Message-ID: <002b01c22e9c$8c543560$[[email protected]]>
From: "Peggy L. Don" <[[email protected]]>
To: "SBB" <[[email protected]]>
Cc: "Peggy L. Don" <[[email protected]]>
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 13:49:01 -0700
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Subject: [SBB] Birding at Arzino Ranch, State Street & Spreckles, EEC, and
 Crittenden Marsh
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SBBers,

On Wednesday, July 17, 2002, Linda Sullivan and I started a day of birding at
Arzino Ranch.  Our most notable sightings there were a pair of Ring-necked
Pheasants with 8 foraging young, another adult male Ring-necked Pheasant and
21 mostly young Burrowing Owls.  We also saw Western Meadowlarks, Mourning
Doves, Rock Doves, European Starlings, Blackbirds, a Nuttall's Woodpecker,
Northern Mockingbird and Turkey Vulture, American Crows and Canada Geese.

At State Street & Spreckles we reacquainted ourselves with some shorebirds:
Western and Least Sandpipers, Dowitchers, Black-necked Stilts and Greater
Yellow Legs as Barn Swallows and American Crows flew overhead.  Also present
were a Great Egret and Ring-billed Gulls.  Perched on a nearby tower was a
pair of Red-tailed Hawks.

Our next destination was EEC.  The gate was locked but that didn't deter us.
We walked up the road and were rewarded with viewing numerous Red-necked
Phalaropes, 4 Black Skimmers (Where was the baby?), a beautiful Eared Grebe in
breeding plumage, a Song Sparrow being chased by a Marsh Wren and soaring
American White Pelicans.  Also present were Black-necked Stilts, American
Avocets, Dowitchers, a Northern Mockingbird and Savannah Sparrow, Forster's
Terns, Great and Snowy Egrets, a Great Blue Heron, Barn Swallows, House
Finches, Brown-headed Cowbirds, Mallards, Canada Geese, a Turkey Vulture, an
Anna's Hummingbird, a Double-crested Cormorant perched on a nearby street lamp
post and American Crows.

Our last stop was the Crittenden Marsh area.  Among the birds foraging on the
mudflats were Semipalmated Plovers, Long-billed Curlews and Lesser Yellow
Legs.  A female Northern Harrier made a swift pass at some of the sandpipers.
We saw Forster's Terns but no Least Terns.  We were looking for them
apparently in the wrong pond yesterday.  Other birds seen were Great and Snowy
Egrets, Western Sandpipers, a Double-crested Cormorant, American Coot, Black
Phoebe and Savannah Sparrow, House Finches, Barn and Cliff Swallows and White
Pelicans

Good birding,
Peggy Don