[EBB Sightings] Yellow Billed Magpies nesting! & Local Swallow Festival

Greetings Bethi
 
Do you have specific dates for your Swallow species Arrival or Departure -  
any year?  We are developing a data bank on Swallow occurrence in the  greater 
Bay Area.  This is for our Return of the Swallows Festival at  Chabot College, 
Hayward, CA.  This info will be developed into a continuing  display at the 
College.  This is the fifth Year for our Festival.  Our  free Swallows Booklet 
is about 38 pages full of lore, artistic patterns, poems,  songs, 
descriptions, countries of occurrence, translations in other  languages, etc., etc. The 
school and community service organizations are  involved in displays and 
programs on our big day.  Over 400 nests are on 10  of the campus buildings.  The 
Cliff Swallows began arriving on Friday, 9  March 2007.  
 
Our main ceremonies take place the day of the Festival, Tuesday, 3 April,  in 
the Cesar Chavez Plaza at 12  Noon - prizes are presented for contests  in 
art, photography, literature, music, etc.  Since Nature and  Wildlife are the 
focus, many exhibits show this.  Returning will  be a giant (live) Insect 
Collection; early Ice Age fossils  (Mammoth,  Horse, Camel, Ground Sloth, Giant 
Short-faced Cave Bear, Dire Wolf, Four-pronged  Antelope) from the nearby 
Irvington, Fremont gravel pits will be displayed from  the Wes Gordon Fossil Hall, 
Math/Science Nucleus, Fremont. Two days of field  trips to swallow flying and 
nesting locales (including for close up photo ops)  will be on 21 & 22 April 2007.
 
On the nice list of birds you've reported, please check the range of  
Ladderback Woodpeckers in your bird guides.  I believe you'll find the  look-a-like 
for this species in our area is the Nuttall's Woodpecker.   There is a range 
overlap of these closely related species in southern  Calif.; and hybridization 
occurs in the Morango and Yucca Valley area, Riverside  County (near Palm 
Springs).
 
Best Regards and Happy Birding,
 
Phil E. Gordon, Instructor
Natural History of Calif. Birds
Acalanes Adult School
Lindsay Wildlife Museum
Castro Valley Adult School
 
 



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