[EBB Sightings] Martinez Barrow's Goldeneyes; Berkeley Long-tailed Duck

Due to train traffic this morning, the train stopped just outside of 
Martinez around 9:00 this morning. While the other passengers grumbled 
about yet another Amtrak delay I silently rejoiced as we had stopped 
right next to the goldeneye flock! This gave me ample opportunity 
(well, several minutes anyway) to check out the flock and get my most 
complete train estimate ever. The flock contained three groups of 
birds. I estimated the furthest east group to be fifty birds and about 
fifty/fifty Common/Barrow's. The next group west was also about fifty 
birds, all of the males were Barrow's, and most of the females seemed 
to be as well, but there may have been some Commons in there that I 
missed. (Stopping the train helps a lot, but female goldeneyes at 100 
yards through dirty train windows of mediocre optical quality isn't the 
most exact science in the world. ;-) After the train started moving 
again, I encountered the furthest west group, which was about 
seventy-five birds and again appeared to contain only Barrow's males, 
and I really didn't have time to look at more than a couple of the 
females. As a result, I put the total flock size at about 175 birds, 
and would estimate 125-150 of them were Barrow's while 25-50 of them 
were Commons. This puts the Barrow's number right in line with what 
it's been in the previous couple of years that I've been seeing them 
from the train.

On a related topic, the Brant at Point Castro in November (presumably 
the same ones reported by Bob Battagin) brought my species list for the 
train (between Davis and Emeryville) to about 145.

Finally, at 10:00 this morning (after getting off the train, obviously) 
one Long-tailed Duck was actively feeding off the end of the Berkeley 
pier.

Good birding,
Kirk Swenson
Davis, CA