Some Local Stuff
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1998 20:13:54 PDT
From: Denise Wight
Hi East Bay Birders,
Here are a few sightings, nothing rare, of a some birds I saw over the weekend here in the East Bay. (Things are hopping at The Point [Point Reyes], too, but one cannot go there every day, can one! (?).
Friday, 11 Sep 98
Acorn Woodpecker. A Flyover seen from along the boardwalk at Tilden Park's
Nature area. ACWO is on the park list, and can be found in nearby areas,
but I realized I had not seen one near Jewel Lake. Let me know if you have,
and how frequently.
Black Oystercatcher. I counted 5 in one group on the rocky breakwater in front of Skate's restaurant in Berkeley (just to the north of the Berkeley pier). This was at 7:00 PM. This bird in this area was new for me, too.
Sunday, 13 Sep 98
Yellow-breasted Chats are still singing at Piper Slough. I watched one singing
from about 12 feet up. This bird was beyond the main willow trees, about
1/2 mile west of the road on the levee. This is a favorite YBCH singing spot
in the spring. I heard 2 others in different locations. One made that weird
buzz call from within the blackberry bushes by the road.
Other birds included:
Virginia Rail (1 HO)
Coots 1,300+
Black-throated hummingbird (?) A likely female candidate near
the road.
Willow Flycatcher (3)
Western Tanager (3 non-adult male types)
Nashville (1), Black-throated Gray (1), Orange-crowned (6), Yellow
Warblers (20+).
Blue Grossbeak (4 "brown ones")
Lincoln's Sparrow (2)
White-crowned Sparrow (7) The two I checked appeared to
be Z. l. gambelii. First for the season for me in [Contra Costa County].
I would love to here about any interesting local sightings. Here's To A Great Autumn Birds!
Denise Wight
Martinez, CA
"Don't Forget To Look Up"
Arrowhead Marsh, Hayward Shoreline
Mon, 14 Sep 1998 20:42:06 -0700
From: Larry Tunstall
Thanks to Denise for the report. I'd certainly like to hear more about what people are seeing in various places these days, even if they aren't rarities. By the way, Denise, where or what is "The Point"? [Denise replied personally that she was referring to Outer Point Reyes. Oh, yeah, of course! I was trying to figure out something around Martinez!]
On the morning of Thursday, September 10, I was at Arrowhead Marsh with Anthony Fisher's EBRPD walk. Highlight of the morning was at least 7 different Clapper Rails coming out and walking around in plain sight on the mudflats. We had a chance to watch quite a bit of behavior, including some apparently territorial antagonism between individual rails. At one point, the birds began calling, and it was obvious that there were a good many more Clapper Rails scattered out of sight all over the marsh.
Anthony said that his Tuesday evening walk also had seen a number of Clapper Rails out on the mudflats. It appears that you have a good chance of observing them at low tide, either early morning or late evening.
There was a modest population of shorebirds, but the wintering ducks hadn't begun to arrive as yet. Here's the list of observations that I jotted down: Pied-billed Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, Canada Goose, Mallard, scaup, Clapper Rail, Virginia Rail, American Coot, Black-bellied Plover, Willet, Marbled Godwit, Western Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, Ring-billed Gull, Western Gull, Forster's Tern, Rock Dove, Belted Kingfisher, Barn Swallow
On Sunday morning I was at Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center for Cathy (George) Purchis' walk. Highlight for me was a flock of about 30 White Pelicans, at one point wheeling and circling over the marsh in changing groupings. Some flew off to the south, but half a dozen or so settled back into the area not far from the Visitor Center. Cathy said that they have been quite common at Hayshore this summer. Raptors and terns were very scarce.
Quite a good variety of shorebirds are present. A lot of different ducks are there as well, but mostly still in eclipse plumage, making identification quite a challenge. Cathy kept saying things like "I think that one's going to turn into a pintail." Eventually we found wing patterns in flight to be the most useful way of identifying the ducks (though we did see one gorgeous Ruddy male in full breeding plumage).
We walked back to the freshwater marshes, in the area closed to the general public, so we had a good look at a lot of birds that are hard to see from the public trails. Here's my list for the morning: Pied-billed Grebe, American White Pelican, Brown Pelican, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Green-winged Teal, Mallard, Northern Pintail, Cinnamon Teal, Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, American Wigeon, scaup (?), Surf Scoter, Ruddy Duck, Turkey Vulture, Northern Harrier, American Coot, Black-bellied Plover, Killdeer, Black-necked Stilt, American Avocet, Greater Yellowlegs, Willet, Whimbrel, Long-billed Curlew, Marbled Godwit, Western Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper (more common than the Western), dowitcher, Ring-billed Gull, California Gull, Barn Swallow, American Crow, Marsh Wren, Song Sparrow
Glad to see that the EBbird list functioned smoothly (if sporadically) while I was on vacation. We drove to Ohio and back (via a northern route), but were rather rushed and concentrated mostly on standard sightseeing, so I didn't really get time to do much birding. Did get a chance to stop and enjoy the Arcata Marsh (a lovely spot), though it was a bit too early for good migrant sightings. Although I didn't do any intensive birding, I did pick up several life species for my list among the easy-to-spot birds (since I haven't been outside of California since becoming a birder): Common Nighthawk, Yellow-headed Blackbird, Mountain Bluebird, Black-billed Magpie, Eastern Kingbird, Eastern Towhee, Chimney Swift, Eastern Bluebird, Cardinal, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, and Gray Jay.
Do let us know what you're seeing around the East Bay. Many of us are still interesting in knowing where to go to get good looks at some of the relatively common birds.
Good birding to all,
Larry
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA
http://www.best.com/~folkbird/
Miller Knox hawkwatch
Tue, 15 Sep 1998 15:19:23 PDT
From: Steve Glover
Hello everyone,
This morning I went out to my own little hawkwatch site at Miller Knox Regional Shoreline at Pt. Richmond. Winds were from the west (which seems to be good) but the fog never cleared from southern Marin Co. (which seems to be very bad). In about 3 hours I had only about 10 birds that I was certain were migrants. There were 5 imm[ature] Cooper's Hawks and 3 imm. Sharpies. The rest were Red-tails.
Migrants were scarce there this morning. I did have a Say's Phoebe, an American Pipit, a WInter Wren, a Western Tanager, 3 Lincoln's Sparrows and 3 "gambel's" White-crowned Sparrows.
I hate to talk anyone in to going up the short but very steep trail to the hawkwatch site since there is a chance of seeing just about nothing for hours on end but if anyone is interested I would be happy to have company. I haven't had a lot of birds up there yet but in the past couple of years I have had Black Swift and Northern Goshawk.
On Sunday at Jewel Lake it was pretty quiet in terms of migrants. Most of the birds were in the oaks along the Packrat and Memory Trails west of the lake. We managed only 4 species of warbler (1 Orange-crowned, 8 Wilson's, 15 Black- throated Grays and 40+ Townsend's). Winter Wren and Purple Finch numbers are slowly increasing.
Steve Glover