February 7, 2012

Weekend in SF Bay area

We had a whirlwind weekend in the bay area, but still found time to visit a couple wonderful spots. The first is the Radio City Sewage Treatment Ponds in Redwood City. Not exactly romantic, but it was wall-to-wall waterfowl.

  • Green-Winged Teal
  • American Widgeon
  • Canvas Backs
  • Northern Shoveler
  • American Avocets
  • Black-necked Stilts
  • Gadwalls
  • Buffleheads
  • Hooded Mergansers
  • Ruddy Ducks
  • Mallards
  • Willet
  • Ring-billed Gull
  • California Gull
  • American Coot

On Sunday afternoon, before heading home, we visited St. George Spirits in Alemeda, then headed over to Arrowhead Marsh just to the east of the Oakland airport. We parked and immediately puzzled over a Northern Mockingbird (not a bird in our normal area) and a flock of golden-crowned sparrows. Humming birds were flitting around the bushes, but we never got a good look at one, so no idea what they were.

We walked across the lawn and saw a large flock of coots, a California Towhee and a Black Phoebe. There weren't a lot of waders although we saw one Willet and a number of coots on the mud. There was a flock of Western grebes on the water and a flock that appeared to be a mixed group of Eared and Horned grebes in winter plumage.

There were a number of warblers in a large cottonwood tree including yellow-rumped warblers, but there were others we couldn't ID.

The high-light was wandering out on an observation deck above the marsh grass and eventually spotted a Clapper Rail. at first it was quite shy and we just caught glimpses, but eventually it came up onto a reed mat and displayed itself, offering a photo op. In the meantime marsh wrens were active in the reeds. It was busy foraging on mussels and would pop up to pries one open. We watched it for some time as the light faded, then had to run back across the bay to catch our flight home.

  • Golden-crowned sparrow
  • Northern Mockingbird
  • Humming bird (unidentified)
  • California Towhee
  • Black Phoebe
  • American Coot
  • Willet
  • Western grebe
  • Eared grebe
  • Horned Grebe
  • Brown Pelican
  • Mallard Duck
  • Clapper Rail
  • Marsh Wren
Posted on February 7, 2012 05:23 PM by loren loren | 1 observation | 0 comments | Leave a comment

January 5, 2012

Pond in Tualatin

I was running errands and the scope was in the car, so I stopped off at a small pond that is part of the Tualatin Green space initiative, I think it is an impoundment of Balch Creek, tributary to the Tualatin River.
There were a lot of birds on the water, and interestingly, they were a very different mix from what I’d seen at the nearby Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge over the past 3 days.

Predominant Species at:
TRNWR:

  • Canada Geese
  • Northern Pintail
  • Mallards
  • American Wigeon
  • Lesser Scaup
  • Buffleheads
  • Ruddy Ducks

Tualatin Pond:

  • Gadwall
  • Ring-necked Duck
  • American Wigeon
  • Merganser

Aside from the scale, the ponds look like pretty similar habitat and geomorphically and are geographically close. TRNWR is a winter flood plain of the Tualatin with permanent impoundments and the Tualatin pond is an impoundment of a small stream tributary to the nearby Tualatin. There must be more differences to the ducks than meet the eye to a distant human observer. I didn’t see any Gadwalls, Ring-Necked Ducks or Common Mergansers at the refuge, I didn’t see any Pintails or Mallards on the Tualatin pond.

Conditions: overcast, 50 degrees and fairly still.

Posted on January 5, 2012 10:35 PM by loren loren | 1 observation | 0 comments | Leave a comment

January 4, 2012

One more foray - TRNWR

We made another trip out to the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge this morning in an attempt to see the Emperor Goose.

Finally success! It was a really striking bird and a first for both my wife and myself.

There wre still plenty of birds in the area, but probalby half the number of the previous 2 days. We ran across the Emperor Goose in a flock of canada geese just north of the main visitor center. After it finally left with it's gaggle, we went to the center observation deck. still plenty of pintails but less than half of what had been there the prior two days. The number of American Wigeons was way down too, but the Eurasian Wigeon was still there.

The adult Bald Eagle made a couple sweeps over and we spotted a trio of Greater White-Fronted Geese on the near shore under the visitor center.

At around 3:00 I went over to the Coffee Creek Lake area between Tualatin and Wilsonville to see if a reported Bewick's Eurasian Tundra swan was there - no sign and very few birds on the water anywhere.

Conditions: 9:00 AM sunny and cool at about 45 degrees. very nice weather, but a front moved in at 12 noonish and it's started raining.
3:00 PM overcast, light rain / drizzle and about 50 degrees.

Posted on January 4, 2012 11:56 PM by loren loren | 14 observations | 0 comments | Leave a comment

January 3, 2012

Tualatin National Wildlife Refuge

We headed out to the wildlife refuge again this morning. An Emperor Goose has been sighted there several times in the past few days, usually in the mornings.

No sign of it today, but nice collection of waterfowl on the ponds. we saw at least one and possibly more Eurasian wigeons mixed in with American Wigeons. Hundreds of Pintails and a nice mix of scaups, ruddy and bufflehead ducks mixed in.

Most of the birds were at binoc and scope distances so not many pics and no real good ones.

Conditions: 45 degrees high haze and partial sun.

Yesterday we headed up to PDX (international airport) and the Broughton Beach area along the Columbia in an attempt to see a snow bunting that has been frequenting the area. We missed it by 5 minutes, but saw pics and talked with folks who did see it. We hung around for a bit, then the police stopped in to check out why we were sitting around with spotting scopes near the end of the runway. He had heard about he bird and was very polite, but seemed a little incredulous that people would stand around a manky parking lot at an abandoned fire station near the end of a runway looking for bird.

Every few years, conditions are right (or wrong) and a bunch of arctic birds make it down this far. A few years back there were a number of Snowy Owls in the area and we saw a King Eider, Northern Hawk Owl and there were Emperor geese reported in several locations. This year is shaping up similarly with reports of Snowy owls in several places, the snow bunting and Emperor goose, and a Bewick’s Eurasian Tundra swan in the area.

Conditions: 45 degrees, extremely windy, overcast and occasional
showers.

Posted on January 3, 2012 06:50 PM by loren loren | 12 observations | 0 comments | Leave a comment

January 2, 2012

Kicked off the new year at Tualatin National Wildlife Refuge

New Years day turned out sunny and mild, so we decided to go for a walk in the Tualatin National Wildlife Refuge. Large numbers of waterfowl were wintering in and we say large numbers of Canadian Geese including Western (common) Dusky and Cackler sub-species. A white gose was mixed in with the flock that we thought might be a snow goose, but it lacked the black wing tips – we determined it was a feral domestic goose, probably akin to a commercial Embden.

Apparently an emperor goose has been seen on the ponds in past days, but no sign of it today.

Large numbers of ducks were on the ponds, predominantly mallards, Northern Pintails, American Widgeon, Ruddy Ducks and Buffleheads. 6 Eurasian widgeons were near the viewing area near the center. There were others out there, but we didn't take the scope, just binocs today.

Passerines we saw included Spotted Towhee, American Robin, Ruby-Crowned Kiglet and song sparrows.

A small acceptor was working the shoreline and brush lines trying to scare up birds. He caused quite a ruckus with the ducks and geese although he wasn't a threat. Later we watched him perch after a sweep, so we were able to get a good look and determined it was a Cooper's hawk. A red-tailed hawk was also wheeling overhead, but no osprey or Bald Eagles were spotted that day.

We also saw one Great Blue Heron and several double crested cormorants on the ponds.

It was a beautiful day out, but the place was really crowded and there were a lot of really noisy groups on the trails. Many of the birds were pulled back from the near shores.

Weather was in the low 50's with high, hazy clouds and sun. At one point a band of low clouds swept through and kicked up a pretty good wind for 30 minutes, then passed.

Posted on January 2, 2012 09:08 PM by loren loren | 15 observations | 1 comment | Leave a comment

Archives