Natural History Wanderings

Poison Oak showing its fall colors

This week I started a Fall Birds of the Bay Area Class with Golden Gate Audubon. Today I went on a field trip to San Leandro Reservoir from the Valle Vista Staging area.  We went out on East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) land so if you go you need a trail use permit.

Although the reservoir is very low there are many land birds as well as a number of water birds that can be seen. We saw or heard 53 different species today. My choice for the bird of the day was a quick look at three Wood Ducks. We also saw an interesting behavior of about twenty-five ravens circling an area as we were returning to the parking lot at the end of the walk.

There was  fall color as a number of the deciduous trees have turned yellow and Poison Oak is turning red. There were Orange Sulphur and Buckeye butterflies as well as a number of woodrat nests.

You can see today’s bird list at San Leandro Reservoir bird list 10/19/13