[EBB Sightings] Sibley bushtit nest near eagle home

At midday today we enjoyed the golden eagle which circled around Round Top 
several times over the course of an hour, intermittently perching on the 
radio tower to survey its domain. We found a bushtit nest across the road 
from the pygmy nuthatch tree, which was the site of nuthatch hammering that 
I mistook at first for a woodpecker sound. The bushtit nest looks like a 
hanging pouch about a foot deep and is just 20 feet or so off the road. Two 
noisy bushtits were flitting about it; one had a little tidbit in its beak.

To find the nest, locate the "Rough Road" sign that faces uphill a couple 
of hundred yards below the mountain top. The nest is about 60 feet uphill 
from that sign, across the road from a 20' high dead tree.  If you are 
facing uphill, the tree is on your left. I think it's an oak.

Other highlights of our excursion were a Bewick's wren, singing 
golden-crowned warblers (one visible), varied thrushes, a little (compared 
to the glorious eagle) red-tailed hawk, and teeny kestrels. And we thought, 
aren't song sparrows a wonderful presence?


David Herzstein Couch
1484 7th St
Berkeley, CA 94710
dhCouch at sonic.net
510-558-1484 home
510-835-3700 work