[EBB Sightings] GGAS Arrowhead Marsh Bicycle Birding Trip, Sunday Dec. 31

Sunday, December 31, 2006, GGAS Arrowhead Marsh Bicycle Birding Trip

The big news is that we finally saw a Burrowing Owl at Arrowhead Marsh.
Since it was a high winter tide we also saw lots of Clapper Rails and a
couple of Virginia Rails. A Merlin posed in a tree for a long time near
the Plover Picnic Area, as did a Flicker. The owl was about 100 ft.
north of the parking area for the Kingfisher/Plover picnic site, on the
left side and within about 15-20 ft of the road. It was down in its
burrow with only its head sticking out. If you go soon, there is a bit
of white debris, probably a tissue, just left of the entrance to the
burrow. There were lovely close views of Canvasbacks, Buffleheads,
Cinnamon Teals, Pintails, Shovelers, Wigeons, Ruddy Ducks and Surf
Scoters. We started from East Creek Point trailhead just south of the
High Street Bridge; as we have experienced before, this is a great
place to see ducks and scoters on a calm winter morning. It was fairly
cold this morning and the sun peeked out only briefly while we were
watching the owl. Another visitor reported seeing a Sora just after we
left the viewing platform. It was great to have so many people join us
for a wonderful morning of bird watching. 

58 species
Pied-billed Grebe
Horned Grebe
Eared Grebe
Western Grebe
Clark's Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Greater White-fronted Goose
Canada Goose
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
American Wigeon
Canvasback
Greater Scaup
Surf Scoter
Common Goldeneye
Barrow's Goldeneye
Bufflehead
Ruddy Duck
Turkey Vulture
White-tailed Kite
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
Merlin
Clapper Rail
Virginia Rail
American Coot
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Marbled Godwit
Western Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Western Gull
Forster's Tern
Rock Dove (I)
Mourning Dove
Burrowing Owl
Anna's Hummingbird
Northern Flicker, red-shafted
Black Phoebe
American Crow
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling (I)
Yellow-rumped Warbler, Audubon's
California Towhee
White-crowned Sparrow
Western Meadowlark
House Finch
Lesser Goldfinch


kathy jarrett
kathy_jarrett at yahoo.com

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