Subject: S.F. Birds
Date: Apr 20 14:30:00 1995
From: "Michelsen, Teresa" - TEMI461 at ecy.wa.gov



OK - Here's my "bird offering" to the denizens of tweeter-land (to get back
in everyone's good graces and because even I am getting burned out on
non-bird messages):

This is a bird list from my recent weekend in the San Francisco Bay area. I
don't know what's supposed to be there, so I don't know if anything was
unusual...

Alviso Slough (S.F. Bay Wildlife Reserve):

Willet (guarding nests on mudflats)
Greater Yellow-Legs
Short-Billed Dowitcher (probably)
American Avocet
Black-Bellied Plover
Semi-Palmated Plover
Killdeer
Many sandpipers too far away to identify
Barn swallows
Great egret
Snowy egret
Mallard
Scrub Jay
Black Pheobe
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Bushtit
American Robin
Costa's Hummingbird
Golden-Crowned Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Mourning Dove
unidentified Buteo

Although I didn't see one, the ranger told me a story about the snowy
plovers who are nesting on a road near the bay. Spray from the bay blows up
onto the dunes and creates a foam-like substance, primarily made of salt.
It looks just like mounds and mounds of soap foam, but it's natural and
blows over the sand dunes in little balls. Anyway, the snowy plovers nest
near the road, and the babies apparently look just like little white balls
of salt-foam. So drivers couldn't tell the difference and wouldn't stop for
them - now they close the road throughout the nesting season to protect the
babies and other nesting birds that come up onto the road for warmth.

Monterey Bay (had only a few minutes to look at birds here):

Brown Pelican (one in breeding plumage and one not)
Brandt's Cormorants and Double-Crested Cormorants (both in breeding plumage)
Western Gull
California Gull
Black Turnstone