[EBB Sightings] Emeryville to Seabreeze

Hi all.
  Took a late afternoon bike ride from Emeryville up
the EB trail to University. The highlight was my first
American Wigeon of the season in the stream right
behind the Seabreeze.
  Also spotted (some IDs better than others)...
  To the south of the Emeryville peninsula:
  --A huge raft of d-c cormorants sprinkled with
gulls, all facing toward the west into the wind (many
of the cormorants flew off and landed further out in
the bay as I watched for a while);
  --Large mixed rafts of ruddy ducks and greater scaup
(there might have been a few lessers mixed in; they
were out a ways)--it was rather amusing as, at one
point, all the ducks were facing toward and moving to
the east, with all the cormorants facing west behind
them;
  --A few buffleheads among the other ducks;
  --Clark's grebes
  --Pied-billed grebes (also quite a few of these at
Berkeley Aquatic Park);
  --A couple of br pelicans way in the distance;
  --A fair number of shore birds on the mud flats, but
too distant to be able to ID well.
  To the north of Emeryville and behind the Seabreeze:
  --A probable willet or 2;
  --A few whimbrels;
  --Quite a few semipalmated plover (I think) settled
down on the mudflats, with 
  --what I'm assuming were least sandpipers (they were
tiny, even next to the plover).
  At Aquatic Park:
  --G B heron;
  --snowy egret;
  --plenty of mallards, as usual.
Have a great weekend, all.
Alan Howe
North Oakland


	
		
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