[EBB Sightings] Loggerhead Shrike, Wood Duck & Other Local Spp. of Concern/Recent Days

Loggerhead Shrike, Wood Duck & Other Local Spp. of Concern/Recent Days, Alameda Co. 

(This report includes no vagrant or casual visitor detections, if you wish to save time and stop reading now.)

In the last couple of weeks, I've noticed....

1. Calaveras Rd. area, Sunol, near Sunol Regional Park, approximately 2 miles east of I-680:

- LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE (1 individual appears to like the area and is espied periodically on lines)

- WOOD DUCK (5 seen or heard periodically in Alameda Creek where perennial water exists)

- LINCOLN'S SPARROW (1 or more individuals seen in various areas)

As a seasonal/molting-plumage phenological note, it's interesting that some YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER males in the Audubon's subspecies (not all of the males I see, mind you, but "some" only) already display breeding/alternate plumage.

The bander's guide indicates the pre-alternate molt occurs gradually from Jan-spring, so seeing breeding plumage individuals in Dec. seems to be worth noting.

2. Mudflat on north edge of Eastshore State Park (extension of Buchanan, an exit off of the freeway in El Cerrito/Albany area):

6 Gull spp. seen in recent days:

- HERRING
- GLAUCOUS-WINGED
- WESTERN
- RING-BILLED
- MEW
- CALIFORNIA

As for the call-songscape there, it's fun to hear the distant elocutions of 
LONG-BILLED CURLEW and (melancholy note of)BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER. Brief, truncated, excerpts of AMERICAN AVOCET are a puzzler when they feed in groups, but it seems to possibly be a contact call note that I hear when they are feeding at the mudflat trough in the most shallow depths where the incoming-outgoing tide attracts their interest.

Good birding, Happy Holidays, 


Daniel Edelstein

Novato, CA (Bay Area)

&


Ellison Bay, WI

http://www.warblerwatch.com 

My two blogs:

http://warblerwatch.blogspot.com 
(my blog devoted to wood-warblers)

http://danielsmerrittclasses.blogspot.com 
(my blog focused on classes I teach at 
Merritt College in Oakland, CA, including my next
one that begins in 11/09)

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