[EBB Sightings] Dog-Run Merlin

EastBayBirders,

During his pre-dog-and-bird-walk trip to the dog-run this morning, Skip 
spotted a MERLIN atop a neighbor's redwood tree -- a new addition to 
our yard list (not to mention the dog-run list). Skip and I missed the 
ALLEN'S HUMMINGBIRD today, but yesterday it was still guarding the 
flowering eucalyptus behind the community pool on Toltec Circle. While 
sorting through scores of CEDAR WAXWINGS in fruiting pyracantha and 
surrounding trees on Celaya Circle near Norris Canyon Rd, we had brief 
views of a RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER. The same tree at the back of a 
vacant lot on Bollinger Canyon Rd just north of Norris Canyon that held 
a sharpie the other day, contained an immature RED-SHOULDERED HAWK 
today. A few blocks away on Marsh Dr 3 Red-shouldered Hawks circled and 
called overhead. For the first time in our last 8 walks there were no 
White-tailed Kites to be seen from the corner of Marsh and Norris 
Canyon, where last week Skip and I sat on the curb and watched a kite 
consume the mouse its mate had caught. We did see a WHITE-TAILED KITE 
near the corner of Marsh and Rosario Ct, the 2nd most reliable spot for 
kites in our neighborhood.

Later today, on our bike ride along the Iron Horse Trail, Pat and I 
(Skip doesn't have a bike, yet) saw 8 COMMON MERGANSERS, including 2 
adult males, between Amador Valley Blvd and the end of the trail behind 
the Dublin Public Library. Riding Alamo Creek Trail north from Amador 
Valley we had 2 more pairs of Common Mergansers, one pair of HOODED 
MERGANSERS, and a pair of copulating RED-SHOULDERED HAWKS.

Dennis and Patricia Braddy and Skip
San Ramon