[EBB Sightings] Snow Geese across from Antioch

Went to an event in Stockton Saturday called Winterail.  Sorry, it is for 
train fans not birders.  Met an author and then went to the California State 
Railroad Museum Sunday to have him sign a book of his which I already owned.

On our way home Rosita and I decided to come down the river.  Didn't see 
anything but Red-winged Blackbirds and Red-tailed Hawks on Staten Island. 
Then, just north of the Antioch Bridge, we saw fields full of Snow Geese 
with some Greater White-fronted Geese mixed in.  Something scared them and 
they all took to the air, quite a sight.

Driving along a relatively short stretch of Sherman Island Levee Road, we 
had two more large flocks of them. These also flew.  We were very curious to 
know why they flew when we seemed a long from them and not an obvious 
threat.  Suddenly Rosita found a falcon streaking low across the fields.  It 
landed.  We drove up a bit to see it better and had a wonderful, though 
distant, view of a Prairie Falcon.

After a minute or two, it, too, flew.  It disappeared to the west, making a 
half-hearted swipe at what was probably a Blackbird.  They were quite 
distant when that happened.  Pretty cool.

Hugh B. Harvey
Walnut Creek