Oakland Christmas Bird Count
Tue, 16 Dec 2003
14:16:49 PST
From: Bob Lewis & Dave Quady
Although we're still sifting the data, approximately 120 field counters found roughly 178 species in the Oakland Christmas Bird Count area. For those birding Monday through Wednesday, it's still count week, and we could use information on birds we missed, including:
Some notable birds included
We missed the American Dipper on count day, but it's a nice count-week bird (Lake Temescal).
Many thanks to the team leaders, counters, feeder watchers, dinner preparation team and Golden Gate Audubon Society staff who made this count a lot of fun for two new compilers.
Bob Lewis and Dave Quady
McNabney Marsh, Martinez
Tue, 16 Dec 2003
19:54:12 -0800 (PST)
From: Diane Perry
My friend Tom and I went to the McNabney Marsh staging area [Waterbird Regional Preserve] this just-past Sunday. (The marsh is on the border of Martinez and Concord, just off Hwy 680 - last exit going north before the Benicia Bridge, east on Waterfront Rd, right on Waterbird Way.) It was a cool, breezy and almost too sunny Sunday afternoon. There, we didn't notice many waterfowl of note in the marsh itself, but on a fence post, looking south from the staging area, about 400 to 500 yards (?) away (I am bad at judging distances), we got an excellent sighting of a large and gorgeous White-tailed Kite (also [formerly] known as the Black-shouldered Kite, I believe).
The kite sat on this post for a good five-some minutes, scanning the sloping grassland around him for "rustlings" (i.e., food!). I'd never seen a kite before (I am a beginning birder), so I was really thrilled. With my new binoculars, he looked about 40 feet away rather than 400 yards away, which made the sighting that much more exciting. Even Tom, who has seen many kites before, had to admit this was a particularly large and spectacular specimen.
After about 5 to 7 minutes, the kite flew off and over the eucalyptus grove at the top of the hill (just east of the staging area). We also saw a Prairie Falcon: Tom noticed him immediately and got a good look at him for a few minutes with his binoculars. As I was unfamiliar with my new binoculars (I literally had just bought them!), I had trouble focusing in on the Prairie Falcon and he was gone before I could get him in my scope. Tom got a much better view of him (he's much more experienced with binoculars than I am).
Since the sun was in our eyes at that point and it was chilly and the kite was no longer around to goggle over, we went to the Martinez Regional Shoreline. There is a pond/lagoon there, just a stone's throw from the parking lot. There we saw the following (and these are definites, as Tom identified them for me as he is an extremely experienced birder and I am definitely a beginner birder; we also confirmed our sightings shortly thereafter in three different bird identification books):
We also saw a somewhat strange duck who looked a lot like a Mallard (male), but had a completely green iridescent head, no white markings at all around the neck or head area, as a typical male Mallard has. This "Mallard" had the completely green head and then, at the bottom of it's neck, immediately turned from green to a solid, dark-brownish colored body (with no markings - either white or barring - that Tom or I could see with our binoculars and from a distance of maybe 50 to 60 feet away. Tom and I both wondered if, just maybe, a bit of cross-breeding was going on between some species of ducks in this very unique and somewhat isolated ecosystem.
The nice thing about this area for bird watching, is that the birds there are so used to people that they make no attempt to flee unless you get maybe 10 feet away from them. There were benches all along the lagoon/pond and we could sit and train our binoculars on each species we saw and take down mental notes of length of bills, whether they curved up or down, whether there was barring on the wings, etc, etc. This helped immensely, the ability to study them all for so long, in being definite in our identifications. (Plus, Tom used to be the President of one of the Audubon Societies in Texas, and travels all over the country "birding"). I would need another lifetime to catch up with his bird list, I'm afraid.
Diane Perry
Few birds at my Walnut Creek feeders
Tue,
16 Dec 2003 20:16:55 -0800 (PST)
From: Diane Perry
I am suddenly (in the past month or two) getting less birds at my outside feeders. I don't understand why, as I serve up some of the best seed you can buy, and last year at this time I had tons of birds at my feeders nearly all the time. I still get the usual pair of Chestnut-backed Chickadees, and some House Finches, sometimes a few House Sparrows, and off and on some Lesser Goldfinch at the Niger thistle feeder. Occasionally, I see a Dark-Eyed Junco or two, checking out the "fallen seed situation," and occasionally several White-crowned Sparrows show up for five minutes or so.
I don't know if it's just that I'm so busy that I'm not having time to really study the birds coming to my feeders, but I note that the seed in the feeders is not going down as fast as it was last year at this time. I suspect new neighbors that just moved-in next door (about 2 months ago) might be hanging out feeders with seed preferable to mine. Is there something better out there than the mix I use? It has un-shelled sunflower seeds, tiny pieces of peanuts, a little bit of unhulled millet, and some safflower seeds (which the Oak Titmice love but I haven't seen one of those around in a while either).
The tiny pieces of peanuts in the birdseed mix do attract a pair of Western Scrub-Jays, rather frequently but only briefly each time, so I don't think they are scaring off all the other birds. Our backyard has always had a "pair of scrub-jays," since we moved in in the 1970s(!), so it is not as if these "monsters" are new scary things to the smaller birds of our area (the ones I like better - I must confess to not being a scrub-jay fan). The scrub-jays have always come and gone, and haven't really been a problem as to keeping/scaring away the smaller birds (they just wait until the scrub-jays have "done their thing" and flown away).
My theories are (1) the new neighbors are serving up a better seedmix than the one I am serving up, and all "my" small birds are over there (although, they have a dog!), or (2) we suddenly have a resident owl in one of our palm trees (we have two huge palm trees in our yard, and several smaller sized ones). If that's the case, I have not seen or heard this owl. I wish I had, as the owl is my favorite species of bird.
Does anyone else have any other theories? Is there a better seed mix out there that I should be buying? I do clean my feeders every couple of weeks, and more than that when it's raining heavily and the seeds get wet somewhat. I have very large squirrel baffles above all my feeders, and it keeps the rain off the feeders pretty well and also has, so far, kept the squirrels off the feeders (although of course they eat what falls to the ground). We only have 2 squirrels in our yard and, like our pair of scrub-jays, they seem to have "come with the place."
Diane Perry
"East" Walnut Creek, several blocks from Northgate
High School
Contra Costa County birds
Tue, 16 Dec 2003
20:44:33 -0800
From: Joseph Morlan
East Bay Birders,
Today Robbie Fischer and I birded in Contra Costa County. First we checked Point Isabel where a Peregrine Falcon was perched on one of the towers. We also checked the mudflats at the mouth of Cerrito Creek. We saw about 10 Semipalmated Plovers which apparently were missed on the Christmas Count.
Then we headed to Tilden Regional Park where we found the juvenile Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in the advertised eucalyptus just north of the three compost piles at the Little Farm. I managed to get a digiscoped picture, but not as good as the ones George Griffith got. Mine is at:
http://fog.ccsf.edu/~jmorlan/gallery.htm
A calling adult Red-shouldered Hawk flew over, my first for the park. I guess they're still increasing in the East Bay where they used to be totally absent.
Robbie found a Swamp Sparrow near the drinking fountain along the main road northwest of the Environmental Education Center [aka Visitor Center]. There is a small pond and marsh right behind the fountain. We saw the sparrow just north of there on the east side of the road. Apparently it's been there about a week. Please view it only from the road and don't trample its limited habitat.
Then we headed up to Inspiration Point where we found a large flock of Pygmy Nuthatches. This is another species that has expanded into the East Bay in the last 20 years. These were the first I've seen in the East Bay. While enjoying the nuthatches, we had great views of an immature female Hermit Warbler.
As we were leaving I photographed a variegated meadowhawk (dragonfly). I'm not used to seeing dragonflies in December, but this species apparently flies year-round.
Joseph Morlan, Pacifica, CA
California Birding & new rarities
http://fog.ccsf.org/~jmorlan/
California Bird Records Committee http://www.wfo-cbrc.org/cbrc/
Newspaper article on Christmas Bird Count
Tue, 16 Dec 2003 23:23:33 -0800
From: Larry Tunstall
I am forwarding the following message to the list for Evelyn Zavala:
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 15:05:54 -0800
I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the article in the San Francisco Chronicle (Bay page) on Monday on Rusty Scalf and others on the annual Christmas Bird count - hope everyone got a chance to read it.
Evelyn Zavala
For a few weeks, the article is available at
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/12/15/BAGLN3NDBK1.DTLClick on photos for larger versions.
Larry Tunstall