Wildcat Canyon Birding: Late Summer

Townsend's Warbler

This is the second essay I wrote on birding in my local open space. Originally posted on Next-door as a way to reach out to neighbors and get them excited about enjoying the biodiversity in our local park.

 

 

 

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Birds in Wildcat Canyon: Late Summer Edition. After more than a week of extreme heat, smoke, and park closure, my binoculars and I finally made it out to Wildcat Canyon yesterday. It was pretty quiet, but I ended up with around 37 species including several fall migrants. I heard a Western Tanager, so they are still coming through. I also had four species of warblers, a sure sign that fall is approaching! Wilson’s Warblers breed in the park so the one I saw may have been a local bird from this summer, but Yellow Warbler, Townsend’s Warbler, and Black-throated Gray Warblers are all newly arrived from their breeding grounds. [photo is a Townsend's Warbler, probably a young female]

FALL WARBLERS: Up for a challenge? Fall warblers can be tricky to find and to identify. In the spring, male warblers are considerate enough to SING LOUDLY AND DISTINCTLY, OVER AND OVER AGAIN. We’re not so lucky in the fall, and today I was straining my ears to pick out quick, infrequent call notes. Also, the adult birds will now be mixed with the young of the year, so be prepared for some drabber plumages along with the more vibrant yellows that the spring males of some species show off. Sometimes warblers will join our noisier resident birds in foraging flock, so if you come across some chickadees or bushtits, take a moment to pick out bird movement in the trees and maybe you’ll spot some other species too. The warblers and other migrants can show up anywhere, and different species may prefer different vegetation, but in general good places start your search include patches of willows in Wildcat Canyon and the mixed woodland along Wildcat Creek in Alvarado Park.

ACORN TIME: Fall in our oak woodlands means the start of a food bounty for some of our local wildlife. Watch for Western Scrub-jays flying around with their mouth full. Like many corvids (crow relatives), these jays will obsessively collect food then stash it around the landscape. And of course there are the aptly-named Acorn Woodpeckers. Family groups of these noisy hoarders can include multiple breeding males, multiple breeding females, and stay-at-home kids from previous years! The whole family works together to stash large numbers of acorns in tree sections called granaries. Other wildlife that incorporate acorns in their fall diet includes Wild Turkeys, California Quail, Band-tailed Pigeons (our fantastic large native pigeon), Woodrats, and Fox Squirrels. The Huchiun Ohlone people who lived in what is now Wildcat Canyon also relied on acorns as part of their diet.

LEAVING SOON: if not already gone, many of our breeding birds that head further south for the winter. These include the Wilson’s Warblers and Orange-crowned Warblers, along with Black-headed Grosbeaks.

OUTSIDE THE PARK: Looking for other places to see migrating songbirds? Wildcat Canyon is pretty dry, and in our parched summer landscape birds may be a little easier to find around water. Keep your bird bath filled, you could get surprise visitors to your backyard! One spot I’ve visited in late summer (although not yet this year) is Creekside Park on the Albany/El Cerrito border, on the north side of Albany Hill. The solitary wooded hill rising out of the urban landscape may be an attractor for birds coming through. Once they’re drawn in, they pause and forage in the trees along the creek. I’ve never had a sketchy experience there but as always be aware of your surroundings.

One of the most exciting bird migrations we get in the Bay Area is the fall migration of raptors. Not all raptors migrate, but some species and populations do, and they often take routes with advantageous topography and thermals to make their way south. The best place in the Bay Area is probably Hawk Hill in the Marin Headlands just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Prime days will see dozens or hundreds of hawks of several species zoom past, some practically at eye level. Osprey, Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks should start increasing soon, and the overall peak is usually late September. Go on a sunny day for your best chance. Visit https://www.parksconservancy.org/programs/golden-gate-raptor-observatory for more details.

I’ve always thought we should get more migratory raptors along San Pablo Ridge than we do. Could be I’ve just not caught the right day yet!

Wildcat Canyon Birding: Early August

Hermit Warbler

I’ve always enjoyed sharing my love of birds and nature, whether with students in the classroom, field techs on a research trip, or strangers I might meet on the trail. In fact, this was a big reason why I started my photography business. Since I haven’t been able to do this much in person this year, I’ve started to write up some short nuggets to share online. These have been focused on Wildcat Canyon (my local open space), and I’ve been posting versions of these on our Nextdoor network so I can reach neighbors who have ready access to the park. So far the feedback has been really positive and I’ve gotten a lot of messages of thanks along with questions and observations shared.

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SUMMER BIRDS IN WILDCAT CANYON PARK. With the hills covered in beaten down brown grass, August may not seem like an interesting time to look for birds, but it is! What’s going on in the park these days? I’ve put together a few highlights from my own experience walking there, with some help from a citizen science platform called eBird. For example, eBird can summarize the seasonal occurrence of all the birds that have been reported in Wildcat Canyon.

https://ebird.org/barchart?r=L388820&yr=all&m=

What have you been seeing? YOUNGSTERS: Most birds have already finished their nesting season, but family life for many species extends once the nest is empty. Look for groups of Dark-eyed Juncos and Spotted Towhees with the fledglings still showing streaky plumage. Young crows and ravens sound like spoiled brats as they give their higher nasal begging calls. Keep your eye on the ridges for young red-tailed hawks taking advantage of the updraft to look for rodents on the slopes below. In past years I’ve seen more than a dozen from one spot! And our fledgling Great-horned Owls should still be around somewhere!

FALL MIGRATION BEGINS: It’s still a bit early for many of the migrating songbirds, but it’s never too soon to start looking for birds making their way to or through the Bay Area in the fall. I’ve seen a few notices of Western Tanagers already making their way south, including one along McBryde Avenue near the park. These are a great bird to find since they do only pause here in the East Bay Hills during migration. Plus they are gorgeous! Try to get a good look at their beaks to make sure you can separate them from the similarly-sized Black-headed Grosbeak or Hooded/Bullock’s Orioles. For a tougher “migration challenge” in the park, look for another bird that only visits briefly in the spring and fall, the Hermit Warbler. I’ve only seen these little yellow-faced beauties a few times.

WHO’S LEAVING. Some of our summer breeders have left or will leave by the end of August. For example, Ash-throated Flycatchers and our cavity-nesting Tree and Violet-green Swallows, common sights throughout the spring, will be much harder to find by Labor Day. Also, get your last looks at Lazuil Bunting if you can find some, although they are more easily found in the spring when their cheerful song rings out from the mustard and willows.

OUTSIDE THE PARK: Actually, the best migrations going on right now are not in the hills and woodlands. Instead, check along the bay, coast, or other spots where there’s lots of mud or water. I’m talking about Shorebirds! Many species of sandpipers, plovers, and their relatives breed well to the north. Many species have already started their southward migration. Often the adults leave the breeding grounds first, and the fledglings will leave a little later. Shorebirds are one of the trickiest groups of birds to master, and you’ll benefit from good optics like spotting scopes to see more of the fine detail. Even if sorting through field guides to identify shorebirds isn’t (yet) your cup of tea, this is still a great time to appreciate shorebirds in the Bay Area. Not only are some of the adults still in their breeding plumage, but the young may be sporting crisp colorful new feathers as well.

Good birding!

On owls: the balance between love and obsession

Owlet takes flight

Reposting another essay I wrote this year for Golden Gate Audubon. There haven’t been a lot of things to celebrate in 2020, but one highlight has been in finding two Great Horned Owl families in Wildcat Canyon, my local open space. In this piece I talk a bit about taking a moment to evaluate my impact on the birds, in light of the potential negative effects that too much attention can have on these birds. The essay features lots of my photographs as well!

Essay is here, from August 2020.

Nature Sounds Society Workshop (Part 2)

Sandhill Cranes

Of course, the biggest part of the workshop was getting out to appreciate nature sounds! We were fortunate to have great weather for the morning recording sessions- the heat didn’t really take over until late morning when we were mostly done.  For more about the sessions at the field station, check out Part 1.

 

 

Eric listening to the dawn chorus

The first full day saw us waking up at 2:45AM to drive from the field station to Sierra Valley on the other side of the pass. Our caravan parked along a gravel road in a marshy area at about “nautical twilight”- that time before sunrise when the sky lightens enough to accurately discern the horizon line. We spread out along the road as the eerie pulsing “winnow” of Wilson’s snipe sounded out of the darkness. Gradually the sky became lighter, and we were treated to a whole range of sounds including bullfrogs, sandhill cranes, 3 kinds of blackbirds, meadowlarks, cows, and one of the most powerful and prolonged coyote chorus that I’ve ever heard. I can only speak for myself, but it took every ounce of restraint not ruin 18 people’s sound recordings by yelling “Holy crap that was amazing!” (we were specifically warned not to do this the night before)

A Brewer's Blackbird pauses on a fence line in Sierra Valley

Our next stop was a one-lane bridge a little farther up the road. The bridge hosts a large colony of cliff swallows, so we were treated to the sights and sounds of hundreds of swallows darting and wheeling around us.

Cliff Swallows, Sierra Valley

After a quick stop to eat (coffee, breakfast sandwiches, fruit, homemade muffins and granola- the organizers spared no effort to keep us happy and powered up!), we headed to a forest meadow site called Carmen Valley. It was getting hot and summer insect sounds started to replace bird vocalizations before too long, although we did see some of the typical Sierra Nevada birds like White-headed Woodpecker, Lincoln Sparrow, and Mountain Chickadee. Most exciting was surprising a young bear with unusually blonde fur. The bear was definitely more scared of us than we were of it.

Brewer's Blackbird

The next morning we woke up at the leisurely hour of 3:15 AM to check out the dawn chorus at the Yuba Pass summit just a few miles up the road from the field station. The mosquitoes finally found us up here, but even so, it was well worth it to hear the forest come alive. There’s not much that beats hearing the ethereal flute-like song of hermit thrushes in a towering forest or the sounds of a sapsucker’s drumming echoing among the trunks. It was also a treat to see several flocks of Evening Grosbeaks along the side of the road.

Dawn light, Yuba Pass Summit

Male Evening Grosbeak

Beautiful scenery, great wildlife, and intellectual and aesthetic stimulation. What could be better than that! I definitely hope to return one day, and would recommend others with similar interests in nature sounds and soundscapes to check out the Nature Sounds Society and the field recording workshop in particular.

Wyoming Bird Bonanza

Apart from the habitat and climate, there is another thing that separates birding in Wyoming compared with birding in California, and that is the community of birders out there actually looking at birds. The Bay Area has several Audubon Societies and a balkanization of email lists that distribute bird sighting to their members. In contrast, Wyoming has one email list (with ~250 members) for the entire state! Why does this matter? As citizen science projects such as eBird start to fill in our knowledge of bird distribution and abundance, Wyoming could be left as a blank spot on those maps.

Towards that end, two folks at the University of Wyoming, James Maley and Matt Carling, are again putting out a call for the few of us out there to submit our spring bird sightings to eBird. Hence the Wyoming Bird Bonanza.

One correction to the article I’ve copied below- there is no other registration needed aside from eBird. Matt and James will scour the statewide submissions themselves.

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This edition of Bird Banter, about the upcoming Wyoming Birding Bonanza, was
published April 7, 2013, in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Feel free to disperse
it to anyone interested in participating. Thanks to James Maley,
jmaley1@uwyo.edu, for the information. Contact the author at
bgorges4@msn.com.

Wyoming Birding Bonanza strikes again

By Barb Gorges

Are you ready for the second annual Wyoming Birding Bonanza?
Polish your binoculars because you can be a winner.

The competition was dreamed up last year by James Maley and Matt
Carling, both of the University of Wyoming’s Department of Zoology and
Physiology. James is collections manager of the Museum of Vertebrates and
Matt is an assistant professor.

Their goal is to increase the number of bird observations for Wyoming during
spring migration that are recorded in the eBird.org data base, and to get
birders into the habit of submitting information. The data is used by
scientists.

Last year, the contest ran from mid-April to mid-June but this
year it is being pared back to May 1 – 31, migration peak weeks.

Thanks to sponsors like last year’s, Cheyenne – High Plains,
Laramie and Meadowlark Audubon societies, as well as UW’s Biodiversity
Institute, Audubon Wyoming and eBird, there are prizes. [Author's note: If
you would like to be a sponsor, contact James Maley, jmaley1@uwyo.edu.]

Registered contestants who enter at least 15 checklists will
receive a WBB T-shirt. A checklist is a list of bird species and number of
individuals of each, seen in a particular location during a period of time.
James promises this year’s T-shirt will be a work of art. Everyone who turns
in at least 10 checklists will be entered in a grand prize drawing.

Also, for each Wyoming county, the participant reporting the most species
will win a prize. Last year, I was the Laramie County winner and received
the latest edition of the National Geographic field guide. This year our
county is up for grabs since I’m going to be out less often.

For better odds, try birding Big Horn, Converse and Sublette
counties, where no checklists were turned in last year, James said.

“April, May, and June of 2012 are now the top three months of
all time for number of checklists statewide,” he said. There were 1,282
turned in, compared to 424 for the same months in 2010. A total of 266
species was observed in 2012.

I know I paid closer attention to the birds around me because of
the competition. I found a summer tanager in our backyard May 11, considered
rare for Wyoming.

James passed on a list of other rare bird sightings from 2012:

–1 Glossy Ibis at Meeboer Lake (west of Laramie) on April 17

–1 Lesser Black-backed Gull also at Meeboer Lake on April 17

–1 Black-and-white Warbler at Holliday Park on April 21

–1 Juniper Titmouse at Guernsey State Park on April 22

–1 Long-tailed Jaeger at Hutton Lake NWR on May 3

–1 Northern Cardinal in Laramie on May 4

–5 Short-billed Dowitchers at Hutton on May 5

–1 Snowy Owl at Keyhole State Park on May 15

–1 Blackpoll Warbler at Hereford on May15

–1 Cattle Egret in Rock River on May 17

–1 White-eyed Vireo near Lander on May 28.

So, are you ready to earn that WBB T-shirt? You can do it by
simply counting the birds in your backyard for a few minutes at least 15
different times. Here’s what you need to do.

First, sign up at www.eBird.org, if you haven’t already. It’s
free. Click on the “About eBird” link, and then the “eBird Quick Start
Guide,” the first link on that page.

When setting up your observation locations, select a hotspot marker if there
is one at one of your locations already, such as Wyoming Hereford Ranch or
Lions Park. Otherwise, on the map your personal marker may be hidden
underneath the hotspot’s. You can view your data for a hotspot alone or
collated with everyone else’s. If you have questions about eBird, call me.

Next, sign up for the Wyoming Birding Bonanza at
http://www.uwyo.edu/biodiversity/vertebrate-museum/birding-bonanza/. It’s
also free.

Here are the rules.

Counting:

1. Participants will count only full species as defined by the current
American Birding Association checklist.

2. Birds identified to a taxonomic level above species may be
counted if no other member of the taxonomic level is on the checklist. For
example, duck sp. can be counted if no other ducks are seen.

3. Birds counted must be alive and unrestrained. Sick and
injured birds are countable. Nests and eggs do not count.

4. Electronic devices are allowed, but see ABA’s Code of Ethics for
guidelines.

Time: We will extract final eBird data for the Bonanza on 30 June 2013.

Area: Anywhere in Wyoming.

Conduct:

1. Participants must only count birds unquestionably identified.
If in doubt, leave it out.

2. Know and abide by the rules.

3. Share information with other birders–they’ll thank you.

Good birding to all!

xxx