[EBB Sightings] Harris sparrow at Sunol, SPTO escapes bobcat!

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On Sat. 4/23, we observed the Harris' sparrow several times.  Previous posters have reported observing it near the porta-potties in the small parking lot beyond the "green barn".  When it disappears into the brush, it can often be found behind (creekside of) this area, foraging with the GCSPs along the muddy dirt road to the right as you cross the footbridge.  This road goes directly to the creek, impassable now with the very high flow.  There is water (after a shower) in the rut on the right side of the road.  The GCs come down first and are joined by the HASP, usu for a brief visit only.

While looking at the sparrow, a bobcat, coming from upstream, crossed the foot of the road at the creek and continued downstream in the understory.  It crossed the path leading to the footbridge, and tail quivering, lunged into the understory just downstream, flushing a SPTO. Then it walked up onto the deck of the classroom building.  When I heard crows scolding, I continued downstream along the edge of the brush, and saw the cat hunkered down about 30 feet away, enjoying a kill.  I took several photos while he? feasted, looking up at me occasionally.  After 5-10 minutes, he walked toward the creek.  He didn't have anything in his mouth.  About an hour later, I returned to the site of the kill to see what he had eaten.  All that remained was the tail of a ground squirrel!  Other hikers to Little Yosemite reported seeing a bobcat there too, at about the same time.

While in the area, look at the right side wall of the office building  to see a white=breasted nuthatch enter its large nest hole to feed young.  A house wren was seen "apartment hunting" on the same wall to the right of shiny metal ventilation? ducts on Thursday.  Red=shouldered hawk can be observed on nest in sycamore downsteam from mid-bridge.  An oriole nest with shiny cellophane Easter grass is in the syc with the old RSHA nest.  There is a Cassin's vireo nest suspended in a live oak above the trail leading left from the bridge.  It's an old oak with a long=healed stub of a large branch extending to the left side of the trail.

We heard turkeys in the park and saw 2 toms and a hen at the stop sign at the end of Geary Road at Calaveras Rd.

Lee Ellis
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