[EBB Sightings] Western tanager at Coyote Hills RP

A western tanager was in the pines in front of the visitor center at Coyote Hills mid-day yesterday.

I saw about five Pacific-slope flycatchers in various places, near the butterfly garden and Hoot Hollow and in the patches of fennel out the Bayview Trail and at the junction of the Chochenyo and dust trails.  

At least 150 American white pelicans were on North Marsh.

A flock of white-throated swifts was flying around over the hillside behind the visitor center.

Most interesting was a flock of 40 or so killdeer hunkered down on the dry mud chunks of the Main Marsh.  Their remarkable camouflage made them  invisible to the naked eye, and I only saw them when they startled up from the nooks and crannies of the dry bed.  Along with least sandpipers and song sparrows, they were feeding on something in the deep crevices.  The holes were so deep that the sparrows would disappear into them and pop up again on the other side.

Stephanie Floyd
Fremont