Even when it rains, it pours. Eleven of us slogged
through some soaking rain at times this morning while making our way
around the park. It wasn't terribly pleasant, I must say. Nor were
there a lot of birds to see. However, there were some good highlights,
and our species count was excellent.
Highlights:
Greater White-fronted Goose 10 in the
grass/gravel parking lot C
Cackling Goose
2 large flocks overhead + 3 in lot C
Northern Pintail
Flock of 20+, pintail, and some wigeon???
Greater Scaup
1 at lake, First Of Fall
Bufflehead
2 males at lake, FOF
Ring-necked Pheasant
Male at Compost Piles
Green Heron
One at Rowing Club
Sharp-shinned Hawk
One at Rowing Club, going after siskins
Cooper's Hawk
One in Oregon Ash along slough
MERLIN
3rd week in a row; one seen (3 times)
Barn Owl
Brian had one early
Short-eared Owl
One in East Meadow about 7:40
Hairy Woodpecker
One west of mansion
Northern Shrike
1, East Meadow and north of soccer fields
Winter Wren
1 heard near east end of boardwalk, FOF
American Pipit
Heard some over grass soccer fields
AMERICAN TREE SPARROW One at Compost Piles
Pine Siskin
First large flocks of fall
Rain makes birding difficult, what with wet optics and cold hands. We
were a bit reluctant to bring binocs up to the eyes, especially if
looking upwards. Using them often didn't do much good anyway, due to
water droplets and fog. So the flock of ducks flying by might not have
gotten the best scrutiny possible. One of the ducks was clearly a drake
pintail. The others went unidentified. In my experience, Northern
Pintail and American Wigeon will often fly together and are hard to tell
apart in flight, so it could well have been a mixed flock, though only
pintail made the list.
The AMERICAN TREE SPARROW was hanging out with White-crowned and
Golden-crowned Sparrows at the Compost Piles (east of Lot G). This is
the same location where we had one for six weeks back in Jan/Feb.
For the day, 64 species!!! Admittedly, the owls were before the start
of the walk, and six were heard-only, but still...
We also had a couple of deer, and a dead Opossum at the Pea Patch.
== Michael
Ten Greater White-fronted Geese with three Cackling Geese
Rock Pigeons
Adult and immature Ring-billed Gulls
Horrible photo of the American Tree Sparrow
One of two Mule Deers
Ollie Oliver's photo of the Northern Shrike
Ollie's photo of the Green Heron at the Rowing Club
Ollie's photo of the Sharp-shinned Hawk that chased off the Pine Siskins
Ollie's photo from 2009-10-28, of a male Hooded Merganser at the Rowing Club
Same photographer, same bird, same location
Ollie's photo from 2009-10-28 of a Wilson's Snipe at the Rowing Club
Ollie's photo from 2009-10-28 of a first-winter Pied-billed Grebe