[EBB Sightings] sat dec 11: cycling berkeley to richmond on the s f bay trail

  I covered some of the same territory today, from the
Richmond Marina to Buchanon St, and saw some of the
same species--white and golden crowned sparrows, house
finches and such along the trail--and an Anna's hummer
flashed his gorgeous gorget between display flights,
the best view I've had in the direct sun in a long
time. There were hundreds of scaups and ruddy ducks,
mostly resting and a few diving in the bay between
Richmond Marina and the junk mail facility. A Clark's
grebe harassed a couple of them. There were also a
fair number of goldeneyes (commons, I'm pretty sure)
and, I think, a few ring-neckeds. (And of course there
were mallards here and there, more along the marsh
ponds than in the bay itself.)
  Along the Albany shoreline, there were lots of
American wigeons and canvassbacks. I think I spotted a
redheaded duck pair out there, too. A couple of horned
grebes were puttering around near the shore. There
were snowy egrets scattered along the way and one
great blue heron, which, when I stopped my bike to get
a look through the binoculars, camouflaged (sp)
himself in some bushes and and watched me. One brown
pelican soared south. 
  The tide was so high that the usual shorebirds were
hardly to be seen, other than a lone whimbrel and
perhaps a couple of peeps.
  Yesterday I stopped by Arrowhead--but managed to be
there at low tide, so saw nothing of the rails. Near
the canal outlet there were buffleheads--and I'm not
sure what else--and one surf scotter pair. A small
group of peeps of some kind skittered around on the
mud and Forster's terns were diving close by. Out on
the grass toward the west end, a group of greater
white-fronted geese congregated in the midst of a
large group of Canadas. There was also a large raptor
in a tree near the sand play area--probably a pretty
dark morph redtail, but it flew off before I was
completely convinced.
  Beautiful days for birding!
Cheers,
Alan Howe
--- kathy jarrett  wrote:

> Saturday December 11, 2004
> Blair and I checked out the GGAS
> Berkeley-to-Richmond
> Bicycle Birding trip coming up on Saturday, January
> 29. It was a perfect day for cycling on the S.F. Bay
> Trail. We started birding at Aquatic Park in
> Berkeley,
> where we saw Black-crowned Night-Herons in the
> bushes
> at the pond adjacent to Potter St., and on the main
> pond a pair of Hooded Mergansers which were spooked
> by
> a kayaker. Then it was over I-80 on the lovely
> bicycle/pedestrian bridge. The S.F. Bay Trail is in
> fine shape here now. At the Berkeley Meadow,
> accessed
> by the first gate north of University Ave. on the
> access road parallel to I-80, we saw a Northern
> Harrier circling, and on the wire was a kestrel and
> also a group of House Finches with a lovely
> red-orange
> tint. In Albany, just north of Buchanan there was a
> huge flock of American Avocets coming down onto the
> water. At Richmond Marina Bay, we saw a Common Loon
> right off of the pier at Salute Restaurant. A few
> blocks of street cycling brought us around to
> Seacliff
> Drive and over the hill to Brickyard Cove and
> Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline Park where we saw a
> couple of Greater White-fronted Geese and some
> Common
> Mergansers. There were other birds along the way,
> including lots of White-crowned and Golden-crowned
> Sparrows. Then we went through the tunnel and to
> Richmond BART for a ride all the way home, taking
> half
> an hour to return from a five-hour trip.
> 
> 
> =====
> kathy jarrett
> kathy_jarrett at yahoo.com
> 
> 
> 		
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