Natural History Wanderings

Today we went birding along the Emeryville Shoreline. We walked just under two miles along the shoreline, park and Marina.  It was high tide, however it was a rather low high tide of just 4.23 feet. The habitat is rocky shoreline, landfill park area, and marina.

Marbled Godwits and Willets were along the rocky shoreline next to walking path. Numbers were small compared to what will probably be seen with higher tides and later in the season. Two Short-billed Dowitchers and one Whimbrel were the only other shorebirds in riprap. Numbers are probably very conservative as I usually only counted the most seen at one time. There were a number of Swallows but only had good identifications on one of each species. Best sightings were watching the Belted Kingfisher fly across, the distant “V” formation of the Pelicans, and Forster’s Tern fishing. Double-crested Cormorants and Gulls were only birds seen in the Bay.

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Bird List

Double-crested Cormorant 55

Brown Pelican 11

Willet 44

Whimbrel 1

Marbled Godwit 55

Least Sandpiper 16

Short-billed Dowitcher 2

Western Gull 2

Forster’s Tern 1

Mourning Dove 11

Anna’s Hummingbird 4

Belted Kingfisher 1

American Crow 4

Barn Swallow 1

Cliff Swallow 1

Chestnut-backed Chickadee 2

European Starling 7

White-crowned Sparrow 2

Song Sparrow 1

California Towhee 5

House Finch 4

Lesser Goldfinch  1