Bald Eagles and Kingbirds and Sparrows, oh my!

I went out and visited the Bald Eagles today to check up on the happy
couple. While I was there, the male brought in another ground
squirrel, and sat atop the tower for a while. then the female left the
nest for a little spin, and you could almost see the “damn! it feels
good to get out and stretch my wings!” in her flight as she played in
the thermals. She ulimately went really high and disappeared north and
didn’t come back for the 30 minutes or so I stayed after that. The
male sat on the edge of the nest and fed, then hopped down and sat on
the eggs. It was a nice warm day, so they didn’t seem to feel the eggs
needed constant sitting.

Other birds seen while watching the birds sit on the nest and do
nothing of interest: lots of magpies, at least one pair of bluebirds,
an acorn woodpecker, a small group of gold-crowned sparrows who popped
out and ground fed for a while, and lots of turkey vultures and a
couple of red-tails. One red-tail soared in while the male was
circling near the nest, got a little too close, and the male angled
over into an intercept, and the red-tailed hauled butt out of the
area. After the female left, we had repeated individuals of turkey
vultures soar by, and one got a little too close to the nest for the
male’s comfort, who get it a little yell, and it shifted directions
and headed south. On the way in to the nest, just after the Felter
split, I saw a bird in a tree and mentally checked off red-tailed.
Really big red-tailed. really, really big red-tailed with a brownish
head? I stopped and got out the binos, and it was a young golden
eagle. It was nice enough to fly over after that, showing off the
white spots on the underwings nicely.

After that, I birded Marsh road. On the way in, I had a single female
wild turkey on the road looking at me really nervously (it was gone
when I returned). All the way out at the end of Marsh I found two
western kingbird’s on the fence bugging, and they were joined by a
male bluebird. In the bushes along the road down in the flats I found
two Lark Sparrows. I stopped where the stream crosses the road (still
some water, but it’s way down from when it was raining) to check out
the area around the stream, and found some white-crowned sparrows on
the ground scratching for seeds, goldfinches, a nice Bullock’s Oriole
male on the fence, a single western meadowlark, lots of magpies, and
in the shade near the sparrows, a funky bird that I first thought was
a california towhee but realized it had a huge beak; it was a female
black-headed grossbeak that seemed to be moulting. I could hear
turkeys in the distance, but didn’t see any other than the one
individual.

All in all, a nicely successful birding day, hitting almost all of the
species I wanted to see (but rarely do) except California Quail, which
continues to hide well from me this year (so does the Baylands
pheasant… )

Location: Marsh Road, Calaveras
Observation date: 4/5/09
Number of species: 25

Wild Turkey 1
Turkey Vulture X
Red-shouldered Hawk 2
Mourning Dove 2
Anna’s Hummingbird 1
Black Phoebe 1
Western Kingbird 2
Steller’s Jay X
Western Scrub-Jay 1
Yellow-billed Magpie X
Tree Swallow X
Barn Swallow X
Oak Titmouse X
Western Bluebird 3
European Starling X
Orange-crowned Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler X
Lark Sparrow 2
White-crowned Sparrow 3
Dark-eyed Junco 2
Black-headed Grosbeak 1
Red-winged Blackbird X
Western Meadowlark 1
Lesser Goldfinch X
Lawrence’s Goldfinch X

Location: calaveras road
Observation date: 4/5/09
Number of species: 20

Double-crested Cormorant 1
Turkey Vulture X
Bald Eagle 2 Nesting pair
Red-tailed Hawk 3
Golden Eagle 1
Acorn Woodpecker 1
Black Phoebe 1
Steller’s Jay X
Western Scrub-Jay X
Yellow-billed Magpie 25
Common Raven 4 two interacting pairs
Tree Swallow 2
Oak Titmouse 1
Western Bluebird 2
European Starling X
Yellow-rumped Warbler X
Golden-crowned Sparrow 5
Red-winged Blackbird X
Lesser Goldfinch X
American Goldfinch X

And to catch up, I previously did a couple of short birding walks at lunch:

Shoreline Lake on 3/26:

I did my lunch ramble down to terminal road and walked over to
Shoreline to see if I could take pictures of the Eared Grebes.
Pictures I took, whether they’re any good in the backlighting I don’t
know yet.

the bittern was evidently eating out today, he was missing from his
usual spots.

Surprising to me: the number of eared grebes; most folks seem to be
reporting low numbers of the birds on the lake. I sat down on the
shore and hoped they’d come close, and started noticing multiple
groups of the birds, plus a few hanging out with the goldeneyes. At
one point, I could count 13 distinct individuals in sight — and
perhaps as many as 15, depending on which diving birds were timing it
to confuse me. All are either in breeding plumage or close to it,
really gorgeous, if you haven’t gotten down there to see them. Early
morning is probably better (as usual for Shoreline) to avoid sun glare
and backlighting problems.

Also a good number (10+) pied-bills, including some vocalizing at each
other.

Begin forwarded message:

> From: do-not-reply@ebird.org
> Date: March 26, 2009 2:39:59 PM PDT
> To: chuqui@me.com
> Subject: eBird Report – shoreline lake, mountain view , 3/26/09
>
>
>
> Location: shoreline lake, mountain view
> Observation date: 3/26/09
> Number of species: 14
>
> Canada Goose X
> Surf Scoter X
> Common Goldeneye X
> Ruddy Duck X
> Pied-billed Grebe 10
> Eared Grebe 13
> Snowy Egret 2
> Willet X
> Mourning Dove X
> Anna’s Hummingbird X
> American Crow X
> California Towhee 1
> White-crowned Sparrow X
> House Finch X
>
> This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

and

Ulistac Nature Preserve in Santa Clara on the 24th

I did a lunch walk at Ulistac today, starting about noon and spending about 45 minutes there, entering at the south gate and walking up the path down the middle of the area, then out the north gate and back down the sidewalk.

Special bird for me today was a Nashville Warbler (life #222) in a Willow in the Northern area of the park; it was lurking in a tree where two chickadees were having a very animated “get to know each other” conversation, which is what drew me in to happen to notice the other bird hop (thank you, chickadees, may your brood be large and healthy).

raptors included two Cooper’s Hawks, one flying, and a red-shouldered hawk that flew in and landed. I did see a Northern flicker, but not well enough to see if it was the Intergrade. I also saw two woodpeckers, neither well enough to document, but one I believe was a downy, and the other was — a woodpecker.

Lots of yellow-rumps, the southern part of the park was dominated by mockingbirds including one showing serious territoriality against another mockingbird. The northern part of the park had scrub jays in it. The Bewick’s Wren and the juncos were heard only. No sign of the Kingbird or other recent reports.

Begin forwarded message:

From: do-not-reply@ebird.org
Date: March 24, 2009 6:33:13 PM PDT (CA)
To: chuqui@me.com
Subject: eBird Report – Ulistac Nature Area , 3/24/09

Location:     Ulistac Nature Area
Observation date:     3/24/09
Number of species:     19

Turkey Vulture     1
Cooper’s Hawk     2
Red-shouldered Hawk     1
Mourning Dove     X
Anna’s Hummingbird     X
Northern Flicker     1
Western Scrub-Jay     X
American Crow     X
Chestnut-backed Chickadee     2
Bewick’s Wren     1
Northern Mockingbird     X
Nashville Warbler     1
Yellow-rumped Warbler     X
California Towhee     1
White-crowned Sparrow     X
Golden-crowned Sparrow     X
Dark-eyed Junco     X
House Finch     X
House Sparrow     X

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

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