[EBB Sightings] pelagic cormorant, white-throated swift at Berkeley Marina

Hi Folks,
  This morning a group who came for the Golden Gate Audubon walk at the Berkeley Marina area was treated to two Pelagic Cormorants at very close range. They were swimming around at our feet between the pier and Skates Restaurant. We also saw a White-throated Swift over the trees at the south end of Cesar Chavez Park. The two resident (?) White-tailed Kites were in the tall pines at the corner of University Ave. and Seawall Rd. and gave us quite a show. A spotted sandpiper was very cooperative along the rocks next to the marina.
   
  Yesterday, same area, at a better tide, I saw three American Avocets in breeding plumage, and several Black-Bellied Plovers, one in full breeding and the others beginning their molt to breeding. There was also a Black Oystercatcher at the North Basin with Whimbrel, Willet, Killdeer, Marbled Godwit, Long-billed Curlew, Least Sandpiper, and Sanderlings all working the mud at low tide. Three Caspian Terns were with five species of gulls behind the Seabreeze Market at the corner of Frontage Rd. and University Ave. in Berkeley.
   
  Good Birding,
  Anne Hoff
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