[EBB Sightings] Contra Costa County Big Day 4/21 (long)

Hi all,
Yesterday, 4/21, John Luther, Frances Oliver and I did
a big day in Contra Costa County. I wasn't sure what
to expect with no scouting and incoming rain, but it
turned out good in the end.
We started owling on Wildcat Canyon Rd. just up from
San Pablo Dam Rd., quickly getting Barn Owl, Great
Horned Owl and Western Screech-Owl. No luck with
Saw-whet, which is up there.
As the sun started to come up we walked the road from
Inspiration Point back down towards San Pablo Dam Rd.
to just beyond the last conifers. Species along there
included Wild Turkey (a species which wasn't
previously on my route), Band-tailed Pigeon, Acorn
Woodpecker (unusual up there in spring), Hairy
Woodpecker, Red-breasted and Pygmy Nuthatches, and
numerous singing MacGillivray's Warblers (nest up
there). The highlight was a tooting Northern
Pygmy-Owl, first noted by John, a very hard bird in
the county.
A quick stop at Jewel Lake added little but Winter
Wren and Red-shouldered Hawk.
Down at Pt. Isabel the tide was actually too low and
shorebirds were unusually hard to come by. A pair of
Red-breasted Mergansers was nice, however. Black
Oystercatchers were everywhere out there. Once hard to
find on big days, we probably saw 15. 
Around the harbor at Marina Bay and in the vicinity of
Brooks Is. we managed a Red-throated Loon (John only),
Common Loon, 2 Pelagic Cormorants, at least 2 Brandt's
Cormorants (picked out by Frances; usually very hard
to find), Common Goldeneye (1), a few Sanderlings,
Short-billed Dowitcher, an adult Heerman's Gull (also
hard) and Northern Rough-winged Swallow. 
At McNabney Marsh near Martinez we quickly found a
male Blue-winged Teal, a single American Wigeon and,
of course, Great-tailed Grackles (another species that
didn't used to be on the route).
At Mitchell Canyon on the north side of Mt. Diablo we
found all of the target species, though tiny numbers
of practically everything. We managed a Golden Eagle,
Cooper's Hawk, 1 Hammond's Flycatcher, Chestnut-backed
Chickadee (normally found only sporadically in the
canyon, this one was particularly noteworthy for being
almost back down near the parking lot), Ruby-crowned
Kinglet, gnatcatcher (a single pair), Hermit Thrush,
Cassin's Vireo (only 1-2), Nashville (1),
Black-throated Gray (1), Townsend's (2-3), Hermit
(2)Sage Sparrow (White Canyon), Fox Sparrow (1) and
Bullock's Oriole.
A quick stop on Marsh Creek Rd. yielded Rufous-crowned
Sparrow but not Rock Wren. The traffic on this road
has icreased exponentially in recent years and we were
unable to hear them.
Marsh Creek Res. had Wood Duck, lots of Common
Moorhens, Virginia Rail, a colony of Tricolored
Blackbirds, and a single Great-tailed Grackle, a first
for this location. 
Next stop was Iron House Sanitary near Oakley. My
route now requires running a gauntlet through
Brentwood, which has now officially sprawled out of
control. The roads are no longer recognizable and we
spent a half hour touring new schools, movie theaters,
home depots, Chili's, targets, etc. Places I atlased
just five years have been completely transformed and
can't contain more than a fraction of the species that
were breeding then. Oh well, we did have a Swainson's
Hawk somewhere....
At Iron House it did what it had been threatening to
all day long: rain. We did add Bonaparte's Gull, Green
Heron, Black-crowned Night-Heron, American Bittern,
Ring-necked Pheasant and Common Yellowthroat.
Next stop was the north end of Bethel Island Rd. The
rain was coming down pretty good there and though we
did get two male Hooded Orioles we couldn't find chat
or Blue Grosbeak (both probably in now) or
Black-chinned Hummingbird (definitely in). 
We slogged our way south, not even stopping our car
for a Yellow-billed Magpie near the Delta Rd. nest
site, heading for Clifton Court Forebay. It was now
raining hard and there were virtually no birds on the
water. We got a Burrowing Owl near the east end of
Camino Diablo Rd but no Lesser Nighthawks.
As it started to get dark (and continue to rain) we
tallied the list and found that we had 169 species,
one more than the previous record set with John Ascher
but one less than a nice round number. We drove the
roads around Byron Hot Springs, still looking for a
snipe or a pipit. One of the highlights of the day was
bird 17O, a gorgeous Short-eared Owl on Byron Hot
Springs Rd. 
Misses on the day that I usually get included Eared
Grebe, Brown Pelican, Osprey, Sharp-shinned Hawk,
Peregrine, Black Rail, Sora, Semipalmated Plover, Red
Knot, Black Turnstone, Common Snipe, Ring-billed Gull
(!), Northern Saw-whet Owl, Rufous and Black-chinned
Hummingbirds, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Western
Wood-Pewee, Rock Wren, Swainson's Thrush, Am. Pipit,
Chat and Blue Grosbeak.
Steve Glover
Dublin, CA