[EBB Sightings] Jewel Lake walk

Dear Birders:

The word must have gotten out that Dave Quady wasn't going to be with us this morning as he is busy with Christmas Count preparations.? Only three folks showed up.? But Bob Dering, Margaret Dean and Marie Murray were in good spirits ready to see what this chilly December morning would yield.? When the sun rose above the eucalyptus grove illuminating the trees and shrubs along the edge of the frosty lawn, birds became active.? After some conversation about what to expect and some preliminary looks,? I called it a morning and went home to nurse my cold.? 

Bob Dering sent the following report.? "Margaret, Marie, and I are proud to report seeing several more birds after you took the training wheels off and left us to our own devices.? But the gatherings were much more sparse than all the activity we enjoyed at the beginning.? Near the parking lot we saw scrub jay, dark-eyed junco, ruby-crowned kinglet and in the nearby Doug fire Marie spotted the golden-crowned kinglet and chestnut-backed chickadee.? Along the Upper Pack Rat Trail we say brown creeper, bushtit, spotted towhee, Hutton's vireo, Townsend's warbler.? At Jewel Lake -- bufflehead, black phoebe, yellow-rumped warbler.

As for the weather, after some very dank air in the bottomland and tiny ice crystals on the leaves in the shaded margins of the trails, we enjoyed gradually more sun that made Jewel Lake a bright picture with reflections in the glassy dark water."

Phila Rogers? ???