[EBB Sightings] catching up

Dear Birding Friends:

After almost three months in Santa Barbara I had a lot of catching up to do 
both in my neighborhood in the Berkeley Hills and at my usual haunts.  Maybe 
because of the cold and wet March that appears to be extending into early 
April, the hills are still intensely green and some of the winter birds are 
still here.  Though both the hermit thrush and fox sparrow appear to have 
departed I still have several golden crown sparrows coming to my feeder and 
for the first time this season I heard a pine siskin, a species common last 
year and almost absent this year.  Both the ruby-crowned kinglet and the 
Townsend warbler are singing a farewell-until-next fall song in my live oak 
tree.

On Friday I made three stops to favorite places.  At Jewel Lake I saw five 
bufflehead -- two males and three females.  The milk chocolate water is 
pouring over the dam in such a quantity and velocity that you can feel it in 
the soles of your feet while standing on the bridge.  In the willows along 
the path a handsome Wilson's warbler showed itself but wasn't yet singing. 
The winter wren sung a partial song from the thicket along the west side of 
the path where he has sung the last couple of years. I also saw a brown 
creeper, several chicadees and -- surprise this early -- a wood pewee called 
several times.

At Lake Merritt I, too, admired the eared grebes in their breeding plumage. 
A number of scaups and mostly-sleeping ruddy ducks remain.  A single white 
pelican with wings held slightly aloft, rode the water like a galleon.

At my new favorite place -- Berkeley Meadows -- I saw green-winged and 
cinnamon teal along the edge of the largest vernal pond along with several 
striding stilts and avocets and a few willets.

How sweet it is to be home again to hear robin choraling instead of the 
persistent nocturnal 'serenades' of mockingbirds.

Phila Rogers