[EBB Sightings] Burrowing owls, Swainson's hawks

All Swainson's Brian.  Mostly first year juveniles,
accounting for the really funky streaking, feather
length, etc.  The white patch in the throat is a good
field mark, the wide wings at the base, tapering at
the tips is a good field mark, the distinctly darker
flight feathers contrasting with the wing coverts, are
all good field marks.  The picture of the dark morph
doesn't show the chin patch, but that's due to
shadow/angle. Even w/the dark morph you can see the
contrast in darker flight feathers and slightly
lighter body and coverts.

Michael Butler and I were at the sweet spot yesterday
from 11:30 -- 12:30.  At least 35 Swainson's were in
the area.  Often in the air, but many ground-perched
in the tall grass.  Our speculation was that the
recently disked fields in the area had driven small
mammals into the few fields with good cover remaining.
So, those fields have a concentrated food source,
accounting for the abundance of Great Egrets, Great
Blue Herons, and the Swainson's.  

White-tailed Kite (1), Red-tailed Hawk (3), American
Kestrel, and Northern Harrier (1 adult male) were also
seen in the area.

Good birding,
Bob Power
Oakland, CA

--- Brian Zeiler  wrote:

> The owls have been discussed extensively here -
> still
> very active, lots of fledgling activity at the
> burrows
> near Sybase and on Northside Drive.  Email me for
> directions if you'd like.  Some great photos were
> posted by Michael Pollack earlier this week, so I
> thought I'd share some of my own for those of you
> who
> enjoy that sort of thing.  They are after the
> tidepool
> shots at:
> 
> http://www.pbase.com/zeiler/new
> 
> Also at the bottom of that page, you will see some
> photos of what I hope are Swainson's Hawks.  Last
> week
> some people mentioned heavy Swainson's activity,
> 50-100 at a time, in various fields off of the Byron
> Highway at Herdlyn Road and Lindemann Road. 
> Unfortunately much of the activity has died down,
> although I did see some on Saturday morning, perhaps
> a
> dozen or so.  Also saw a bonded pair of northern
> harriers, a handful of great egrets and great blue
> herons, and a couple solitary (seemingly) female
> harriers.
> 
> Please tell me if you think those five shots are or
> are not Swainson's.  According to my Wheeler book,
> four look like an intermediate (juvenile?) morph and
> one is a dark morph.  But I am not good at raptor
> ID.
> 
> Thanks for any clarifications/corrections...
> 
> Brian
> 
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