[EBB Sightings] Yellow-billed magpies and wild turkeys in Fremont

Ohlone College off Mission Boulevard in Fremont is a
reliable place to find resident YELLOW-BILLED MAGPIES.
I saw about six of them between 4:00 and 5:00 this
afternoon on the hillside above the pond at the top of
the campus. A pair of SAY'S PHOEBES was up there as
well (along with a lot of starlings). An AMERICAN
KESTREL favors the lightposts along the
pedestrian-only road above the pond. The campus is
also good for red-shouldered hawks, California quail,
western bluebird, Steller's jay, dark-eyed junco,
great horned owl, barn owl, and many more, many of
which nest here, but I did not see them today. I found
a LESSER GOLDFINCH in a tree near the pond, and on the
pond, along with the coots and mallards and sort-of
mallards, was an adult female COMMON GOLDENEYE. I
heard northern flicker and acorn woodpecker. At the
gated end of Witherly Lane, accessed off Anza Street
on campus, a PURPLE FINCH along with a few
WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS claimed the top of a bushy tree
in the gully down from the house. A RED-TAILED HAWK
watched it all from a perch in a tree high up on the
hills. 

About 2 miles west of the campus, from the turnaround
at the end of Ocasa Camino at Antelope Hills, at
sunset I found the flock of seven WILD TURKEYS roaming
the southeast hillside.  Nearby, two deer lying in the
golden grass chewed as they watched the whole western
sky turn bright orange on this chilly winter evening.



Stephanie Floyd
Fremont


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