and was swimming towards Berkeley when we last saw it about 10 AM. We also had close looks at a Red-throated Loon.
We then made it to Acquatic Park where in the big pond, a flock of Double-crested Cormorants and Bonaparte's Gulls were feeding over what must have been a dense patch of seaweed full of fish. The cormorants would stick their heads into the water, come up with a clump of seaweed, shake the seaweed off and swallow a fish. At first I thought they were eating seaweed. It was fun to watch. We missed the Redheads.
Lillian Fujii
Re: RFI: Target Birds
Thu, 11 Nov 1999 22:47:15 -0800
From: Don Lewis
Thanks to the several people who kindly gave very helpful suggestions on how to help my friend find Mountain Plover, Mountain Quail, and Lawrence's Goldfinch. We tried today up Mines Road to the junction and then in the plover area north of Woodland. No luck. My friend, however, being from Seattle, was happy with the three widely separated Greater Roadrunners we saw up Mines Rd and the two nice Ferruginous Hawks seen on Road 101 just north of Road 17, in the area north of Woodland.
Don Lewis
Lafayette, CA
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