[EBB Sightings] Townsend's Warblers at Tilden Regional Park

This morning between about 10 and 11:30, I birded the lower Packrat  
Trail from the parking lot to Jewel Lake, returning along the  
boardwalk on the opposite side of the lake. When I emerged from the  
trail at the end of the lake near the dam, I was surrounded by a  
sizable mixed flock that included four or five Townsend's Warblers  
and three Warbling Vireos, plus Brown Creepers, Red-breasted  
Nuthatches, and an abundance of Chestnut-backed Chickadees. The flock  
was foraging in the tall redwoods and other trees along this end of  
the lake.

The other notable sighting occurred along the Packrat Trail where I  
heard three accipters vocalizing and saw them chasing one another  
deftly through the oaks and bays up the hill. They alighted several  
times, allowing me to identify two immature Sharp-shinned Hawks and  
one adult. They continued to call and fly about for nearly ten minutes.

The park's other birds were out and about: California Towhee, Spotted  
Towhee, Wrentit, Bewick's Wren,  Song Sparrow, Steller's Jay, Red- 
shouldered Hawk. A couple Swainson's Thrushes "whitted" from the  
underbrush.

Judith Dunham
Berkeley