Say's Phoebe at Martin Luther King Jr Regional
Shoreline
Sun, 26 Sep 1999 07:31:54 -0700
From: Courtenay Peddle
Hello folks,
On Saturday, I saw my first Say's Phoebe of the season at Martin Luther King Jr Regional Shoreline in Oakland. Other than that, I saw only the usual suspects (I didn't have my scope with me).
Good Birding!
Courtenay
Miller/Knox Hawkwatch - Broad-winged Hawk
Sun, 26 Sep 1999 17:47:03 PDT
From: Steve Glover
Hello everyone,
Today I once again tried my own little hawkwatch spot at Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline, and this time it finally paid off. I had at least 2 and probably 3 juvenile Broad-winged Hawks fly by for very nice looks.
As you know the day was very hot and quite still with temperatures going well over 80 and winds never gusting over about 4 mph. I used to think that the best weather for raptors was west winds blowing out of Marin County and pushing the hawks across the bay. Today, although it is hard to tell where the birds originate from, I believe that most of the birds came down the bayshore from the north. I doubt that I would have gone up there in those conditions but the report on the RBA from Saturday listed 30 Broad-wings at the hawkwatch so I figured this would be my best opportunity to finally get one for Contra Costa County. This was species number 300 for me in the county if you don't count introduced birds, 305 if you do.
I sat up there from 9:30 AM and stayed until 3:30 PM. Except for one nice wave at 2:10, the birds appeared in ones and twos without the long gaps between birds that normally happen there.
I also had 14 immature Sharp-shinned Hawks and 7 immmature Cooper's Hawks, 1 adult Sharp-shinned Hawk, 3 Northern Harriers, 1 White-tailed Kite, 1 American Kestrel (probably a resident), at least 6 Red-tailed Hawks that appeared to continue migrating off to the east (since I haven't been up there this fall I don't yet recognize the local Red-tails so I have to stay on them to make sure they really leave), 1 immmature Red-shouldered Hawk, an Osprey, and a beautiful Ferruginous Hawk.
The first Broad-winged Hawk came by at 12:15 and actually may have come from the west, the second came along at 2:10. Between 2:10 and 2:15 there were 2 Red-tails, 3 sharpies, 2 Cooper's, the Osprey, the 2nd Broad-wing, and the Ferruginous. All of these birds appeared to drift from the north and all continued east toward the Berkeley Hills.
Other birds seen or heard up on the hill (or scoped from the hill) included 250 Brown Pelicans on the breakwater visible from the new parking area just beyond Miller/Knox (a good count for the county), 2 House Wrens, my first Golden-crowned Sparrow and Say's Phoebe of the fall, and a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.
To get to the hawkwatch go to Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline at Point Richmond. Park in the first lot and cross the street to the area with the boardwalk and the old blue and yellow building. There are several trails that will take you where you want to go. The quickest is probably to cross between the blue and yellow building and the line of trees and shrubs. You can also start to climb from the end of the boardwalk. Either way you are aiming for the obvious low gap in the hill in front of you. Once you wind your way to this gap go right up the hill. This hill isn't that far up but, as you will discover, it is quite steep. At the top is a bench that is very handy. If there are strong west winds blowing I would suggest concentrating on the area in the direction of Angel Island. Today, however, most of the birds came via the next hill inland from where you will be standing, the hill with the eucalyptus on it. Either way keep and eye out in all directions and look up a lot.
Be forewarned that you have a good chance of coming away with very few birds and a good sunburn. If you want a good chance to see more birds then obviously you should just make the drive to Marin.
Hope to run into one of you up there someday. If you have any more questions let me know.
Steve Glover
Dublin
Hayward Shoreline, Sunday Sept 26
Sun, 26 Sep 1999 19:10:04 -0700
From: Sheila Junge
This morning I joined Cathy "George" Purchis's Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center "Birds of Autumn" walk. An incoming tide gave us good looks at a variety of shorebirds including one Snowy Plover. Huge flocks of peeps, sparkling in sheets and ribbons, appeared and disappeared against the hazy sky. We then headed into the brackish and freshwater ponds (closed to the public) where we had the opportunity to work on identification of ducks in a variety of plumages - mostly eclipse - and ducks in flight. The large numbers of birds on the water and in the air gave us a bit of a feeling for the numbers that once were here. Here is a composite list for the group.
Eared Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis)
American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos)
Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus)
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)
Great Egret (Ardea alba)
Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)
Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)
Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)
Gadwall (Anas strepera)
American Wigeon (Anas americana)
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
Cinnamon Teal (Anas cyanoptera)
Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata)
Northern Pintail (Anas acuta)
Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca)
Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensis)
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)
White-tailed Kite (Elanus leucurus)
Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus)
American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)
Common Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus)
American Coot (Fulica americana)
Black-bellied Plover (Pluvialis squatarola)
Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus)
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)
Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus)
American Avocet (Recurvirostra americana)
Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca)
Willet (Catoptrophorus semipalmatus)
Long-billed Curlew (Numenius americanus)
Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa)
Western Sandpiper (Calidris mauri)
Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla)
dowitcher species (Limnodromus sp.)
Caspian Tern (Sterna caspia)
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris)
Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis)
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)
Good birding!
Sheila Junge
Hayward, CA
Coyote Hills Regional Park
Sun, 26 Sep 1999 20:39:58 PDT
From: Bill Scoggins
Hello East Bay Birders:
Townsend's and Wilson's Warblers highlighted our walk at Coyote Hills. I joined Cherie Boulton, Bonnie Marzo, Barry Parr and Ivan Parr for a walk from the visitor center along the Bay Trail, past the main marsh to the north marsh. Ivan and Barry saw an American Bittern in the south marsh before joining us.
All water birds were seen in the main marsh except as noted. 8 AM to 11:30 AM
Pied-billed Grebe, 3
Double-crested Cormorant, 1 in pond and 16 flying over
American White Pelican, 4 in pond
Ruddy Duck, 4
Green-winged Teal, 7
Cinnamon Teal, 19
Mallard, 75
Northern Pintail, 11, also in north marsh
Blue-winged Teal, 1 male
Snowy Egret, 2
Great Blue Heron, 1
Great Egret, 1
American Bittern, 1
Turkey Vulture, 1
White-tailed Kite, 5
Northern Harrier, 1
American Kestrel, 1 by voice
Red-tailed Hawk, 1
Ring-necked Pheasant, 1 & 1 by voice
California Quail, 30
Virginia Rail, 3+ by voice
Common Moorhen, 1
American Coot, 4
dowitcher sp., 45
Killdeer, 3 by voice
Mourning Dove, 2
Anna's Hummingbird, 4
Nuttall's Woodpecker, 1 by voice
Pacific-slope Flycatcher, 1
Black Phoebe, 3
Western Scrub-Jay, 5
California Thrasher, 1
European Starling, 8
Marsh Wren, 8 by voice
Bewick's Wren, 2 by voice
Barn Swallow, 2
Cliff Swallow, 2
American Goldfinch, 8
Lesser Goldfinch, 7
House Finch, 13
Townsend's Warbler, 1
Common Yellowthroat, 2 males
Wilson's Warbler, 3
Fox Sparrow, 6
Golden-crowned Sparrow, 19
White-crowned Sparrow, 9
Dark-eyed Junco, 16
Song Sparrow, 9
Dark-eyed Junco, 14
Spotted Towhee, 1 by voice
California Towhee, 2
Red-winged Blackbird, 3
Butterflies: we saw 2 fiery skipper, 9 English cabbage, 1 anise swallowtail, 2 monarch, and 15 monarch caterpillars on milkweed.
At 8 AM Bonnie Marzo and I observed a raccoon attacking a covey of 25 quail. As the raccoon moved quickly toward a large sage, the bush exploded with quail flying and running every direction. The raccoon was unsuccessful and quickly lost interest in quail hunting; it turned away to start foraging through a pile of leaves. We noticed three quail without tail feathers and wondered if they were raccoon attack survivors.
Recently Birding Parks Partners, Dave Riensche (park naturalist Doc Quack), and other volunteers released 122 young quail into the park as part of an on going restoration program. For more information about the quail reintroduction, a quail life history and the adopt-a-quail program go to:
http://members.aol.com/coyotehrp/
Happy birding,
Bill Scoggins
Castro Valley, CA
Arrowhead Marsh Sept 26
Sun, 26 Sep 1999 21:12:56 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ann Callaway
Hello everyone,
This afternoon, while our at Arrowhead Marsh [Martin Luther King Jr Regional Shoreline, Oakland], Richard Mix and I saw our Life List Clapper Rails! First, we saw one sneaking around the corner of a fairly large channel at the end of the boardwalk; That was exciting. We waited from about 5:30 to 6:30 (it was low tide).... We pictured the Clapper Rail doing push-ups just out of sight, just waiting for those two bothersome humans to leave..... Some vigorous "Kek-kek-kek-kek-kek"ing from the bowels of the marsh... then, our desultory observations of numerous Willets, some Greater Yellowlegs, Black-bellied Plovers, dowitchers, Black-necked Stilts, a cute, lone avocet, and some very tiny peeps in the distance paid off. Around the same corner, now moving in our direction, were two Clapper Rails. I assume it was a pair, since one was slightly more highly colored and marked than the other. They gave us a chance to view them from many angles as they systematically made their way past the the boardwalk where we were sitting.
Returning to the car, in the now fading light, we saw a sparrow that I'm guessing was a Lincoln's Sparrow. We didn't glimpse its breast, which is too bad. The area around the head was marked like a Lincoln's, with a yellow jaw being quite noticeable. The tail was kind of short; the were some markings on the back and wings, and some light-colored scalloping on the wings. It liked being in the marsh grass, but we must have startled it enough to fly over into the field with the big sculpture in it (and the short grass), where it tried to hide, and being unsucessful at this, flew back to the marsh grass. I had been hearing a little junco-like "chink" from the marsh, a few minutes earlier, so this may be something else in the Lincoln's favor (as opposed to a Swamp Sparrow.) Ideas, anyone?
Ann Callaway
Berkeley Meadows
Sun, 26 Sep 1999 21:52:20 -0700
From: Lillian Fujii
Hi birders.
Today, Steve Hayashi and I spent the late hours of the morning birding the Berkeley Meadows area (University and I-80). Despite the late start, we had lots of nice birds. Partial list:
Northern Harrier (1 juvenile)
Red-tailed Hawk
Accipiter attacking House Finch (don't know if it was successful)
American Kestrel (pair)
Warbling Vireo (1)
Orange-crowned Warbler (2, 1 very bright yellow)
Yellow Warbler (at least 6, all warblers feeding in fennel or taking refuge in willows - there were more warblers)
Song Sparrows (many)
Savannah Sparrow (3 seen)
White-crowned Sparrow (1 seen)
Lincoln's Sparrow (1 seen)
Western Meadowlark (15)
House Finches (hundreds)
American Goldfinches (dozens)
A large willow away from the road has been severely cut, with all except a few branches sawed off. In the past, there was always Lincoln's Sparrow at this location in the winter. There is not enough cover for them at this location now. Presumably, the willow had been cut to discourage the homeless. The mattress, which has always been there, remains.)
After mourning the willow, we cut the excursion short and returned via the road along the Bay, north of the Meadows. On the Bay, there were 7 Lesser Scaup and 1 Redhead.
Lillian Fujii