Natural History Wanderings

Aquatic Park in Berkeley, CA is next to the Freeway but it doesn’t seem to bother the birds. A very urban park with dogs, bikes, strollers and even a Gondola on the water today. Numerous waterbirds and egrets also are attracted to the area. Highlights of the day were seeing Crows mob a Red-tail Hawk, a King-fisher, and my first Red-breasted Mergansers of the season. It is a good place to photograph birds as there are opportunities to get fairly close.

Most numerous were the Scaup (both Greater and Lesser) and Coots. There were also more Goldeneye than I usually see and good numbers of Horned  and Pied-billed Grebe, Mallards (domestic hybrids and wild) and both Great and Snowy Egrets. The trees sounded full of Yellow-rumped Warblers, but they only made brief appearances. Also seen were a number of Monarch Butterflies and what I believe were Amanita Mushrooms.

We identified a total of 35 birds. Today’s list: Aquatic Park Bird List 12/14/14

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