[EBB Sightings] Berkeley Meadow field trip

Dear Birders:

I was one of the lucky participants at Bob Lewis' Friday morning field trip 
to Berkeley Meadow.  Under a partly cloudy sky with mild temperatures and a 
light breeze, we saw an abundance of both shore and water birds.  Most 
notable were three species of teal (cinnamon, blue-winged, and green-winged) 
bunched together so closely along the shore of the largest vernal pond that 
they could be viewed in the single aperture of a scope.  Each was in 
glorious breeding plumage.  Will the water remain long enough for a local 
breeder like the cinnamon teal to breed in the Meadow?

Also memorable were flocks of godwits and dowitchers (looking very ruddy), 
wheeling about and then resettling among the teal and willets.  Bunches of 
'peeps' flew overhead going north, it appeared.

In the lagoon, we saw both the Clark's and western grebe, a few lingering 
scaup, and a scattering of other species.

But what was most memorable about this mid-April day, was the abundance of 
standing water and the palpable excitement of this season when shorebird 
migratory movement is at its peak.

Phila Rogers