[EBB Sightings] Summer Camp Birds

I am posting this message for Brian Fitch.  Questions or comments should 
  be sent directly to Brian at fogeggs at aol.com
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Hi EB Birders,
The last weeks of camp were too quiet birdwise, but we turned up a few 
sightings beyond those we ordinarily see.  On Monday the 11th, we found 
our first ever summertime Nashville Warbler in oaks along the Wildcat 
Peak Trail.  At the Albany Waterfront, we saw a migrant Orange-crowned 
Warbler in the fennel, and along the Berkeley Marina waterfront, we 
spotted a flock of Black Turnstones and a locally late Least Tern on the 
14th.

During this past week, we discovered that apparently the family of 
Pelagic Cormorants from the Marina breakwater had removed to the 
dilapidated pier by the northern end of the Golden Gate Fields 
racetrack. On the 21st, a Red-necked Phalarope was behind the Seabreeze, 
and an Elegant Tern was fishing the Marina Harbor.  On the 22nd, we 
found an Acorn Woodpecker, a White-breasted Nuthatch, and two Townsend's 
Warblers around the Vollmer Peak area of Tilden, a good sign that 
migration is beginning in earnest, but unfortunately on the last camp 
day before school.

We were upset this year by our complete inability to find any Great 
Horned Owls in Tilden, the first time since 1997 that we missed them. 
We also regretted not being able to follow the Big Year folks to all of 
the great water birds found in San Leandro and Hayward.  The highlight 
of our summer was discovering of a live, adult Common Murre, beached 
near the Marina. We spent time studying it at close range while keeping 
off-leash dogs away, and removing ants that were prematurely trying to 
claim the bird, especially its eyes.  The bird squawked on our first 
approach, but then settled in for a nap while we guarded and groomed it, 
and after an hour, it stood and waddled across the sand as the incoming 
tide approached, and it headed back out into the Bay with many wishes of 
good health.  Good Big Year birding,

Brian Fitch & Crew