[EBB Sightings] Magic in the Morcom Amphitheater of Roses; Early Action at Lake Merritt

This morning before the 4th-Wednesday GGAS Lake Merritt walk, I went to 
check out a (to me) new birding spot: the Morcom Amphitheater of Roses, 
up Jean Street from Grand Avenue. Nothing startlingly rare, but I saw a 
Hermit Thrush and both Steller's and Scrub Jays, a tree full of Lesser 
Goldfinches, and what I think was a Hutton's Vireo.

Ever hear of it? Not I. Seventeen years I've lived here, and glimpsed it 
only last month when a tow truck hauled my car past one side of it. Many 
of the roses are still in bloom, and it's like a pocket Butchart 
Gardens, big enough and overgrown enough around the edges so you're 
hardly aware of being in town, dropped casually a few minutes' drive 
from downtown Oakland.

At the lake, the scaup are out in force, both varieties, and we saw five 
kinds of grebes, plus one Canvasback, several Bufflehead, and a 
Ring-Necked Duck - the latter NOT one from last year; it was a young 
male not quite in full adult plumage. And an adult Brown Pelican was 
touring and diving up and down the lake, to complete the ensnarement of 
the new birders who'd joined the walk.

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