From: "Jeff Manker via groups.io" <fireweed8@...>
Date: July 26, 2024 at 11:46:04 AM EDT
To: EBB-Sightings+owner@groups.io
Subject: [Owner] Re: [EBB-Sightings] White-winged Scoter
Reply-To: fireweed8@...
Seen this morning in NW corner of Seaplane Lagoon.
Jeff Manker
Alameda
From the naturalist in-charge:
No new nests this week; still have 519. Over 800 chicks have hatched with a few more to go. We had counted over 300 fledglings last Tuesday, 7/9, and it appears that a large group of fledglings and their parents left on Wednesday. It was much quieter and we counted 84 fewer fledglings this morning. With fewer adult Least Terns around to defend the colony, more predator attempts are happening more often. Peregrine falcon (1 or 2), NOHA (male and female) and a RTHA now.
I estimated over 600 adults in the colony around mid-June
Roger
Tern Watch Volunteer
Hey EBB-ers,
any counts or estimates on the numbers from the Least Tern colony for this year?
Thank you,
dominik Mosur
San Francisco
Sunday evening while eating and looking out the kitchen window to our patio, we noticed one hummingbird which was very different from the six Anna's which were buzzing around and sharing feeders. Rosita took some photos with her camera and also some videos.
This bird is
a little larger than the Anna's Hummers. She is white pretty much from the throat to the
tail underneath. There is faint white line behind her eye. It
does not show in the photos or video, but there is a faint fan of
lines where a gorget would be seen. The tail is a little longer
than the wings, which have a fairly large, round outer primary.
The bill is a little longer than on an Anna's and very slightly
curved.
After careful study, I then looked in the NatGeo guide and the first Sibley book. Both of these guides have illustrations which match what we saw, but to be more certain I wrote to Joe Morlan, Alvaro Jaramillo and Ethan Monk. Alvaro and Ethan have agreed that it is indeed a Black-chinned Hummingbird. The guides indicate a young female bird. Very cool to have a bird like this in our patio the size of a handicapped parking space, north of Heather Farm Park.
Other recent "yard" birds were a calling Barn Owl which passed late Sunday night, and a Great Horned Owl which was hooting last night.
If you are interested in seeing some photos or a video, I'll try to forward them.
Hugh B. Harvey
Walnut Creek
Hello all,
Pelagic season is here. Tomorrow we are out on the Farallon Islands, and I hope we have luck like last week with Cook’s Petrel !!!, Scripps’s Murrelets and lots of cetaceans. We have little time on Island trips offshore, so seeing these goodies in the limited time means that there is a LOT more out there to look for on concerted offshore trips. And this is what is coming up starting next weekend. We have shifted from a very cold early summer to warm water right now, and tuna habitat is a bit farther out based on fishing report. That is the setup we want for a great mix of offshore birding. Keep in mind that we have a permit that allows for chumming for birds in the sanctuary waters (Permit MULTI-2022-004), increasing the chance we may find some nice birds out there.
Sat July 27 - We are going offshore in San Francisco County from Sausalito. We have never done this trip in late July from here and we are excited about it. Late July has been a superb time for unexpected species, the rare albatrosses from the south have been July records. And we are hoping for more Cook’s of course, we will be visiting some steep canyon habitats offshore from the Farallon Islands and will have some time in the offshore water. The big blow we have just had will have moved food to the surface, and in the intervening week that water will warm up. A nice setup. SF Birders don’t miss out on this one.
Sun July 28 – Out of Pillar Point Harbor, Half Moon Bay. This is the late summer trip where we have found some goodies in the past. Like the Salvin’s Albatross. I am predicting that this is a good murrelet year, so we will be looking out for the three offshore murrelets – Scripps’s, Guadalupe and Craveri’s. There has been a warm water plume out there we need to look for. Storm-petrels should be starting to congregate as well.
Sun Aug 4 – Bodega Bay. We are calling it a petrel search and hope that we are not jinxing it by doing so 😊. Cook’s Petrel is on the menu from last week’s experience, but this is prime time for Hawaiian Petrel. Many seabird experts have said that Bodega Bay (Cordell Bank and the Bodega Canyon) is the best seabirding on the West Coast. Certainly, more rarities have been found here than anywhere else in the West. Ashy Storm-Petrels being tracked out of the Farallons right now are heading up to Cordell Bank to feed, so we figure the storm-petrel flocks are building up there as well. This is a rare time to be out in Bodega where trips tend to be in September/October. So, an early season trip during prime petrel time seems like a great time to be out there to search for the petrels, murrelets and who knows what else. Help us out to find some good stuff out there! By this time lots of migrants – jaegers, Arctic Terns, Sabine’s Gulls should be out there too.
Blue and Fin whales have been offshore in numbers recently, with big groups of dolphins out there too.
You can book these trips here:
https://www.alvarosadventures.com/pelagic-dates-2024.html
See you out there.
Alvaro
Alvaro Jaramillo
alvaro@...
www.alvarosadventures.com
International Bird Rescue treated over 200 Brown pelicans the last few months. I believe most/all released pelicans have blue bands with distinctive letters/numbers. If you happen to see one and can read the band, you can report it on the Bird Banding Lab website. It's valuable information especially for IBR.
Anne Ardillo
Saturday afternoon I was out on the Bay Trail north of Pt. Isabel hoping to find some birds to photograph. As has been reported there were a large number of Brown Pelicans in the water along Stege Marsh, in the flood ponds at the 51 st entrance and in the air. They appeared to be flying to a from a feeding spot in the direction of Richmond San Rafael Bridge. There were typically 50 to 100 flying near the Bay Trail at any time. It was similar to last summer with respect to the number of Pelicans.
There were a few birds giving hope that the summer doldrums are coming to end soon. Some American Wigeon, a Spotted Sandpiper, a few Killdeer.
A few photos are one Flickr
Claude Lyneis
cmlyneis@...
It took maybe 4-1/2 hours from Walnut Creek and back this afternoon, but Rosita and I had some great views of the continuing Ruff at Coyote Hills Regional Park. Walking out the Chochenyo Trail just east of the Visitor Center parking lot. Other birders were already there and it was not very hard to find the striking male. Some Common Gallinules joined behind the shorebirds, which included a single Lesser Yellowlegs in with the more than fifty Greaters. We had a great time visiting with other birders, some of whom we knew from the past. It has been along time since I have been out like this.
It is no secret, but this is as good a time to mention it as any. I suffered an ischemic stroke Feb. 21. It is easy to joke that my mental faculties prior to the stroke were not all that great, but I have recovered almost all of them, most importantly my humor. My lack is in energy and sleep. This is why lately I have sometimes mentioned having a baby sitter or someone to drive me.
The one drawback for those who are a little shorter, is the height of the tules at the best viewing location. But pretty much everyone out there did well and this can be seen by the quality of the photos on the recent visits website. Thanks to everyone for all the reports.
Hugh B. Harvey
Walnut Creek
Found this morning by J Tanner. We saw it about 12:30pm. It’s in the main marsh pond next to a small island roosting with yellowlegs and dowitchers. The pond and island are out the chochenyo trail(dirt road) from the east end of the main parking lot at the visitor center. The trail is along the levee that divides the main marsh. The pond is about 1/8 mile out on the right. The island is just off the levee on the right. The birds were roosting on the north edge. Further along the trail after it turns right is another view of the back side of the island.
Chris and Teri Wills
Martinez
Drove out to Corteva this AM, my first time visiting the site. Parked at the small lot off of 10th St and, relying on advice from Hugh, Dawn, and Vicky, walked to the most-likely spot for Least Bittern and staked it out for a while. No luck.
Then as I was walking back to my car, southbound along the creek at the west edge of the property, a Green Heron came up out of the brushy creek and flew east. About 50 yards further south, a second member of the heron family did the same: a small brownish heron with a light buff-yellow belly. It flew east about 100-150 yards, and settled into an inaccessible marshy area south of the railway.
It was good to have seen the GRHE less than a minute previously---I'd heard the Least Bittern can be mistaken for a GRHE, and I can see how, but seeing them one right after the other the difference was pretty clear.
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Matt Tarlach
Walnut Creek
After about a month, the young Killdeer on the north ball field in the park is gone. It stayed with an adult through softball, dogs on the field and/or soccer, plus July 4 with illegal fireworks. My last sighting was Thursday, July 11, when it was all alone. An adult was present with it Tuesday July 9.
Hugh B. Harvey
Robert Raffel and John Toldi are currently on the subject bird at Dotson Marsh. This is a first county record. Congratulations Robert and John!
Many thanks to those of you who confirmed my impressions about the relative scarcity of Forster's Terns in the central bay. And thank you to those who confirmed that the Ospreys do indeed have a couple chicks. Kayaks are great for birding in many ways but one thing they are NOT is a stable, stationary platform for prolonged studious views.
Bird on,
Bruce Mast
Oakland
> The Osprey nest is occupied, though I didn't see any young birds yet.
I took a photo of the nest back on June 17, where I'm pretty sure I can see two young ones poking up, if I zoom in:
https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/620720773
All the best,
Torgil Zethson,
Alameda
Bruce,
I kept wondering why I wasn't seeing more Forster's Terns.
I don’t have any numbers to back this up, but my experience suggests that in the last few years, at least in the “Richmond-Pinole” area, that Forster’s Terns have really decreased in number during summer and early fall. I never used to struggle finding this species during this season on through September, but the past few years I have had few detections of this species during this time. But again, anecdotal experience often misses the full picture and is prone to flukey data.
In other seasons, especially winter, Forster’s Terns remain very around in this area.
Perhaps these trends are being mirrored elsewhere?
On Jul 8, 2024, at 8:42 AM, Bruce Mast via groups.io <cathrasher4@...> wrote:
I kept wondering why I wasn't seeing more Forster's Terns.
Hello birders,
I took my kayak out for a spin yesterday around Seaplane Lagoon and along the breakwater. A few sightings may be of local interest:
Brown Pelicans are back in force, My rough estimate was 1000+ loafing on the breakwater. I scanned the birds pretty carefully for immatures and didn't find that many--I'm guessing maybe 5% of birds. It's a rough estimate and I don't have good data to know whether it's high or low but it felt low to me, maybe because I was expecting it to be low. Anecdotal reports suggest there hasn't been much pelican food in Baja this year.
Brandt's Cormorant numbers were noteworthy--I counted at least 24, mostly in two clusters
on the dock island in Seaplane Lagoon and at the
north end of the breakwater, plus scattered individuals in the water. I shouldn't be too surprised; after all, I was within sight of Alcatraz, where they nest.
The Osprey nest is occupied, though I didn't see any young birds yet. I didn't see any Peregrines while I was out.
Barn Swallows are nesting under the
dock island in Seaplane Lagoon. (See checklist for photo of what I called "dock island").
4 species of Tern were nice. I kept wondering why I wasn't seeing more Forster's Terns.
At least 3 Pigeon Guillemots flew by low and rapid over the bay, heading south. No idea where they were going. They've been documented nesting on Treasure Island in the past (See Aaron Maizlich at
https://ebird.org/checklist/S89508108).
Bird on,
Bruce Mast
Oakland
Here is a video that illustrates those issues.
Squirrel Mom Raids Bird Feeder
Claude Lyneis
cmlyneis@...
I estimated ~800 elegant terns this morning on Brooks Island, viewed from the Canal Blvd. Viewing Platform. There are impressive numbers of caspian terns as well, and too many brown pelicans to count. Quite a spectacle overall, with lots of noise, mostly from the elegant's. It's a good place to stay cool as well, 108 deg at my place right now. Ebird checklist here:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S185278502
Jerry Britten, Morgan Territory.
Not ideal outdoor weather, but though most trails were closed for fire alerts, the Tilden farm at least was open. Around 8:00 PM Ann Callaway & I heard the inimitable noise of Pygmy Nuthatches and 6 - 8 alit on a smallish
dead eucalyptus behind the Ranger Club House, disappearing into roost holes before I got much more than a naked eye on them. Since I don't ever recall seeing this species during our usual afternoon visits, I'm very curious now about their habits!
Richard Mix
Early this morning I heard a Raven nearby. A pair arrived two winters ago, but they disappeared during the 2023 spring. This year they have stayed around in the suburban Treat Blvd area north of Heather Farm Park. Before leaving on my bike to visit the park I noticed a bird on our hanging meal worm dish. It was a female (?) Cowbird. We have had the Chickadees, Titmice and Juncos use this dish, now the newcomer.
In Heather Farm the Killdeer adult and teenager continue on the north ball field. I found my birding friend, David K., which made me very pleased. He told me of the royal family he saw on the island, a Ceryle alcyon pair. Whether they were King and Queen or King and princess or Queen and prince is hard to say. There was one of each sex, if you can figure out this simple riddle. We are not far from the concrete channel of Walnut Creek which has sufficient drainage holes and dirt bluffs for the nesting of these birds.
Hugh B. Harvey
Walnut Creek