Wednesday Birds at Tilden Nature Area
Wed, 14 Oct 1998 14:19:30 -0700
From: Alan Kaplan
Today between 9 and 10:30 AM, I walked the Upper Pack Rat Trail and around Jewel Lake in the Tilden Nature Area. Lots of Ruby-crowned Kinglets, a Hutton's Vireo to compare them to, Brown Creeper, Red-shouldered Hawk vocalizing, Steller's Jay (same), Chestnut-backed Chickadees eating Honeysuckle fruits (discarding the skin and eating the pulp), Townsend's Warbler (1), Winter Wren (2), Fox Sparrows (2), Spotted Towhee, Anna's Hummingbird at Honeysuckle flowers, Bewick's Wren, Kingfisher (vocalizing over Jewel Lake), and Northern Flicker. I hope to see some of you tomorrow (10/15/98) at 7 AM for my 250th birdwalk; meet at the Tilden Nature Area's Environmental Education Center for a walk followed by coffee and refreshments.
Alan Kaplan.
MLK Shoreline & Crab Cove last weekend
Wed, 14 Oct 1998 20:36:55 -0700
From: Larry Tunstall
Bob Lewis sent along the observations from the Albany Night School fieldtrips last Saturday and Sunday (Oct 10-11) to Martin Luther King Jr Regional Shoreline (stops at the end of Edgewater Dr and at Arrowhead Marsh) and to Crown Beach/Crab Cove. I apologize for the delay in getting these posted, but they may be of use to someone as a record of what was seen by a large group of birders on those dates. In the future, I'll try to pass along their fieldtrip results promptly after the weekend. In the following list, the first number represents the number of individuals seen on Saturday (Rusty Scalf leading the fieldtrip), and the second number Sunday (Bob Lewis leading). The Blue-winged Teal were seen at both MLK stops, the Clapper Rails at Arrowhead, the Soras at Edgewater, and the Turnstones at Crown Beach.
Common Loon (0/2), Pied-billed Grebe (2/2), Horned Grebe (3/4), Eared Grebe (1/0), Brown Pelican (4/4), Double-crested Cormorant (10/20), Great Blue Heron (1/1), Great Egret (1/1), Snowy Egret (4/10), Black-crowned Night-Heron (0/1), Canada Goose (40/10), Mallard (25/10), Northern Pintail (6/0), Cinnamon Teal (2/6), Blue-winged Teal (4/1), American Wigeon (100/100), Ruddy Duck (0/3), Turkey Vulture (0/1), Osprey (0/1), Red-shouldered Hawk (0/1), Clapper Rail (6/4), Sora (2/0), American Coot (20/75), Black-bellied Plover (30/25), Killdeer (10/15), Semipalmated Plover (25/10), Black-necked Stilt (10/10), American Avocet (2/5), Greater Yellowlegs (0/1), Willet (75/75), Long-billed Curlew (1/2), Marbled Godwit (10/20), Black Turnstone (3/3), Ruddy Turnstone (2/3), Western Sandpiper (50/200), Least Sandpiper (20/50), Dunlin (25/15), Sanderling (30/5), Dowitcher sp (25/30), Ring-billed Gull (20/25), Western Gull (5/10), Glaucous-winged Gull (0/2), Forster's Tern (5/10), Rock Dove (30/50), Mourning Dove (1/2), Northern Flicker (0/2), Black Phoebe (2/1), Western Scrub-Jay (2/1), American Crow (1/1), American Robin (0/2), Northern Mockingbird (1/1), European Starling (2/0), Common Yellowthroat (1/1), Savannah Sparrow (0/2), Song Sparrow (0/2), White-crowned Sparrow (2/5), Western Meadowlark (2/1), Brewer's Blackbird (6/50), House Finch (8/5).
The class will be visiting different East Bay locations each weekend, so this should give us a useful sampling of what's around various places as we move into winter. Thanks to Bob and Rusty for sharing this information.
Good birding,
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA
http://www.best.com/~folkbird/
Dull day at Berkeley pier
Thu, 15 Oct 1998 11:46:03 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tom Condit
Yesterday (Wednesday) I took a walk out the Berkeley pier and around the adjacent yacht harbor and Adventure Playground / picnic area. It was quite uneventful, but here's what was around:
two brown pelicans
about a dozen cormorants far out in the Bay, one immature double-crested each at the foot of the pier and in the boat docks
no ducks whatsoever
many first- and second-year Heerman's gulls, but no adults
misc. gulls, nothing unusual except one each of first year Heerman's and Herring gulls sitting right in the walkway in a lethargic manner -- maybe something's going around
no shorebirds except for one dowitcher sp. flying over
coots and pied-billed grebes in the boat docks
a few starlings
robins, white-crowned sparrows and yellow-rumped warblers in the picnic area
one northern (red-shafted) flicker in the picnic area
As I say, a dull walk, but if anyone's tracking what's around, that's what was around.
Tom Condit
P.S. There's a juvenile moorhen at Lake Merced in San Francisco. Go down the board steps at the west end of the bridge, across the street from the MH 5 sign. It's in the shallow waters between the float and the shore. I'm told it's rare for the place.
Wood Duck at Lake Merritt
Thu, 15 Oct 1998 20:24:07 -0700
From: Larry Tunstall
Thursday, 15 Oct
During the 3:30 PM feeding today at the Rotary Nature Center at Lake Merritt, a female or immature Wood Duck was among the huge and hungry crowd of Mallards and American Coots. After the feeding I was unable to find it again for further observation - it probably went into the freshwater pond in the middle of the island nearest shore.
Otherwise, not much change except that the Ruddy Duck population is up to around 100, I didn't see any scaups or the Ring-necked Duck, and I saw only one Forster's Tern around the Nature Center area.
This morning, quite a good crowd turned out for Alan Kaplan's 250th birdwalk in the Tilden Regional Park Nature Area. With Peter Rauch and Steve Glover to identify calls and songs along with Alan, we found the Upper Packrat Trail to be very birdy. On the following list, asterisks identify birds that were heard but (as far as I know) never visually confirmed:
Anna's Hummingbird, Belted Kingfisher, Acorn Woodpecker, *Nuttall's Woodpecker, *Hairy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker (red-shafted), Black Phoebe, Steller's Jay, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, *Brown Creeper, *Bewick's Wren, *Winter Wren, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush, American Robin, Varied Thrush, *Wrentit, Yellow-rumped Warbler (both Audubon's and Myrtle), Townsend's Warbler, Spotted Towhee, California Towhee, Fox Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Purple Finch, Pine Siskin.
During the walk, Steve Glover mentioned that many common birds did not arrive in the East Bay until the 1920s, presumably after orchards in the South Bay provided a connection for the birds to move from the coast into the East Bay hills. Steve, could you post a note listing some of those birds and explaining a bit more about this? Thanks.
On another topic, I saw a mention in today's Journal (Kensington and El Cerrito local weekly paper) claiming that [East Bay Regional Park District] expects to spend much of the Measure W funds in preparing the new Shoreline Park (from the Bay Bridge to Point Richmond) for use by the public.
Good birding,
Larry Tunstall
http://www.best.com/~folkbird/
EBbird website:
http://www.best.com/~folkbird/EBBC/
Blue Winged Teal
Fri, 16 Oct 1998 15:43:55 PDT
From: Denise Wight
A male Blue-winged Teal was at McNabney (Shell) Marsh in Martinez today. He was about 100 yards out from the bend in the road prior to the tunnel that leads into [Mountain View Sanitary]. He was feeding in a patch of floating vegetation, making it difficult to get long looks at the white crescent on the face. I was trying to get a good photo of him, but after a 1/2 hour of waiting for him to get his face out of his food I gave up.
Denise Wight
Martinez, CA
"Don't Forget To Look Up"