[EBB Sightings] FW: Hayward Regional Shoreline, May 12 (Alameda County)

-----Original Message-----
From: peninsula-birding at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:peninsula-birding at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Laurie Graham
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 6:58 PM
To: peninsula-birding at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [pen-bird] out of county - Hayward Regional Shoreline, May 12

Dear [EBB Birders]

Today Jeff & I went to Hayward Regional Shoreline with Norma Tannenbaum and
Mel Meyers. The word for the day was WINDY.
Fortunately, it was sunny, too. We started at West Winton. In a bush in the
parking lot, we had a lovely Bushtit family. Seeing a Northern Harrier, we
went up to the top of Mount Trashmore. There were multitudes of swallows in
the air, resolving out at Barn and Cliff.  The harrier appeared and
disappeared, and eventually became a male and female. Where do the males go
when it's not spring? I remember old theories of birds going underground or
some rubbish (well, it WAS a dump). 

>From Mt. Trashmore, we scoped the Water Pollution Control Project lake, with
its plethora of Red-necked Phalaropes. There were also Ruddy Duck, Canada
Goose, Mallard, Northern Shoveler, Long-billed Dowitcher, and American
Avocet. We tried hard to make some of the CAGOs into Cacklings, but they
wouldn't cooperate. 

Along the shore, the long lines of stones, we had egrets and a Great Blue
Heron, Killdeer in the mudflat, gulls, and a few Forster's Terns.  There
were Savannah Sparrows all along the walk, with their pretty yellow faces,
and very short "that's not a Song Sparrow" songs.

Frank's Dump had Red-necked Phalaropes, two Red Phalaropes, American
Avocets, Willet, Dunlin, Black-necked Stilt, Marbled Godwit, Western
Sandpiper.

We drove to the EEC and began to walk out to the shoreline to try for Least
Terns. The wind was very strong, and made the trip unpleasant, butwatching
the Cliff Swallows gathering mud and applying it to nests under the
footbridge was worth the trip. A few more minutes to a glimpse of the Tern
berm gained us scope-shaking heat-hazed views of Forster's Terns. We hadn't
the energy to go on, so we re-terned to the car - yes, it's time once again
to trot out the tern jokes.

Laurie Graham & Jeff Fairclough
SSF

Location:     Hayward Regional Shoreline, CA
Observation date:     5/12/08
8:45 am - 12:45 pm
Number of species:     41

Canada Goose     65
Gadwall     6
Mallard     66
Northern Shoveler     4
Greater Scaup     4
Bufflehead     1
Ruddy Duck     65
Double-crested Cormorant     2
Great Blue Heron     1
Great Egret     3
Snowy Egret     10
Turkey Vulture     2
Northern Harrier     2
Black-bellied Plover     1
Killdeer     4
Black-necked Stilt     9
American Avocet     40
Willet     2
Marbled Godwit     18
Western Sandpiper     23
Dunlin     17
Long-billed Dowitcher     31
Red-necked Phalarope     1780
Red Phalarope     2
Ring-billed Gull     8
Western Gull     5
Forster's Tern     41
Mourning Dove     1
Anna's Hummingbird     2
American Crow     2
Common Raven     3
Cliff Swallow     200
Barn Swallow     65
Bushtit     8
California Towhee     1
Savannah Sparrow     18
Song Sparrow     6
Red-winged Blackbird     6
Brewer's Blackbird     4
House Finch     50
American Goldfinch     2

This report was generated automatically by eBird
 v2(http://ebird.org/california/)