[EBB Sightings] Great-tailed Grackles: Martinez

  Decided to see if there were any Grackles appearing at McNabey marsh 
yet (a/k/a Waterbird Park) off I-680. At 5:30-6:00 pm yesterday, there 
was a flock of at least a dozen Great-tailed males and females perched 
on the cattails right off the road just as I turned in.

I parked beside the road immediately after the right turn off Marina 
Vista rather than continuing up to the parking lot. The sun was setting, 
backlighting the flock and the cattails. As the light dropped, they 
moved off in pairs, into the marsh away from the road, their tails 
forming that distinctive "v" or keel shape in flight.

Linda Ott
Martinez