Re: Nighthawks in Berkeley flatlands?
Fri,
30 Jan 2004 01:54:39 -0800
From: Akira So
EEBers:
For your easy reference, here is a sample recording of Common Nighthawk calls that you can listen to on your computer (if your computer is so equipped, of course):
http://www.nenature.com/CommonNighthawk.htm
I also listened to Stoke's bird sound CD that I have, and it was very similar to this recording above. I hope it is a good enough recording; I'm not familiar with their calls in real life. For your information.
Akira
Pleasanton, CA
Original Message Next Reply Subject Index
Re: Nighthawks in Berkeley flatlands?
Fri,
30 Jan 2004 03:51:33 -0800 (PST)
From: Floyd Hayes
Are nighthawks even known to call during winter? In the late 1980s I spent 3 years in Paraguay (south-central South America), where I often saw small flocks of wintering Common Nighthawks. But they were notoriously - and frustratingly - silent. I never heard the peeent call, although once I heard a brief twitter. I eagerly tried to turn them into Lesser Nighthawks (no specimens taken from country, but there are many Common Nighthawk specimens), but they all appeared to be Common Nighthawks.
Floyd Hayes
Angwin, CA
Original Message Next Reply Subject Index
Re: Nighthawks in Berkeley flatlands?
Fri,
30 Jan 2004 06:34:14 -0800 (PST)
From: John Poole
Dear Birders:
I have just listened carefully to the calls of both the Killdeer and the Common Nighthawk. While they are clearly different (the nighthawks peent is very buzzy), the Killdeer also has a single note call which could easily be mistaken for a nighthawk - especially when heard indistinctly overhead.
John
Original Message Next Reply Subject Index
Re: Nighthawks in Berkeley flatlands?
Fri,
30 Jan 2004 08:17:13 -0800
From: Rich Cimino
Bats. Could there be a bat roost nearby? The BART facility may give off enough heat for a reasonable winter roost. (?) Bats do "chatter" while in their roost. We all know bats use high-frequency sounds for communications. Maybe if they're cold it's more of peep sound. I don't know.
Rich Cimino
Pleasanton
Original Message Next Reply Subject Index
Re: Nighthawks in Berkeley flatlands?
Fri,
30 Jan 2004 09:24:30 -0800
From: Bruce Mast
Akira So wrote:
For your easy reference, here is a sample recording of Common Nighthawk calls that you can listen to on your computer (if your computer is so equipped, of course):
http://www.nenature.com/CommonNighthawk.htm
That's a good recording of a Common Nighthawk call. It sounds just like the birds that hawk for insects over downtown Austin, Texas, every summer. If this is indeed the sound heard over North Berkeley BART, then it seems like someone should be able to get at least a glimpse of a bird profile in flight. Even a poor look at a profile would be enough to distinguish between a nighthawk and a Killdeer or bat.
How often and how recently have observers heard this call at the BART station (or anywhere else in the East Bay)?
Bruce
Original Message Next Reply Subject Index
Re: Nighthawks in Berkeley flatlands?
Fri,
30 Jan 2004 09:49:06 -0800
From: Mark Eaton
The few nighthawks I've seen in migration in south Texas were also silent, complicating identification at a distance.
I went through Birds of Northern California this morning and there is no mention of winter records anywhere in northern California. It also suggests that distribution of Common Nighthawk along the coast is regular in summer only north of Sonoma County. In San Francisco, I'm not aware of any records of Common Nighthawk, but there is at least one (and perhaps only one) record of Lesser Nighthawk from the city, which, if memory serves, was from fall and on the bay side. I can't comment on the records from the Farallon Islands. I'll do some research tonight for Marin County to see if there are any breeding records.
Mark
Mark W. Eaton
Original Message Next Reply Subject Index
Re: Nighthawks in Berkeley flatlands?
Fri,
30 Jan 2004 10:16:22 -0800
From: Lisa Owens-Viani
I am the one who thought they were nighthawk calls, but I am also the one who has a Barn Owl roost in my Berkeley neighborhood. I am willing to admit that perhaps the Barn Owls are making a variety of different calls and are masquerading as nighthawks. I have to say, though, that I am 99 percent sure I saw a nighthawk at one point flying across the opening of the tunnel at the top of Solano Ave in Berkeley.
Lisa
Original Message Next Reply Subject Index
Re: Nighthawks in Berkeley flatlands?
Fri,
30 Jan 2004 10:49:19 -0800
From: Rebecca Freed
Yes, nighthawk calls are distinctive - I know them from spending time in the eastern Sierras. What I don't know well is variations of Barn Owl calls - it could well have been a Barn Owl doing a good nighthawk imitation that I heard. But I do think it's interesting that both Lisa and I have made this observation in, apparently, different parts of Berkeley.
Rebecca Freed
Berkeley CA
Original Message Next Reply Subject Index
Re: Nighthawks in Berkeley flatlands?
Fri,
30 Jan 2004 12:02:20 -0800
From: Lisa Owens-Viani
Although where I am hearing them is actually not that far from the North Berkeley BART station. Also, what I am hearing does sound like the various recorded calls people on this list have sent.
Lisa
Original Message Next Reply Subject Index
Owls in Orinda
Fri, 30 Jan 2004 13:10:47 -0800
(PST)
From: Bob Power
Hi all:
As long as we're into things that go bump in the night, I drove to the end of El Toyonal in Orinda yesterday afternoon, with hopes of catching a glimpse of a roosting owl.
It was only 3:45, but the Great Horned Owls were already hooting, with 3 or maybe 4 hooting back and forth within one-eighth to one-quarter mile south of the end of the road.
No other owl species revealed themselves via sight or sound.
Adjacent to East Bay Municipal Utility District headquarters, a little bit south of San Pablo Reservoir, on San Pablo Dam Rd, Great Blue Herons have begun their annual mating/nesting cycle in the tops of Eucalyptus Trees. The two I saw were at least engaged in family planning discussions. There's a nice little trail adjacent to the headquarters parking lot that leads down to the south end of the reservoir. Four species of woodpeckers were present along the trail and 6 Wood Ducks and 14 Ring-necked Ducks were waiting in the reservoir at the bottom of the trail.
I was there on business, so had access to the parking lot, but there were signs at the top of the road that indicated that the major reservoir parking lot at the bottom of the access road was closed for the season. I don't know how access works on the weekends and if you would have to drive further north to another reservoir parking area and then hike back to this area. For your information.
Good birding,
Bob Power
Oakland, CA