[EBB Sightings] Arrowhead Marsh / Jan. 2 & 3

The wildlife agencies  do these types surveys at the Winter high tides each year.  These are the highest tides of the year, and flush birds up out of the vegetation.
   
  Tim Kask
  Oakland

Ron Wolf  wrote:
  
I stopped at Arrowhead Marsh for the extreme high tides Tuesday
and Wednesday mornings.

The big surprise Wednesday was that the East Bay Parks District
had two crews in boats systematically surveying all the flooded
sectors of the marsh, taking a census of rails. One boat made
a couple of passes right along the boardwalk to look for rails
hiding there. These crews flushed large numbers of rails that
otherwise would not have broken cover. The dozen or so birders
on the boardwalk got an unexpected show. During the course of
an hour Wednesday morning, I saw 32 CLAPPER RAILS, 10 VIRGINIA
RAILS and 7 SORA. I'm certain that I missed many more in the
resulting confusion.

It would be nice to know in advance when East Bay Parks is
going to conduct such a census. I'm going to put a note on
my calendar to call them next December. The survey provided
a highly unusual viewing opportunity.

I've posted a couple of photos at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rwolf/

I probably get a few more pix posted later tonight.


-- Ron Wolf
Palo Alto
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