[EBB Sightings] Brooks Island

Dear Birding Friends:

Yesterday I joined a group from the EBRP district for a trip to Brooks
Island.  For most of us Brooks Island is probably an undistinguished
mound in the Bay with mostly low vegetation and a few rock outcrops,
off the Richmond shoreline.  Visits are restricted by the park to
include two dry-feet trips a year on the comfortable Delphinus out of
the Berkeley Marina (the same boat and knowledgeable skipper that took
a group of GGAS birders to the Delta in February) or several kyakers'
trips out of Richmond.

I was unprepared for the beauty and variety of the island's vegetation
and bird life. On the leeward plateau where we gathered, the sun was
warm and singing birds surrounded us -- house finches, American
Goldfinches, song sparrows and out on the sandspit the cacophonous
voices of the Caspian Terns who breed there.  We also saw a number of
waterfowl and shorebirds including one pair of Black Oystercatchers and
three preening Ruddy Turnstones.

Our planned two mile walk around the island was restricted by a "police
action" (something about a body found possibly on the spit).  But we
did manage to walk maybe a quarter mile around the north side,
crunching over the broken shells that are part of the kitchen midden
left behind by a sizable group of Coastanoan Indians who occupied the
island before the advent of the Europeans.  Four varieties of lupine
bloom on the island along with a number of other wildflowers many of
which were in bloom. White marguerites, a biennial favorite in our
gardens, has colonized some of the lower slopes and flats with mounds
of white flowers. Native shrubs include California Sage, the
ever-present Baccharus, and around the springs that supply the
caretakers with their water supply, grow willows -- always a sure
indicator of water on or close to the surface.

This is a truly delightful place to visit worth planning for.  And even
though only a half-mile offshore, that's enough separation to make
visiting almost any island a special occasion.

Phila Rogers 

P.S.  The Delphinus will be making a birding trip on Sunday, April 22,
up the Napa River at low-tide.  If you doubt Captain Ronn's credentials
check out the three, well-thumbed copies of Sibley in the wheelhouse. 
The website is Dolphin Charters.



 
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