Re: Arrowhead Marsh
Wed, 22 Dec 1999 8:33:00 PST
From: Mark Rauzon
Is 35 a high count for Clapper Rails?
Mark Rauzon
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White-throated Sparrows
Wed, 22 Dec 1999 09:11:51 -0800
From: Rusty Scalf
Is this an exceptional White-throated Sparrow year? I had a tan morph bird in my back yard this morning.
Rusty Scalf
Oakland, CA
American White Pelicans over Berkeley
Wed, 22 Dec 1999 13:31:13 PST
From: Mark Rauzon
I saw 32 American White Pelicans kettling over the Berkeley Hills above Clark Kerr Campus from my point of view on Durant near Telegraph today at 11:30 AM.
Mark Rauzon
Great bird in Alameda
Wed, 22 Dec 1999 14:00:24 -0800
From: Kay Loughman
This morning at highest tide, while waiting in vain at the Elsie Roemer Sanctuary [south end of Crown Memorial State Beach in Alameda] for Clapper Rails, Emilie Strauss, Anja Crickmore and I had wonderful views of a Short-eared Owl. The bird circled quite close to us several times, allowing ample opportunity to confirm identifying marks, then perched on a low bush 100 yards away. The view with binoculars was great; with scopes, it was dazzling!
As an aside, the official folks (EBRPD?) reported yesterday at Arrowhead Marsh, were in Alameda this morning trying to count rails. We didn't chat with them, so don't know whether they actually found any.
Kay Loughman
Berkeley
Rails at Martin Luther King Shoreline
Wed, 22 Dec 1999 18:29:00 -0800
From: Courtenay Peddle
Hello folks,
While doing the Golden Gate Audubon monthly survey Wednesday, Ed Walker and I saw only 7 Clapper Rails at Arrowhead Marsh. But after we finished the survey, I hung around and counted 12 seen and heard.
Joe DiDonato, the park naturalist for the area, said the boat count Tuesday was 17 Sora, in addition to the 35 clappers at Arrowhead and 2 at Damon Marsh.
Ed and I also counted more than 330 American Wigeon (didn't see the Eurasian male, but it's probably there, I saw it Monday) and 700+ scaup. The highest tide in 19 years meant a paucity of shorebirds though, most of them crammed together on the boardwalk over Arrowhead Marsh - about 200 Willet and 250 Marbled Godwit.
We also had a flock of 15 Long-billed Curlews, which seem to me to be there because of Mitigation Marsh. My records for Martin Luther King Shoreline suggest they were less than common before this year - though my records are not exhaustive.
Good birding!
Courtenay
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Rails
Wed, 22 Dec 1999 18:25:32 PST
From: Peter Dramer
For those keeping score, the rail count at Elsie Romer Sanctuary [in Alameda] today was a bust. The invasive spartina [cordgrass] species - S. altinaflora - exploded during the El Niño year due to the infusion of so much fresh water into the marshes. The dead racks of spartina that still remain are basically impenetrable making any visual census impossible.
The on-going control of red foxes and other exotic predators was having a wonderful effect on the rail populations. In Cogswell Marsh at Hayward Shoreline in 1996, six Clapper Rails were seen. The following year 35 were seen.
The expectation was for good numbers in 1998 but altinaflora choked the marsh and no census was possible. Today the racks of dead spartina are densely woven together with new growth eliminating the possibility of any visual census.
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Re: White-throated Sparrows
Wed, 22 Dec 1999 20:52:03 PST
From: Bob Lewis
Rusty Scalf writes:
Is this an exceptional White-throated Sparrow year? I had a tan morph bird in my back yard this morning.
The bird we had on the Oakland Christmas Count in the Claremont Canyon area (the North firetrail toward Strawberry Canyon from Claremont) was a white morph bird. But you have a yard bird on me, Rusty!
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Holiday pause
Thu, 23 Dec 1999 08:11:30 -0800
From: Larry Tunstall
The EBbird list will be on autopilot from around midday today until Sunday night. E-mail messages should still be distributed normally, but I won't be dealing with any questions or problems, or posting messages to the website, until Sunday night or Monday morning.
Best wishes and a joyous solstice season,
Larry
Larry Tunstall, "List Mom"
El Cerrito CA
Hidden Lakes, Martinez, 24 Dec 1999
Sun, 26 Dec 1999 12:59:52 PST
From: Phil Gordon
Greetings Birders,
After Christmas shopping at Mike Williams' Wildbirds Unlimited store I spent an hour from 12:20 to 1:20 PM walking the perimeter of Hidden Lake (off Glacier Rd). It had been since Denise Wight's Field Sparrow, so almost new territory. I thought controversial Wood Duck might be present. I have heard it comes in from a semi-captive location nearby. The clockwise walk produced 39 species (shown below) with a few pleasant surprises during the perfect weather. A Great Blue Heron was "mousing" or "gophering" in forbs near the first bridge. Surprising was the male Northern Harrier flying to the western Oaks from the grassy field. Shortly after among several American Coots swam a bright brown-backed Common Moorhen. Along the trail at the northwest corner a Great Horned Owl flew off with its blond, feathered legs looking as though it was carrying some small prey. The Loggerhead Shrike seemed out of place. On the last trail segment behind the school a lone duck flew over the lake/riparian woodland. It was a female Wood Duck. She coursed back and forth, flying out of sight and returning at higher and higher levels. She seemed to be searching for a landing opportunity. The flight continued longer than the 8 to 10 minutes that I watched; before I finally left to drive back to Hayward.
At home Pat, my wife received a call from Dina Oaks, a member of the Natural History of California Birds class I teach at Acalanes High. She had found a (the?) male Wood Duck dead along the shore of Hidden Lake that morning. Was this a female looking for her lost mate? Please let me know of any further details of this intriguing story.
Species found:
Pied-billed Grebe - 1
Great Blue Heron - 1
Wood Duck - 1 female
Mallard (domestic?) - 12 +/-
Northern Harrier - 1 adult male
Common Moorhen - 1 adult
American Coot - 8
Ring-billed Gull - 2 adult & sub-adult
California Gull - 5 adult & sub-adult
Rock Dove - 3
Mourning Dove - 1
Great Horned Owl - 1
Anna's Hummingbird - 6+
Nuttall's Woodpecker - 3 (2 males)
Northern Flicker - 2 "Red-shafted"
Black Phoebe - 2
Western Scrub-Jay - 6
Oak Titmouse - 5
Bushtit - 20 +/-
White-breasted Nuthatch - 3 (one male)
Bewick's Wren - 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 5
Western Bluebird - 4 (one bright male)
Hermit Thrush - 1
American Robin - 4
Northern Mockingbird - 1
Cedar Waxwing - heard only
Loggerhead Shrike - 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 10 + ("Audubon's")
California Towhee - 3
Fox Sparrow - heard only
Song Sparrow - heard only (2)
Golden-crowned Sparrow - 4
White-crowned Sparrow - 8 (6 immature?)
Dark-eyed Junco - 15+ ("Oregon")
Western Meadowlark - heard only
House Finch - 4
Lesser Goldfinch - 3 (2 males)
American Goldfinch - 2 (winter form)
Merry Holidays and Happy Millennial Prospects,
Especially Good Birding!
Phil Gordon
Hayward, Alameda County
Grebe in trouble
Sun, 26 Dec 1999 21:24:56 PST
From: Anne Hoff
Yesterday (December 25) at the ponds south of the Berkeley Aquatic Park lagoon, I saw a Pied-billed Grebe which appeared to have a strip of white and blue paper in its mouth. Today when I returned, it was resting on the concrete slab where the water moves between the two ponds; when I approached, it skittered into the water and started struggling with the paper, which I then realized was a circle (like from a door-hanger ad) and was around its neck. It held it in its beak because it was trying to pull it off, duck out of it, get away from it. It could disengage its beak from it so it was simply a necklace, but couldn't duck under the loop to get out. This was happening a few yards from the International Bird Rescue's front(?) door. What does one do in a case like this?
Also on December 25 I saw a Red-shouldered Hawk in the Berkeley Meadow, easily visible from the Marina approach road. Lilian Fujii had reported one in October, and it was a pleasure to see!
Anne Hoff
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