[EBB Sightings] Arrowhead Marsh plus

Hi all.
  After yesterday's Coastal Cleanup, I stuck around
the marsh for a while and was rewarded with seeing 4
or 5 clapper rails foraging along the embankments.
They were fairly out in the open and I and another
birder had some great looks at them. One walked out of
the reeds and right under the end of the borardwalk,
where we stood. More were heard from other parts of
the marsh. pretty cool. 
  I also enjoyed watching a ring-billed gull working
for its dinner--the old drop the mussel on the
boardwalk trick. It took some persistence, but it was
rewarded with some good eating from a couple of the
molusks.
  Other birds seen at the marsh or along the eastern
shore of San Leandro Bay on the bike ride home:
killdeer,
willets (quite a few),
black phoebes, 
Canada geese (of course),
brown pelican,
great blue heron, 
snowy egrets,
unidentified terns (they were too far away),
red-necked phalarope,
least sandpipers,
marbled godwits (quite a few),
lesser (?) yellowlegs
pied-billed grebes,
Clarks or western grebe (too far away to tell),
mallards.
  Twas a gorgeous day.
  This morning in the canyon at Redwood Reg Pk there
was a great-horned owl sitting right in the road about
a half-mile up from the parking area. A ranger alerted
us (helping out with the Bay Area Coalition for
Headwaters Forest's annual Misty Redwoods run) to its
presence. While she went and called the Lindsey
Museum, I watched to make sure none of the hiking dogs
got wind of it. It looked like it had either
drueled/vomitted or had gotten some sticky green-brown
substance around its mouth. It apparently didn't budge
as runners went right past it and others got quite
close to it. When we tried to catch it to take it to
Lindsey, however, it first flew 10 or 15 feet, and
when we tried again, it flew maybe 50 feet into a tree
across the stream. The rangers were going to keep tabs
on it.
  Good, fairly close-up views, but they were tempered
by concern for the bird. I did see a couple of other
great-horneds out there. I guess it's a bit of a hot
spot.
Cheers,
Alan Howe
North Oakland.

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