Natural History Wanderings

Golden Gate Audubon held the annual Oakland Christmas Bird Count this past Sunday December 14. It is 115th year of Audubon Bird Counts and the 74th Oakland Bird Count. The preliminary total of species counted was 176, which is 7 short of the all time total. Highlights included

• A female Kingfisher eating a fish at Lake Merritt.
• An Osprey over Lake Temescal, and two at San Leandro Bay.
• Lots of owls… Western Screech, Great Horned, Long-eared, Northern Saw-whet, Barn, and Burrowing.
• Seventeen Snowy Plovers in Alameda, and one at Middle Harbor Shoreline Park too.
• A Peregrine Falcon grabbing a Northern Shoveler in Alameda.
• A Bald Eagle and Golden Eagle in Lafayette.
• Sixty-nine White Pelicans at San Pablo Reservoir, along with a family of six river otters.
• Two Barn Swallows in Alameda — the only such sighting in the Oakland count circle in the past 40 years.
• Birding by golf cart at Sequoyah Country Club… and then meeting an unusual red-hued seasonal migrant there.

Read full story at: 2014 Oakland CBC — great day, no rain | Golden Gate Audubon Society.