Yellow Warblers at Jewel Lake
Mon, 18 Jun 2001 12:43:09 -0700
From: Alan Kaplan
Friends:
Following Bob Lewis's description of yesterday (June 17), I went with Dave Zuckermann to Jewel Lake [Tilden Regional Park Nature Area, Berkeley Hills] today at noon and saw the Yellow Warbler female busily feeding a noisy, tail-less little beggar! The baby was out of the nest, clinging for dear life to a bay branch. I think the male was off towards the lake in the willows, singing, but did not see it. Thank you to all who have reported the Yellow Warblers in the Tilden Nature Area these past weeks.
A little late: on Tuesday, June 12, we saw Chestnut-backed Chickadees nesting in the fungus-ridden snag on the upper Pack Rat Trail in Tilden Nature Area (the same snag used last year by both Hairy Woodpeckers and Violet-green Swallows); at the junction of the upper and lower Pack Rat Trails an American Robin was on a nest in willow. There are fledgling Mockingbirds this week on Ashbury Avenue in El Cerrito.
Alan Kaplan.
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Re: Yellow Warblers and cowbirds
Mon, 18 Jun 2001 14:14:01 -0700
From: Sherry Hudson
Rusty Scalf wrote:
What is remarkable about these reports and the reports I heard from Coyote Creek in Alviso, where Yellow Warblers have nested in recent years, is that none of these nestings seem to be cowbird parasitized. (Is that still true, anyone who knows the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory Coyote Creek operation?)
I am the (new) Landbird Biologist for SFBBO's Coyote Creek Field Station, and unfortunately we didn't have the resources to conduct nest searching there this season. Nest searching hasn't been conducted there for the past several years, so we can't know what impact the cowbirds are having on the Yellow Warblers there. However, the cowbirds are abundant there, so it is likely they are having some effect.
Sherry Hudson
Landbird Biologist
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory
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Re: Yellow Warblers and cowbirds
Mon, 18 Jun 2001 18:28:51 -0700
From: Lillian Fujii
Rusty Scalf wrote:
I wonder if this is just good luck, or if some cowbird-evasion strategy is taking place.
We don't know the answer to Rusty's question although we would like to - in any case, although there are cowbirds in the area of the Pinole Yellow Warbler nesting, so far, we have never seen evidence of successful cowbird parasitism except in the case of the abundant Red-winged Blackbirds. (Cowbirds seen flying with Red-winged Blackbirds during fledgling season.) According to Joe Morlan (hope you don't mind Joe), Red-winged Blackbirds are capable of raising their own offspring as well as the cowbird's.
Of course, that we have not seen successful cowbird parasitism of other species does not mean that it does not occur or that cowbirds are not having an impact. We spend relatively little time observing the birds in the area, don't census birds using any scientifically accepted protocol, etc. However, from what we see - e.g., many, many fledglings of abundant species (like Song Sparrow) - it appears to us that birds tend to breed quite well in the Pinole atlas plot.
Lillian Fujii
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Skimmers
Mon, 18 Jun 2001 19:03:17 PDT
From: Peter Dramer
[Larry Tunstall asked if the Black Skimmers have moved their colony across the bay from the Palo Alto Baylands area to Hayward Shoreline.]
I think that the skimmers have set up the shortest migration ever. They prefer the West Bay in winter and the East bay in summer. Amazingly, they have even shared an island with the Arctic Tern - the longest migrator.
Peter
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Long-tailed Duck at Albany Waterfront Park
Tue, 19 Jun 2001 20:05:56 PDT
From: Brian Fitch
This morning there was a female Long-tailed Duck at the Albany Waterfront Park, which is at the foot of Buchanan St. The bird had facial plumage which was intermediate between the basic and alternate renderings shown in Sibley, and at this date, I wonder which way the molt was progressing. The bird was on the north side of the Albany landfill peninsula, west of the mowed field above the parking area, where the fill becomes a narrow isthmus. She was preening and floating along close to shore on the incoming tide for the 20 minutes during which I and 9 kids observed her.
A somewhat less unusual sighting was of 10 or so Pine Siskins flying in off the Bay from the direction of Marin County, and heading over the beach towards Tilden Regional Park or points beyond.
Brian Fitch
Clapper Rails and Black Skimmer in Richmond
Tue, 19 Jun 2001 21:34:18 -0700
From: Dustin Alcala
While you're out looking for the Long-tailed Duck you might want to hit the Richmond waterfront. For about 5 weeks now a Clapper Rail has been putting on a grand display at Meeker Slough. Every evening after 6:00 the bird is just out there, noisy and conspicious.
The easiest way to find the bird is to exit Hwy I-80 at Bayview Ave. From the west go straight onto Seaport Ave and make a quick left onto S 51st St. You'll see the trail just where the road curves left. From the east make a left turn onto Bayview and then a left at the first street, which is Seaport. A longer walk, but more desirable parking can be had from the end of Central Ave.
The trail from S 51st St will quickly take you to the main trail along the shoreline. Head west (right) here. You cross a bridge right away. Walk for about 10 minutes, or more if you bird your way along, until you reach an abandoned pier with a boathouse at its end. The bird is ahead to the right. If you haven't heard the rail already, you soon will. He is regularly and dependably on the upstream side of the bridge here. He calls loudly and almost incessantly between 6 and 8 PM and is usually easy to see, sometimes right out in the open, even swimming in the main channel.
To my delight there was a second bird in the area today. This bird was calling in rivalry on the ocean side of the bridge. I first found this bird standing on a mudflat in the main channel maybe 10 yards from the bridge! I've never seen rails of any kind, in any place, that are as cooperative as these.
In the horseshoe-shaped bay between the 2 bridges and their respective tidal marshes I had a Black Skimmer foraging to and fro along the shallow edges. This is certainly the first one I've ever seen in this area. It was here from about 8:25 to 8:35. It disappeared in the Meeker Slough area.
Finally, along the San Francisco Bay Trail near the intersection of Marina Bay Pkwy and Regatta Blvd, there was a cowbird fledgling being fed by a White-crowned Sparrow. If you know this trailhead, it's the shortest way to the rails, but you would miss the area the skimmer was in.
Dustin Alcala