Unusual flicker in Oakland Hills yard
Sun,
13 Oct 2002 17:19:46 PDT
From: Sylvia Sykora
Twice today an unusual flicker came to the yard to drink at the bird bath. In the morning I noticed only that it seemed pale and when it flew, it had golden-yellow wing linings. This afternoon I watched at length with glasses from 25 feet as it drank at the bird bath, facing me, and later from 40 feet as it clung to the trunk of a deodar cedar with its back to me.
The bird's back was pale fawn with narrow black stripes and it had no nape marking. From the front its black chest patch appeared more like a half circle than a half ellipse. There was no malar stripe and the forehead and crown appeared a uniform rosy (cinnamon) fawn, not gray.
The bird is probably a Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker or a hybrid, but the only golden-feathered bird Sibley shows with neither nape nor malar markings is the female Gilded Flicker. Does anyone have any suggestions on identifying this bird, or further marks I should look for if it returns?
Sylvia Sykora
Alameda County
Oakland Near Castle and Skyline
Re: Unusual flicker in Oakland Hills yard
13 Oct 2002 23:52:30 -0700
From: Les Chibana
Sylvia,
Female flickers lack a malar stripe. They actually do show a faint malar of a slightly darker color of the face. The combination of yellow wing-linings/shafts and lack of nuchal mark (red chevron on nape) implies a red-/yellow-shafted intergrade, technically not a hybrid because they are races of the same species.
Good observation and nice description!
Les
Les Chibana
BirdNUTZTM - Ornigasmic
Birding
http://www.birdnutz.com
Wild Turkey in Berkeley
Wed, 16 Oct 2002 09:22:08
PDT
From: Collin Murphy
Dear EBBers,
At 8:30 AM October 16 there was a Wild Turkey pecking at the sidewalk at the corner of La Loma and Virginia Streets in Berkeley. Seems as though there should be a joke in here somewhere but I can't think of it at the moment!
Collin Murphy
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Yellow Warblers in Berkeley
Wed, 16 Oct 2002
15:49:13 -0700
From: Tom Condit
This is a belated third-hand report, so I don't have many details:
Last week the Chickadee Club at Jefferson School in Berkeley (Ada at Acton) had a new first for the schoolyard: A pair of migrating Yellow Warblers, well-described. The school is all a-twitter.
Tom Condit
Wild Turkeys in Oakland Hills
Wed, 16 Oct
2002 16:22:44 -0700
From: Arlyn Christopherson
There is a flock of 24 Wild Turkeys around our place in the Oakland Hills close to the San Leandro border. A female first showed up two years ago. Then she was joined by 2 males. There were twelve early this spring and we watched two hens who left the group and raised 6 youngsters apiece! Now they have rejoined the flock with the males. It's impressive to see this herd of small dinosaurs!
I'd be interested to know how extensive they are in the hills (and where they came from in the first place).
Arlyn Christopherson
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Wild Turkey in Albany
Wed, 16 Oct 2002 16:53:51
-0700
From: Lisa Viani
I saw one walking down Santa Fe Ave near Solano Ave (in Albany near the Berkeley border) the other day.
Lisa Viani
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Turkey invasion
Wed, 16 Oct 2002 16:58:04
-0700 (PDT)
From: Peter Rauch
Anyone know what environmental effects this "alien invasion" will have (is having?) on the things the Wild Turkeys eat (especially invertebrates and vertebrates)? When was the last time a turkey-like animal filled some California ecological niche? (And where?)
Peter
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Wild Turkeys in Pleasanton
Wed, 16 Oct 2002
17:47:28 -0700
From: Mike Feighner
East Bay Birders:
Regarding this turkey thread, there were 36 Wild Turkeys in Alameda County, in Pleasanton on Happy Valley Rd in the small fenced-in park along the north side of the road just east of Hwy 680 on 8 October 2002.
Mike Feighner, Livermore, CA, Alameda County
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Merlin in Oakland Hills
Wed, 16 Oct 2002 22:12:53
PDT
From: Mark Rauzon
I was at Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve in the Oakland Hills this afternoon. While viewing a Golden Eagle in silhouette, a falcon flew in and perched above it, eyeing it jauntily - too macho for a kestrel, but it flew off and soon a kestrel called. Kestrels were hovering on the cool winds at eye level. It was later in afternoon, when a flicker sounded a alarm call, that I saw a Merlin in good light so my initial hunch was right.
mark rauzon