East Bay volunteers needed for bird study
Thu, 16 Mar 2000 17:25:09 -0800
From: Larry Tunstall
Back in November, I posted a message about the need for volunteers to help monitor East Bay bird populations. This study should provide important information to document needs for particular kinds of open space, habitat, etc. Not much time is involved.
The meeting of volunteers is happening this Saturday, March 18, at 10 AM at the Environmental Education Center (aka Visitor Center) at Tilden Regional Park Nature Area. There will be an explanation of the project, a chance to sign up for particular sample sites, and a visit to one site for an in-the-field demonstration of techniques. The meeting should last about 1 to 1.5 hours, and you are welcome to attend if you just want to get more information before volunteering.
Here's the message I posted back in November, which has more details.
The Point Reyes Bird Observatory, East Bay Regional Park District, and East Bay Municipal Utilities District are beginning a long-term study of terrestrial bird communities in the East Bay. The goal is to learn how rapid population growth and economic development with resulting fragmentation of habitat are affecting song birds. Are birds adapting to increasingly isolated patches of suitable habitat, or are the populations declining?This project is a component of the Partners in Flight Project, a collaborative effort of state, federal, and private organizations concerned with songbird declines. The methodology will involve area search censuses.
A plot is chosen to contain a single habitat type, and three different nearby plots are combined into a census area. A volunteer or team of volunteers are assigned to visit this area several times during the breeding season and count the birds found there. The counting is restricted to 20 minutes for each plot, so counting the area should take only one morning.
Volunteers must agree to attend a 2- to 3-hour training workshop, learn to identify specified bird species by sight and sound, make at least 3 visits to the census area in April through July. Moderate hiking may be involved.
If you would like to volunteer or learn more about the project, call Pete Goldman at (510) 649-9029.
You will find more information about Partners in Flight at
http://www.prbo.org/
Posted to EBbird by Larry Tunstall, El Cerrito
Bats in Berkeley?
Thu, 16 Mar 2000 17:26:43 -0800
From: Becca Freed
When I lived in San Francisco six-plus years ago, we had bats in our neighborhood (upper Market area). I haven't seen any since I moved to Berkeley, but I've always figured they should be around. I don't think the climate is so different, but some environmental factor must be different enough.
Becca Freed
Berkeley CA
Original Message Subject Index
Briones Regional Park
Thu, 16 Mar 2000 21:27:49 -0800
From: Larry Tunstall
Several people joined Alan Kaplan for his East Bay Regional Park District birdwalk early this morning from the Bear Creek entrance to Briones Regional Park, near Orinda.
A trail washout along the road to the Archery Range prevented us from making our usual visit to the Acorn Woodpecker and the sapsucker trees along Homestead Valley Trail. Instead we walked along Old Briones Road and enjoyed pleasant views of rolling green hills. Not many wildflowers yet, but there were a lot of birds celebrating spring. Several Western Bluebirds posed for us along the trail.
The most impressive sighting was a flock of around 100 Band-tailed Pigeons wheeling and circling, splitting up and rejoining, and posing in treetops. An immature Lark Sparrow was in a tree at the parking lot.
Otherwise, the birds were mostly the expected crowd. Here's what I caught of the group's sightings:
Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) - lots of them soaring around
Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus)
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)
American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)
Band-tailed Pigeon (Columba fasciata)
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna)
Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) - drumming and calling
Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)
Steller's Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri)
Western Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica)
Common Raven (Corvus corax)
swallow sp.
Chestnut-backed Chickadee (Poecile rufescens)
Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus)
Bewick's Wren (Thryomanes bewickii) - heard
Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana)
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
Varied Thrush (Ixoreus naevius)
Wrentit (Chamaea fasciata) - heard
Orange-crowned Warbler (Vermivora celata) - heard
warbler sp. - possibly a Wilson's Warbler
Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus) - singing by the trail
California Towhee (Pipilo crissalis) - bachelor singing
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) - heard
White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys)
Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla)
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)
Purple Finch (Carpodacus purpureus) - heard
This is a lovely time for walking in Briones, and the trails aren't very muddy!
Good birding, Larry
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA
Listing Software, Hayward Shoreline, ACBBA
Fri, 17 Mar 2000 22:06:56 PST
From: Bob Richmond
I am currently using PLOVER and want to change that (it has some big drawbacks), and I would like to know what other people are using. I also must be able to convert PLOVER files to whatever I use, as all my Hayward Shoreline data was input using PLOVER. I have been going there on the average of once a week since 1983, over 1100 trips.
On Wednesday at the Hayward Shoreline nothing rare was seen, but Northern Rough-winged Swallows and Violet-green Swallows were seen. Also Snowy Egrets are returning to the colony site where they failed totally last year.
For those of you involved in the Alameda County Breeding Bird Atlas fieldwork, we are finally starting to write it.
Good birding
Bob Richmond
Re: Listing Software
Sat, 18 Mar 2000 07:20:49 -0800
From: Kay Loughman
I use Avisys, and like it a lot.
Kay Loughman
Original Message Subject Index
Burrowing Owls at MLK Shoreline
Sat, 18 Mar 2000 09:29:51 PST
From: Mark Rauzon
On Thursday, I saw three different Burrowing Owls at Martin Luther King Jr Regional Shoreline in Oakland.
Does anyone know what's with the redwood plantings encroaching on the Burrowing Owl / ground squirrel habitat?
Good birding / happy migration!
Mark Rauzon
Tilden Regional Park
Sat, 18 Mar 2000 20:21:25 -0800
From: Larry Tunstall
This morning in the Tilden Regional Park Nature Area, a Hutton's Vireo was building a nest near eye level in a small tree right at the edge of the Upper Packrat Trail. Violet-green Swallows were swooping overhead. Lew Cooper reported seeing a White-throated Sparrow on the Upper Packrat Trail.
There was a nice turnout for the meeting about the PRBO study of East Bay birds. If you couldn't make it to the meeting but are interested in participating, you can still contact Pete Goldman at (510) 649-9029.
Good birding, Larry
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA
Martin Luther King Shoreline, Oakland,
Saturday
Sat, 18 Mar 2000 21:13:32 -0800
From: Courtenay Peddle
Hello folks,
An update:
A Red-throated Loon has been here since at least last Wednesday. It seems to particularly enjoy San Leandro Creek.
Both Wednesday and Saturday, I saw an adult Golden Eagle foraging. The bird is not easy to spot at a distance because it has a pronounced dihedral, or V, when it soars. If you see a long-tailed vulture in the distance, check again for the bright golden head and nape.
It's nice to see the (a?) Burrowing Owl guarding the same burrow from which a clutch was fledged last year.
No avocet or stilt chicks yet. Please, if anyone sees them, drop me a line or post the info at this site. Thanks.
At Lake Merritt in Oakland, at the beginning of last week, I saw a cackling goose [minima or other small race of Canada Goose] browsing near the labyrinth, on the Grand Lake Theatre side of the Rotary Science Center. I haven't seen it reported before, but perhaps it's there, like the cattle egret, regularly.
Good birding!
Courtenay Peddle