[EBB Sightings] Brewer's Sparrow - Rydin Rd

First, apologies to folks who appeared for a GGAS field trip today, at the
end of Buchanan, which I was supposed to lead.  I unfortunately screwed up
and had gone to the end of Rydin Road, and took a walk to Meeker Slough.  I
thought it was my aftershave.

I met Emilie Strauss at the meeting point, who had just seen a Brewer's
Sparrow at the corner of Rydin and Isabel.  She'll probably report this
separately.  I started down the Bay Trail from the end of Rydin, thinking
I'd try for the sparrow after I did the field trip / census.  Getting to the
point just after the Point Isabel dog park where there are signs that
require dogs on leash, I noted 4 sparrows on the edge of the trail, feeding
on fennel, probably.  Two were young White-crowned, one was a House, and one
was a very small sparrow - a Brewer's Sparrow.  How cool.  If I hadn't run
into Emilie, I'd probably not have been as alert for a small sparrow.

Other birds - Common Murre  and a single Red-necked Phalarope along the
South Richmond Shoreline between the breakwaters, 2 Red Knots on the
easternmost Shell Mound south of Central Ave.  The shell mounds were covered
with roosting shorebirds, with about 1400 Western Sandpipers, 230
Black-bellied Plovers, etc.

Rydin Road is reached by turning west from the 580 highway onto Central
Avenue in El Cerrito (towards Costco).  Turn right onto Rydin and proceed to
the end, where there is a parking area, and a million dogs.  The Bay Trail
goes north from here.

 

Bob Lewis