Berkeley area
Mon, 23 Nov 1998 13:15:48 -0800 (PST)
From: Graham Etherington
Today's bad weather forced birding only from the car. He's a brief list of the better stuff I saw.
Aquatic Park
BONAPARTES GULL - 1 ad[ult] winter feeding along the frontage road along the shoreline just across the freeway from Aquatic Park
Reb-br[easted] Merganser - 22
American Wigeon - 1
Am[erican] Avocet
Black-n[ecked] Stilt
Western Sand[piper] - 1
Least Sand[piper] - 20
Dunlin - 30
Horned Grebe - 1
Eared Grebe - 1
Mew Gull - 2 ad[ult]s
Bufflehead - 50
Belted Kingfisher
Forster's Tern - 15
Dowitchers sp. - 40, mainly Long-billed
Lesser Scaup - 1
Berkeley Marina
All the birds below were in the bay to the north of the approach road.
Greater Scaup - 1000
Horned Grebe - 10
Clarke's Grebe - 2
Western Grebe - 5
Canvasback - 2 males
Redhead - 5 (4 males)
That's it for now.
Good birding
Graham Etherington
UC Berkeley
Hidden Lakes
Tue, 23 Nov 1998 21:20:23 PST
From: Denise Wight
A White-throated Sparrow (tan-stripe type) was in the ravine at the north end of the bridge at Hidden Lakes Park in Martinez today. A Merlin, which seems to be hanging around, was seen from this bridge too, and Common Moorhen was on the main (middle) lake.
Denise Wight
Lake Merritt on Sunday 11/22
Mon, 23 Nov 1998 22:00:42 -0800
From: Larry Tunstall
Late in the morning on Sunday Nov 22, Ore and I did some birding around the southern end of Lake Merritt in Oakland. We started at the channel between 12th and 7th Sts, also checking a little of the area around the Calvin Simmons Theater. I was hoping to find the flock of Barrow's Goldeneyes and the Hooded Mergansers that often winter in the channel, but they weren't there. What we did find:
Pied-billed Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, Snowy Egret, Mallard, American Wigeon, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, American Coot, yellowlegs sp (1 individual), Ring-billed Gull, Western Gull, Rock Dove, Anna's Hummingbird, Bushtit, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Townsend's Warbler, California Towhee, Golden-crowned Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow.
We also checked out the southern end of the lake, where we found:
Pied-billed Grebe, Horned Grebe, Eared Grebe, Brown Pelican, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Mallard, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, American Coot, Ring-billed Gull, Western Gull, Forster's Tern, Rock Dove.
In a quick visit to the area near the Rotary Nature Center and the duck ponds, we added the following to the species seen earlier:
American White Pelican, Great Blue Heron, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Canada Goose, Canvasback, Lesser Scaup, Barrow's Goldeneye (2 males near the islands), Ruddy Duck, American Robin, Yellow-rumped Warbler, House Sparrow.
Good birding, Larry
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA
http://www.best.com/~folkbird/
Berkeley Marina nature center needs checklist
Mon, 23 Nov 1998 22:32:50 -0800
From: Larry Tunstall
Patty Donald of the Shorebird Nature Center at the Berkeley Marina would like to have a bird checklist to distribute to teachers and other visitors. She would like something that indicates seasonal likelihoods of seeing the birds. She would prefer something aimed at the general public and birders of average level, rather than trying to list every possible vagrant.
Is there anyone who would be willing and able to put such a checklist together? (The nature center would print it, and you would of course get credit for creating it, but no pay.) If not, does anyone have suggestions as to how such a checklist could be assembled from existing sources?
Please e-mail your replies to me directly.
Thanks,
Larry Tunstall