[EBB Sightings] Fremont Common Mergansers / Herring Gull

Hi all:

A break in the day had me wishing for a Plumbeous
Vireo at Lakeview/Gateway in Fremont.  No such luck,
but it's nice to dream. I did pish in a male and
female COMMON MERGANSER into the little channel that
runs parallel to Lakeview behind the office buildings.
 Well... they came in while I was pishing at some
chickadees, so as far as I'm concerned, I pished in
some mergansers.

I drove around the back side of the buildings that
face the bay trail on the west side of Fremont Blvd
south of Gateway.  There's a landfill operation that I
was unaware of about a mile away, and some of the
gulls use a little channel back here to bathe and some
use the roofs of the buildings to dry off. An
interesting alternate gull site to San Leandro's
landfill.  There were hundreds in the air between
Fremont/Gateway and the landfill to the west. An adult
HERRING GULL stared down from one rooftop. I'll be
back when I have more time, but I get the sense that a
walk along the bay trail in this area would be
gull-productive.  The channel itself had 150 or so
huddled Long-billed Dowitchers, so may be a nice
little shorebird spot in another month or so.  Or may
be  a nice little shorebird spot right now.....

Good birding,

Bob Power
Oakland, CA