[EBB Sightings] Scoter City

Hi, all.
   Spent some time on the Berkeley pier and in the
swales over near the nature center this morning. No
jaeger (has one been seen in the last couple of
days?), but more surf scoters than I've ever seen, a
dispersed raft of maybe 100 or more on the north side
of the      pier. Quite a sight--and quite a noise
when a bunch was disturbed by a boat passing near and
all did their running takeoffs at once!
   Others seen or heard: 
common loon (6 or so, some quite close to the pier);
greater scaup (?--a few mixed in with the scoters?);
bufflehead, also with the scoters;
horned grebe;
western grebe; 
western (?) sandpiper (quite a hoard on the outlying  
    
  remains of the pier along with other unidentified   
   
  peeps);
black turnstone;
double-crested cormorant; 
western gull (& others?);
house finch; 
California towhee; 
chestnut-backed chickadee; 
dark-eyed (Oregon) junco; 
white-crowned sparrow;
golden-crowned sparrow; 
song sparrow (?);
yellow-rumped warbler;
Nuttall's woodpecker; 
red-breasted nuthatch; 
black phoebe; 
hummingbird (Anna's, I assume, but only heard);
a sparrow I couldn't quite ID.
   Other interesting sights: a small ray a fisherman
caught and said he was going to use in sushi (!)--it
was painful to watch it flapping its "wings" as he let
it slowly suffocate; a B-17 flying over the bay.
Peace,
Alan Howe
North Oakland

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