[EBB Sightings] White-faced ibis at Berkeley marina

I drove down to the Berkeley waterfront this morning about 9:15am hoping for
a black-bellied plover in breeding plumage (no luck). Driving back from the
Berkeley pier I spotted in the mudflats just west of the Sea Breeze
restaurant/fruit stand about 8 ibis. This surprised me as I had never seen
ibis anywhere in the Bay before. They were intermingled with a dozen or so
gulls and a few egrets. I parked the car, set up my camera & tripod, and
turned around to photograph them, but in the meantime they had vanished,
perhaps driven off by some folks walking their dogs. I thought for a moment
that I had imagined the ibis, but I did get a brief look at them through
binocs and they were clearly ibis - dark, long-legged birds, significantly
larger than the gulls, with long down-curved bills. There was one curlew in
the area, and these were clearly not curlews. I had to leave the area to do
errands, and I never saw the ibis again.

 

Jim Scarff

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