Natural History Wanderings

Today we went birding at Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary to see shorebirds and Garretson Pt. to see waterbirds. It was mostly cloudy in the 40’s with a light breeze. The tide was going out.

At Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary there were 100’s maybe 1000’s of shorebirds in the mudflats. (I am terrible at estimating large numbers of birds.) Most abundant were Western Sandpipers, Marbled Godwits, Willets, Semipalmated Plover, and Ring-billed Gulls. A first for me was seeing a Western Bluebird at this site. When doing my ebird list I was surprised to see there were no previous reports of Western Bluebirds at Elsie Roemer. I was able to identify 26 different species.

After leaving Elsie Roemer we decided to have a quick look at Garretson Pt. at Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline. The seasonal pond opposite the parking lot had very little water in it and only three crows. However, there were plenty of waterbirds and shorebirds in the bay and creek. We had three species of Teal: Green-winged, Cinnamon and seven Blue-winged (most Blue-winged I have seen here). In 35 minutes here and just checking out the nearby shoreline and creek we were able to see 31 species.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Click Read More to see bird lists

Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary Alameda, California, US
Jan 2, 2016 9:35 AM – 10:50 AM
26 species

Canada Goose  X
Northern Pintail  X
Bufflehead  X
Ruddy Duck  X
Double-crested Cormorant  X
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  1
Snowy Egret  1
American Coot  X
American Avocet  X
Black-bellied Plover  X
Semipalmated Plover  X
Willet  X
Long-billed Curlew  X
Marbled Godwit  X
Least Sandpiper  X
Western Sandpiper  X
Ring-billed Gull  X
Western Gull  X
Forster’s Tern  8

MLK Jr. Regional Shoreline–Garretson Pt., Alameda, California, US
Jan 2, 2016 11:10 AM – 11:45 AM

31 species

Canada Goose  X
American Wigeon  X
Blue-winged Teal  7
Cinnamon Teal  4
Northern Shoveler  3
Northern Pintail  4
Green-winged Teal  X
Greater Scaup  X
Bufflehead  X
Common Goldeneye  1
Ruddy Duck  X
Horned Grebe  X
Eared Grebe  3
Double-crested Cormorant  X
Brown Pelican  4
Snowy Egret  1
Turkey Vulture  X
American Coot  X
Black-necked Stilt  X
American Avocet  X
Black-bellied Plover  X
Willet  X
Long-billed Curlew  X
Marbled Godwit  X
Black Turnstone  2
Least Sandpiper  X
Western Sandpiper  X
Anna’s Hummingbird  1
Black Phoebe  1
American Crow  X
Golden-crowned Sparrow  6