Raven at UC Berkeley
Thu, 2 Sep 1999 11:45:39 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tom Condit
On Sunday morning there was a Common Raven on the UC Berkeley campus. It flew from the roof of Dwinelle Hall to the roof of the Life Sciences Building. Very vocal.
Tom Condit
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Selasphorus hummers in Berkeley
Thu, 2 Sep 1999 11:45:38 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tom Condit
On Friday morning and again on Tuesday afternoon I had a pair of Selasphorus hummingbirds in my back yard on the 2200 block of McGee Ave in Berkeley. Not cooperative enough for further identification. Very active.
Tom Condit
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Re: Selasphorus hummers in Berkeley
Thu, 02 Sep 1999 12:56:07 -0700
From: Kay Loughman
Tom Condit wrote:
On Friday morning and again on Tuesday afternoon I had a pair of Selasphorus hummingbirds in my back yard on the 2200 block of McGee Ave in Berkeley. Not cooperative enough for further identification. Very active.
Almost certainly Allen's Hummingbirds, as they breed here and spend the summer. I still have them at my feeders, though they should be heading south in the next couple of weeks. Rufous Hummingbirds pass through here on their way north for breeding; but when they return south, they usually go by a more inland, mountainous route.
Kay Loughman
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Re: Raven at UC Berkeley
Thu, 02 Sep 1999 13:11:16 -0700
From: Kay Loughman
Curious how much more common ravens have become in our area over the last several years. I see them in my neighborhood several times a month now. But ten years ago, it was a major event!
Kay
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Re: Selasphorus hummers in Berkeley
Thu, 02 Sep 1999 14:17:49 PDT
From: Joseph Morlan
Kay Loughman wrote:
Almost certainly Allen's Hummingbirds, as they breed here and spend the summer. I still have them at my feeders, though they should be heading south in the next couple of weeks. Rufous Hummingbirds pass through here on their way north for breeding; but when they return south, they usually go by a more inland, mountainous route.
It's a real question that needs more research. When revising Birds of Northern California I was unable to find an unequivocal record of Allen's Hummingbird after August 31st. They mostly migrate out of their breeding areas into Mexico by about mid-August. I think that's the way we drew the bar graphs for those species.
Banding records indicated that the Selasphorus migrating through northern California after the end of August were all Rufous. Does anybody know of any definite Allen's records after August 31st?
There are some problematic areas. For example, on Mt. Davidson in San Francisco, Selasphorus hummingbirds remain common through late summer/early fall. I think it would be terrific if somebody could do some banding in places like that to see what's really going on.
Joseph Morlan, Pacifica, CA 94044
Fall Birding Classes begin Sept 7:
http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~jmorlan/
California Bird Records Committee:
http://www.wfo-cbrc.org/cbrc/
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Re: Selasphorus hummers in Berkeley
Thu, 2 Sep 1999 14:40:25 -0700
From: Rebecca Freed
For what it's worth, Monday morning I watched three Selasphorus hummingbirds chase each other around McGee Ave & Buena Ave. I thought they were Rufous - I couldn't see any green.
Becca Freed
Berkeley CA
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Fwd: RFI: Hayward Regional Shoreline
Thu, 02 Sep 1999 15:23:25 -0700
From: Mike Feighner
East Bay Birders:
Forwarding a request for information regarding birding at Haward Regional Shoreline. Please reply to Bob Reilling directly as he does not receive EBbird e-mail. [Contact me for address. --Larry Tunstall]
Thanks
Mike Feighner
From: Bob Reiling
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 1999 1:20 PM
To: Mike Feighner
Subject: Hayward Regional ShorelineMike,
I seldom bird Hayward Regional Shoreline and was hoping that you could answer a couple of questions. Is it still possible to find longspurs near the Winton Ave entrance (mid to late Nov.)? Which entrance do you think would be best for a weekend field trip? What time of year?
Thanks,
Bob Reiling, 1:26 PM, 9/2/99
Re: Raven at UC Berkeley
Thu, 2 Sep 1999 18:37:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tom Condit
Kay Loughman wrote:
Curious how much more common ravens have become in our area over the last several years. I see them in my neighborhood several times a month now. But ten years ago, it was a major event!
Not to mention crows, who preceded them. I know exactly when I first saw crows in my old neighborhood in north-central Berkeley. I was standing at the corner of Cedar & Grant at dawn on the day of the 1985 Christmas Bird Count, waiting for my ride. Three or four crows came over calling. It was the first time I'd ever seen them in the Berkeley flatlands.
Tom Condit
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Re: Selasphorus hummingbirds
Thu, 02 Sep 1999 19:41:02 -0700
From: Lillian Fujii
More of "for what it's worth." This morning in El Cerrito, while waiting in front of my carpool-mate's house, I watched at least 3 hummingbirds feed and chase each other around a flowering tree. At least one was a green-backed, dark rufous-bellied Selasphorus. When I got the binoculars from the trunk of the car, the hummers all dove into the tree, and I only saw one through binoculars.
Lillian Fujii
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Marsh Creek Regional Trail and Bethel Island
Thu, 2 Sep 1999 23:28:18 -0700
From: Larry Tunstall
This morning Ore Carmi and I went to Bethel Island for Mike Moran's East Bay Regional Park District birdwalk. We headed to East Contra Costa County a couple of hours early to bird along Marsh Creek Regional Trail between Cypress Rd and the Contra Costa Canal. It was a very pleasant morning, and we were astounded by the passage of blackbirds and pigeons overhead, large flock after large flock, all seeming to be heading either southeast or northeast. Here is our list for the early morning on Marsh Creek:
White-tailed Kite (Elanus leucurus)
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)
American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)
Rock Dove (Columba livia)
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)
Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)
Western Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica)
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas)
Blue Grosbeak (Guiraca caerulea) - females and/or immature males
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) - also possible Tricolored
Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta)
We then drove on out to Bethel Island to join Mike's walk. There was some confusion about the starting place (due to a computer mixup, of course), but we eventually all got together at the north end of Bethel Island Rd to walk west along the levee. The wind came up, but it was quite light for the Delta, and the morning remained very pleasant and not too hot at all. With a few youngsters being quite active, we probably failed to see or hear some of the shyer birds. We saw a couple of empid flycatchers, but neither calls nor eyerings gave us any reason to think that they were Willow Flycatchers rather than Pacific-slope. We saw very few hummingbirds, and again had no reason to think any of them were unusual. Construction work in this area seems to be finished, so one can hope that the birds will soon be moving back into the area in their usual abundances. Here is a composite list for the group on the walk:
Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus)
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)
Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)
Green Heron (Butorides virescens)
Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)
Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus)
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)
Swainson's Hawk (Buteo swainsoni)
Ring-necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus)
California Gull (Larus californicus)
Caspian Tern (Sterna caspia)
Forster's Tern (Sterna forsteri)
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna)
Belted Kingfisher (Ceryle alcyon) - heard only
Nuttall's Woodpecker (Picoides nuttallii)
Pacific-slope Flycatcher (Empidonax difficilis)
Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)
Western Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica)
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor)
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
Yellow Warbler (Dendroica petechia)
Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas)
Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus) - heard only
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)
Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta)
House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus)
American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis)
Good birding, Larry
Larry Tunstall
El Cerrito CA