Larry and I had a leisurely trip around the lake today. Because there
weren't the great numbers of waterfowl on the lake, our first main stop
was Mudlock to look at the BALD EAGLE on nest with at least one visible
gray fluff young. Steve Kress' SFO class was also observing the nest.
Of note around the auto loop, we did see 2 DUNLIN and a GREATER YELLOW
LEGS. When we thought we wouldn't see much else besides the waterfowl
which have already been reported, by Benning Marsh, Larry said he
thought he spotted something in the grass on left side of road. Sure
enough, out in plain sight was a very cooperative AMERICAN BITTERN!! It
was fascinating to watch. I took a couple of poor digiscope photos of
it, as well as the Eagle, which can be viewed with following link:
https://picasaweb.google.com/sjh4hymes/AmericanBitternBaldEagle?authkey=Gv1sRgCPvum7ODt9jNuAE#
At Tsachacke Pool we saw 5 Eagles in the distance along with lots of
GADWALL constantly bobbing their tails in air and 7 SNOW GEESE flying in
the air. Our other interesting observation was at the DEC building on
Morgan Rd. When we pulled up there was a lot of commotion by 25 CROWS
who were obviously mobbing something. Once our scope was setup, we
could discern in the distance off to left in trees, that a RED-TAILED
HAWK (back to us unfortunately) had just caught an AMERICAN CROW. The
Hawk and prey were in a low tree near ground, and crow was still
struggling in an attempt to get free. After scanning the rest of area
for ducks and watching an AMERICAN KESTRIL guarding a nest box, we would
scan back to see if crow had any luck in escaping. After about 15 min.
of watching, it was obvious to us, that the Hawk had it's meal for the
day, but we did not stay to watch if it was even able to get airborn
with it, or just consumed on the spot. Several of the crows took off
after another Red-tail (mate?) and gave up on their unfortunate buddy.
While there, Larry may have seen an AMERICANxEURASIAN TEAL hybrid. The
bird had a very prominent white stripe on the scapulars, but it also had
a prominent white bar. Once spotted it started preening and we couldn't
ID it any clearer. Is it possible that the Green Wing Teal (not hybrid)
can at times display a prominent white stripe above the scapulars?
We returned via west side of lake, and because we didn't see many
waterfowl at all, decided to stop at Stewart Park for a final view
before sunset. No new birds were spotted there.
--
Sara Jane and Larry Hymes
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