[EBB Sightings] Middle Harbor Shoreline Park

There were a lot of different species at the Middle Harbor Shoreline Park
this morning between 8:15 and 9:15. There was an oily sheen on the water,
but I didn't see any sign of oil on the sandy beaches. There were white
absorbant tubes all along the beaches and stretched across the opening to
the mudflats. 

More than a thousand peeps were feeding on the mudflats along with
dowitchers, willets, a long-billed curlew and others I couldn't identify.

There were about 100 scaup who looked oiled. 90 were on the water, a few
were feeding, the rest were just floating. 10 birds were on a sandy beach,
near the observation tower, resting in the sun. A group of Canada Geese flew
towards the beach and flushed the resting scaup into the water.

Other oiled birds included several of the Canada geese who had splotches of
brown on their white parts, about 5 eared grebes who were preening a lot or
feeding, and a dozen or so ruddy ducks.

A brown pelican plunging into the water looked pretty clean as did most of
the gulls and peeps. A lone avocet looked cleaned as did a male bufflehead.
A belted kingfisher looked good. I couldn't tell if the great blue heron I
saw in the distance was clean or not.

I saw one surf scoter and a couple of dozen double-crested cormorants that
were feeding wildly. I couldn't tell if they were clean or not. Some coots
were preening a lot but looked like they always look.

I'm guessing that the scaup on the beach were there because of stress. They
didn't look any more or less oiled than the scaup on the water. I wonder if
more scaup will beach themselves in the coming days as the oil causes them
to sicken. 

I reported the scaup, grebes and ruddy ducks to the SF 311 number. The
operator said she would give the info to her supervisor who would then pass
it on to the OWCN. 

The Cosco Busan ship was docked at the Hanjin dock and was being unloaded by
3 cranes. The chunk out of the side was clearly visible.

Kristi Whitfield
Oakland, CA