November 28, 2005
Busy day around the Bay
On Saturday, Marcel, Magali and I decided to do a loop of San Francisco Bay in search of various interesting birds wintering in the area. Our first port of call was Lake Merritt in Oakland, where our quarry was a drake Tufted Duck. In spite of combing through every Aythya we could see, the bird didn't show itself. This was compensated for by amazing looks at a flock of Barrow's Goldeneye, many of which were displaying.
The Eye of Sauron? (The real owner of this eye can be seen at the end of this post).
We next crossed over the south Bay, to look for a Rusty Blackbird at Bayfront Park - we saw plenty of blackbirds, but not the one we wanted. Green-winged Teal were displaying at this spot - note the raised crowns and obvious 'tuft' at the back of the head.
In Redwood Shores we searched for a female Tufted Duck. In spite of the appalling light and reams of Scaup of both flavours to sift through, Marcel picked up the bird (left) on head shape - not the most inspiring view I've had, but a US lifer nonetheless.
We then drove north up the peninsula to Golden Gate Park, where an Eastern Bell's Vireo was wintering. By now it was early afternoon and there were people everywhere, which didn't fill me with much hope of finding the bird. However, Magali spotted it as it foraged low in the foliage, and over the next 30 minutes we were treated to eye-popping views. Given the proximity and skulking nature of the bird, I was very pleased to get one decent digiscoped shot among the copious bad ones.
It was a much brighter bird than the Western Bell's Vireos I have seen in Arizona, with the yellow underparts and powder-blue legs standing out in the strong sunlight. Here's looking at you!
We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge (I still feel like I'm in a movie whenever I do this), getting glorious views of the San Francisco and the Bay. Our final destination of the day was Point Reyes, where I filled probably the most glaring gaps in my California list - one each of White-winged and Black Scoters just offshore from Drake's Beach. After dark, we followed a tip-off about Northern Saw-whet Owls near the Point Reyes Youth Hostel. I enjoyed a whistling dialogue with one nearby bird, and even managed a few seconds' worth of flight views in the spotlight. An exhausting but exhilarating day's birding!
Black-crowned Night-Heron at Lake Merritt.
