[EBB Sightings] GGAS Bicycle Richmond to Berkeley-SF Bay Trail

Richmond to Berkeley on the SF Bay Trail,  GGAS Bicycle
Trip
Monday, February 15, 2010
With a great deal of fog we started at S 51st St in
Richmond, went north to Meeker Slough, then south ending at the Sea Breeze
Market in Berkeley in bright sunshine. The wind was practically nonexistent and
the water was calm. From Richmond to Albany we saw quite a few Green-winged
Teals and a number of other ducks. We had a good discussion about identifying a
Bufflehead, finally going to the bird book and seeing that our bird looked
exactly like the picture of the 1st winter male Bufflehead; there is a
resemblance to the Ruddy Duck, but the bill was wrong and upon closer
examination we saw that the feathers on the sides of the head were showing a
great deal of white through the black. Near the racetrack in Albany we saw
quite a few Surf Scoters. It was then that the fog retreated and we could see
birds away from the shoreline. A Loon was spotted, then Ravens. We turned off
the trail just north of University Ave in Berkeley and saw a Northern Harrier,
Red-Tailed Hawk, White-tailed Kite and a Cooper's Hawk in that vicinity. The
Cooper's Hawk posed for us for a long time on the top of a telephone pole. Eight
of us spotted 53 species of birds.
 
Common Loon
Horned Grebe
Eared Grebe
Western Grebe
Clark's Grebe
Brown Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Canada Goose
Green-winged Teal
Mallard
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Canvasback
Lesser Scaup
Surf Scoter
Common Goldeneye
Bufflehead
Ruddy Duck
White-tailed Kite
Northern Harrier
Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Coot
Black-bellied Plover
Killdeer
American Avocet
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Whimbrel
Marbled Godwit
Black Turnstone
Sanderling
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Dunlin
Long-billed Dowitcher
Ring-billed Gull
Western Gull
Forster's Tern
Rock Pigeon (I)
Anna's Hummingbird
Black Phoebe
Say's Phoebe
American Crow
Common Raven
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling (I)
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
House Finch