[EBB Sightings] Indigo Bunting, Kestrels, Burrowing Owls, and a Kite

I went looking for the indigo bunting Saturday and
Sunday morning - never saw him.  Ran into numerous
other birders, nobody saw him either.  One hardcore
birding couple late Sunday morning was very insistent
that they had heard him calling periodically
throughout the morning, and I would tend to believe
them based on their serious scopes and such.  But it
seems the bird is pretty hit or miss.

Far more interesting was the active kestrel nest in a
cavity in the large sycamore on the right about 10
yards past the second bridge, which is just .10 mile
in from where the trail starts at the Tamarack
entrance to Garin.  It's adjacent to the field with
the indigo bunting.  Ron Wolf pointed this nest out
last week. Both parents are returning to the nest
every 15 minutes or so with food - I saw a field mouse
delivered once, but usually it was large beetles and
grasshoppers.  They hunt over the grassy ridge.  At
one point one of the fledglings left the cavity and
waited for the parent to return with a big beetle,
walking around cautiously.  Unfortunately they are
*extremely* difficult to photograph due to their size
and flight behaviors as well as the thick branches but
I did manage to get a shot of a food delivery:

http://www.pbase.com/zeiler/image/44447012

Also, since it hasn't been mentioned in awhile, the
burrowing owls are easily visible in Dublin almost
anytime.  At the corner of Dublin Blvd & Tassajara
Road, on the northeast corner, an owl likes to perch
on a metal post.  He is there about 75% of the time
during the day, easily visible at the intersection.  I
also see a kestrel and a western meadowlark fairly
regularly over that field, and both enjoy sitting on
the telephone wires on the eastern edge of Tassajara
road right across from Peet's coffee in the Waterford
complex.  On the west edge of the Sybase HQ in Dublin,
two burrowing owls like to perch on the fence posts,
behind the white concrete blocks, and on the dirt next
to the sidewalks.  The auto blind works great for
these owls.

At Shadow Cliffs, I am seeing a single white tailed
kite fairly regularly.  Yesterday he was driven off by
a very angry red winged blackbird... I was a little
far, but the photo is still amusing to me anyway:

http://www.pbase.com/zeiler/image/44447014

Finally, it's not exactly East Bay, but the snowy and
great egrets and black crowned night herons are
fledging at the Duck Pond in the Palo Alto Baylands. 
Makes great entertainment; I have a bunch of new egret
pics in the bottom half of
http://www.pbase.com/zeiler/new if you enjoy looking
at them, along with the requisite mother-and-ducklings
pics.

Have a good week.

Brian



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