[EBB Sightings] about those juncos

Dear Birding Friends:

Dark-eyed (Oregon) Juncos are now one of our commonest breeding birds
in the Bay Area.  That hasn't always been so.  According to Joseph
Grinnell (ornithologist and founder of UC Berkeley's Museum of
Vertebrate Zoology)in his second list (1914) of Berkeley birds, he
lists the junco as an infrequent winter visitor.  The same status is
given to the Chestnut-backed Chickadee.  He suggests that once the
newly-planted pines and eucalyptus mature, both species may become
year-round residents and breeding birds.

What makes birding so dynamic is the changes that occur in a relatively
short span of time.  It's story of gains and losses.  Once the
commonest bird in the Berkeley Hills was the Western Meadowlark.  Now
you have to settle for wintering flocks at places like Ceasar Chavez
Park along the Berkeley Shoreline.

The good news is that House Sparrows no longer number in the thousands
(attracted by seed-filled horse manure) and though owl species are no
longer as various and numerous, other raptors are flourishing.

Phila Rogers


       
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