[EBB Sightings] Tilden hummer dive-bombing bluebird, and "albino" ??band-tailed pigeon??

Late Sunday afternoon from the EBMUD Inspiration Point trail near the 
parking lot in Tilden, we saw a very large, totally white pigeon 
flying by, circling several times so we got a good look at it. It 
really seemed to have the distinctly long bodied shape of a 
band-tailed pigeon and also seemed at least as large as the several 
band-tailed pigeons we saw near the area yesterday afternoon. We saw 
no Rock Doves that I could recall. But I know that size is hard to 
determine without a reference point.
Anyone else seen an albino band-tailed pigeon around there?
Or was I really just seeing a beautifully-bred white Rock Dove flying 
solo without its well kept flock?

Further along, where utility towers cross the trail: why might a 
hummingbird (Anna's, I guess) be dive-bombing a post-sitting 
bluebird? It flew high up and then straight back down, three times I 
think, and then chased the flustered bluebird around the vicinity for 
awhile. I gather that the males do not protect nests, so was it 
protecting feeding territory from a cross-species competitor (but 
bluebirds don't eat nectar!) -- or was it in love and deluded and 
putting on a show?

A proudly burdened (and harried) red-tailed hawk flew across Nimitz 
Way carrying a BIG old rodent -- it surely must have weighed a lot 
more than the hawk! (is that possible?)

We also saw a beautiful male Lazuli Bunting sitting and singing for a 
long time about a mile down Nimitz Way (maybe near where others 
recently reported seeing him), as well as possibly less noteworthy 
but delightfully burbling Purple Finches and warbling Wilson's Warbler.


David Herzstein Couch
Berkeley