Coyote Hills, 5/25/99
Wed, 26 May 1999 12:23:26 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tom Condit
This is a report on two hikes taken in Coyote Hills Regional Park without binoculars. (I was taking groups of 3rd and 4th grade children on hikes, and it's simply not advisable to get arguments started about who gets to look through the binoculars next with this age group - at least if you don't want your binoculars trashed out.)
Bird highlights: a parakeet of some sort in the trees by the visitor center; red-tailed hawks by the nest in Hoot Hollow; Allen's Hummingbird doing "pendulum" display at fountain garden by Visitor Center; Marsh Wrens singing and displaying in such profusion that even a group of 26 children were able to see them; an adult male Northern Harrier.
Non-bird highlight: two gopher snakes copulating by the Bay View Trail on the east side of Red Hill. These were also so oblivious to all else around them that all the children in the group were able to see them. (Remarkably, none of the kids were either scared or goosy about sex!) Other non-birds included lizards, crickets, sowbugs, flylike creatures of various descriptions, and dragonflies.
Birds seen:
parakeet sp.
Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Black-crowned Night-Heron (single juvenile)
Canada Goose
Mallard
duck sp.
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier (including one adult male)
Buteo sp. (possibly Red-shouldered Hawk, possibly not)
Red-tailed Hawk (at least three, one by nest in Hoot Hollow)*
gull sp.
Mourning Dove
Anna's Hummingbird
Allen's Hummingbird*
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow (including 2 apparently still nesting at Visitor's Center)*
swallow sp.
Western Scrub-Jay
Marsh Wren*
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird (2)*
a small yellow bird the right size and shape to be a Wilson's Warbler
Song Sparrow*
Red-winged Blackbird*
Brewer's Blackbird
House Finch*
European Starling
The birds marked with a * were either singing, displaying, or otherwise engaged in breeding and/or nesting behavior.
If this is what one can see without binoculars and with children preoccupied with other weighty matters, imagine what a serious birdwatcher could list here in a day!
Tom Condit
Martin Luther King Shoreline 5/26 3
PM
Wed, 26 May 1999 16:35:43 -0700
From: Courtenay Peddle
Hello fellow birders,
At Martin Luther King Jr Regional Shoreline, Wed. 5/26/99, (Including Garretson Point, San Leandro Bay, Airport Channel, Arrowhead Marsh, and Mitigation Marsh) where the freshwater ponds are now visibly shrinking daily, I saw the following today:
Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus)
Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensis)
Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)
Gadwall (Anas strepera)
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
Cinnamon Teal (Anas cyanoptera) - in vernal pool across from Garretson Point parking lot
Greater Scaup (Aythya marila)
Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis)
Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)
Great Egret (Ardea alba)
Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)
Clapper Rail (Rallus longirostris) - heard only
American Coot (Fulica americana)
Willet (Catoptrophorus semipalmatus) - 20 plus
Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus)
American Avocet (Recurvirostra americana)
Gray or Black-bellied Plover (Pluvialis squatarola) - at least 30
Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis)
California Gull (Larus californicus)
Glaucous-winged Gull (Larus glaucescens)
Western Gull (Larus occidentalis) - including adults
Forster's Tern (Sterna forsteri)
Least Tern (Sterna antillarum)
Rock Dove (Columba livia)
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)
Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris) - heard only
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota)
House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)
House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus)
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)
Brewer's Blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus)
There was also a mystery duck, probably a scaup hybrid. It had the build and shape of a scaup, the yellow eye, dark breast and somewhat lighter back, though still darker than the flanks, but much white on the head behind and below the eye.
Good birding!
Courtenay