Great Horned Owl at Vollmer Peak
Thu, 30 Aug 2001 13:27:21 -0700
From: Larry Tunstall
This morning I went up to check out Vollmer Peak (near the south end of Tilden Regional Park, Berkeley Hills). Park in the "overflow / horse trailer parking" lot above the Steam Trains. Take the paved SeaView Trail up the mountain. The richest spot for birds seems to be just after you come over the ridge onto the east-facing slope (just past the first set of towers).
This morning it was very foggy and windy. There was little hope of spotting, much less identifying, any woodpeckers because the upper parts of the trees were usually barely discernible in the fog. However, there were a lot of the more usual birds going about their business at ground level. Best part of the morning was a Great Horned Owl, hoping to make another catch in the extended "dawn." It seemed to be moving along to position itself overlooking each meadow that I was about to walk past - maybe hoping that I'd scare up a tasty morsel for it. It was in the trees along a narrow unmarked footpath that branches off to the right from the SeaView Trail on the east side of the peak, heading along the ridgeline overlooking the EBMUD lands on the east-facing slope (not the trail with the gate, but the one that comes after the SeaView Trail starts sloping downhill again). This trail, by the way, leads you right to a lovely example of the amazing rock walls found in these hills, which so far have not been convincingly accounted for.
In addition to a couple of rabbits, a newt, and a banana slug, I noted the following:
California Quail (heard only)
Great Horned Owl - 1
Anna's Hummingbird (heard only)
Selasphorus hummingbird (heard only)
Steller's Jay - 3
Western Scrub-Jay - 3
Chestnut-backed Chickadee - 12
Bushtit - 12
Bewick's Wren - 1
Wrentit - 4 (2 seen)
Spotted Towhee - 7
California Towhee - 4
Song Sparrow - 6
Dark-eyed Junco - 14
Black-headed Grosbeak - 1 female or juvenile
Bullock's Oriole - 1 female
Purple Finch - 1
Lesser Goldfinch - 22
American Goldfinch - 8
On Sunday (August 26), Karen Peterson and I visited Franks Dump West at Hayward Shoreline around the late morning high tide. There were probably 100 or more Red Knots, several with red bellies. There were also dozens of Semipalmated Plovers, at least 2 Ruddy Turnstones, several Snowy Plovers, and at least two Red-necked Phalaropes. An Osprey and a Northern Harrier cruised by, but we didn't see the Peregrine Falcon. Nor did we see the Pacific Golden-Plover.
Good birding, Larry
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA
Oakland's Lake Merritt - a little There,
there
Fri, 31 Aug 2001 17:19:13 -0700
From: Mike Ezekiel
I strolled the nature reserve at Lake Merritt this morning for a half-hour on the way to work - Friday, August 31 - and found the usual suspects (in no special order) including
lots of Double-crested Cormorants
Canada Geese
Snowy Egrets
Great Blue Heron
lots of Black-crowned Night Heron in several plumages
Ring-billed Gulls
Western Gulls
Pied-billed Grebes
American Coots
Mallards
Caspian Terns
Forster's Terns
Plus the slightly less common:
One frayed and possibly broken-winged Glaucous-winged Gull
One Ruddy Duck - somewhat unseasonal it, I think
2 Resident Egyptian Geese - now hanging in the duck pond
Mike Ezekiel
Oakland
Fwd: Canada Warbler at Tilden Regional Park
Fri, 31 Aug 2001 21:08:11 -0700
From: Larry Tunstall
Hi EBBers,
I'm forwarding this message to the list from Dr. William Gilbert, who has been studying warblers at Tilden for many years.
Larry
To: Larry Tunstall
From: William Gilbert
Subject: Canada Warbler at Tilden
Date: 31 August, 2001Larry,
Hopefully I am sending this report to the right place to have it logged in. I sighted the Canada Warbler about 10:30 AM on the Lower Packrat Trail (near the Nature Center in Tilden Regional Park Nature Area) about 100 meters south of the wooden bench on that trail.
The warbler was in streamside dogwood in the "swamp" to the east of the trail, at a point the trail starts to rise through some large bay trees. The bird appeared for just a second or two, but the throat necklace and head pattern were unmistakable. I often used to see Canada Warblers on migration when I lived back east. Given the density of cover in the "swamp" the bird would be anything but a sure resighting; I remained for another half hour and did not see it again. However, the "warblering" in that area was good in general, with a couple of post-molt singing Wilson�s Warblers (which I am studying), Townsend�s Warblers, Orange-crowned Warblers, and a Black-throated Gray Warbler.
Bill Gilbert