It is now daylight and I hope folks are out there looking for this remarkable bird. Please post information here immediately if found, preferably with GPS coordinates to help those of who are not sufficiently familiar with Alameda.
Thanks very much,
John Cant, Fremont
A Crested Auklet was seen on the water just south of the south end of Monarch Ave on the old Alameda?Naval Air Station.
Cost - $2 for basic books, $5 for premium books. We can accept checks to Golden Gate Bird Alliance or cash, but not credit cards or Venmo, etc.
BYOB - bring your own bags or boxes (assume that you will find one or more books you can’t resist).
At the building door, use the call box to call apt 303 or 306 and someone will buzz the door open. Then come to the third floor and follow the signs to apt 303.
Marjorie Powell
Alameda
Bald Eagle off Meeker Slough on snag in water near rock breakwater.
This year I decided to try a different angle on birding, seeing how many species I can find the “green” way, which I defined as not using vehicles except public transportation. My efforts so far have been restricted to Alameda and Contra Costa counties, but San Francisco is only a short BART ride away so I’m looking forward to that. Today was probably my biggest effort of the year, with an outing to eastern Alameda County to track down a bunch of species not likely to be had close to the bay.
I biked down to the Lake Merritt BART station at dawn and took it to the end of the line in Pleasanton. My first birding stop was Shadow Cliffs where I couldn’t find Wood Ducks, but in the process did see a Barn Owl in a nest box, a nice plus as biking and owling at night are not a safe combo. My next stop was a quick one, as I found one of the Chipping Sparrows that over-wintered at Tex Spruiell Park in the same spot where I had seen them by car a few weeks ago. On the way towards Patterson Pass I flushed some Lark Sparrows and had a Merlin perched nicely at the intersection of Patterson Pass Road and South Vasco Road.
I only biked Patterson Pass Road to the intersection with Cross Road, still hoping to get a Loggerhead Shrike but no luck there, but within a quarter mile I had two Cassin’s Kingbirds, one of which flew right at me before landing close by. On Cross Road I picked up a couple Tricolored Blackbirds and two more Cassin’s Kingbirds. Continuing on towards Cedar Mountain Winery, I had a nice surprise with a Phainopepla popping up on a tree by the road just as I raced by. That was a relief, as otherwise I would have later biked quite a ways up Mines Road searching for them. It probably saved me ten miles of biking. At the winery there were no bluebirds which wasn’t surprising as they appear to be hit and miss, but I did see a Golden Eagle soaring far away
On the way to Mines Road I had both Golden and Bald Eagle, and then on Mines Road what I thought was my last target of the day, Yellow-billed Magpie. But then I realized that Shadow Cliffs was on the way back to the Pleasanton BART station, so I made a second attempt for Wood Duck and was awarded with a beautiful pair up close. A few minutes later I ran into Isabelle Reddy, who told me she had just seen a Ross’s Goose which I raced down and found it on the beach waiting for a lifeguard to show up so it could take a swim.
Energized by the nice birds seen, the bike ride back to BART flew by and I was back at the Lake Merritt BART station by 4pm so I decided to bird Lake Merritt on the way home. I did find a Barrow’s Goldeneye and then rode back up the hill home to end the day with 57 miles of riding and 88 species; 8 of those 88 species were new for the “Free-wheeling Derek” eBird account I set up this year, putting me 5 away from hitting the 200 mark. I created an eBird trip report of the day, with the link below.
https://ebird.org/tripreport/334135
Derek Heins
Piedmont
Hi All,
On January 4, 2025 35 birders set out to participate in the 8th annual Sherman Island Christmas Bird Count. While this count is incredibly diverse for an inland count, participation has meant numbers have not been as high as they could be, but this year there was a perfect convergence of a competent crew spread throughout the count circle, a great year for local rarities, and good weather resulting in an astonishing species total of 165 Species for the count, 16 higher than our previous count high of 149.
There were a remarkable 13 new species recorded for the count: Common Loon, Red-throated Loon, American Bittern, Least Bittern, Long-eared Owl, Mountain Plover, Least Flycatcher, Rock Wren, Winter Wren, Mountain Bluebird, Chestnut-collared Longspur, Swamp Sparrow, Purple Finch. Additionally there were second count records of Spotted Sandpiper, American Bittern, Bald Eagle, Short-eared Owl, Hutton's Vireo, Phainopepla, and Brown Creeper, and third count records of White-throated Swift and Oak Titmouse.
We missed several species which have formerly been routine on this count: Wood Duck (reliable areas in the circle at dusk but not checked on the day), Glaucous-winged Gull (bad year for gulls in the circle), Thayer's Gull (same), Rough-legged Hawk (horrible year for them), Western Screech-Owl (no longer regular at traditional Ryer spots though a single bird was found freshly dead on the side of the road in that general region), Burrowing Owl (our worst miss, and several were seen on count week), Yellow-billed Magpie (not at their traditional spot on Ryer this year), Wrentit (resident in small numbers on certain reedy islands but tried for extensively by the boat crew and missed).
There were a total of 26 species seen in only one area, of which 17 were of just a single individual: Blue-winged Teal, Barrow's Goldeneye, Horned Grebe, Osprey, Spotted Sandpiper, Western Gull, Prairie Falcon, Least Flycatcher, Winter Wren, Pacific Wren, Oak Titmouse, Brown Creeper, Hutton's Vireo, White-breasted Nuthatch, Chestnut-collared Longspur, Purple Finch, Swamp Sparrow.
The additional one territory only birds included: Cinnamon Teal, American Avocet, Least Bittern, Golden Eagle, Common Loon, Mountain Plover, Cattle Egret, Long-eared Owl, White-throated Swift. A single bird (Western Screech-Owl) was found dead in one area, and another (Burrowing Owl) was found for count week.
New to the count was the formation of a new area, Area 9, the Sacramento River by boat as covered by Aidan Brubaker and Etan Monk. With this help we were able to get much better counts of waterbirds than ever before on the count.
We set new count high counts of Mute Swan (a disgusting 338. Somebody needs to start culling these things), Lesser Scaup (1908, thanks entirely to area 9), Hooded Merganser (65, prev high 28), Ruddy Duck (about 2500, prev high 1400), Bufflehead (1355, prev high 669), Ring-necked Pheasant (128, prev high 19. Thanks almost entirely to coverage of Webb Tract (recent release maybe?)), Wild Turkey (80, prev high 28. Thanks almost entirely to two groups on Bethel Island and Rio Vista), Pied-billed Grebe (258, pre high 119. Mostly due to area 9), Turkey Vulture (245, prev high 188), Swainson's Hawk (23, prev high 7), Red-tailed Hawk (297, prev high 232), White-faced Ibis (139), Virginia Rail (39, prev high 15), Sora (44, prev high 16), Sandhill Crane (2768, prev high 1517), Rock Pigeon (2988, prev high 1852), Anna's Hummingbird (170, prev high 141), American Kestrel (150, prev high 117), Common Raven (106, prev high 84), Horned Lark (1333, prev high 47), Tree Swallow (241, prev high 134), Barn Swallow (12, prev high 1), House Wren (70), Common Yellowthroat (193, prev high 76), White-crowned Sparrow (2366, prev high 1975), White-throated Sparrow (5, prev high 3), Song Sparrow (394, prev high 186), Spotted Towhee (132, prev high 114), Western Meadowlark (1929, prev high 1100), Brewer's Blackbird (16869, prev 14,351), Brown-headed Cowbird (2765, prev 289), House Finch (2765, prev high 1733),
Minor high counts included: American Wigeon (385, new high count by 1), Common Goldeneye (746, new high count by 7), California Quail (44, high count by 2), Great Egret (294, prev high 274), Cattle Egret (tied prev high, all in one area), Mew Gull (54, prev high 47. Almost all at Piper Slough), Barn Owl (9, tied prev high), Great Horned Owl (40, tied prev high), Short-eared Owl (3, prev high 2), Orange-crowned Warbler (103, prev high 98), California Towhee (43, tied high count)
Low counts included Tundra Swan (47), Northern Shoveler (189), American White Pelican (19), Ferruginous Hawk (3, tied low), California Gull (44), American Robin (93, prev low 279), Cedar Waxwing (4, prev low 27), Red-winged Blackbird (25,608, prev 31,576).
In general, shorebird and dabbling duck numbers were pretty low considering effort, reflecting lack of standing water in many areas of the region. Collared-Doves continue to show their downward trajectory in the region, with only 200 this year, compared to a high of 834 in 2019-20 and a low of 173 in 2021-22.
Best,
Logan