[SBB] Lawrence's Goldfinch etc/Arastradero 4/4/2005

["Garth Harwood" <[[email protected]]>]

I checked nestboxes at Arastradero Preserve this morning 4/4/2005 and found little in the boxes yet. A House Wren was attending a half-built nest however, and another box (which had an enlarged opening courtesy of the local Acorn Woodpeckers) had 4 large, pale blue eggs which I suspect are Starling eggs. 

By sifting through a large flock of Lesser Goldfinches several times, I was able to turn up one silent male Lawrence's Goldfinch. This species has often turned up at the Preserve in the first week of April since I began tending boxes here in 1997. I have always had them at fiddleneck flowers. This flock was also feeding in fiddlenecks, at the extreme NE corner of the preserve overlooking Hwy 280.

A couple of Selasphorus hummingbirds were heard-only among the eucalyptus trees near the boxes. And I had an entertaining interlude with a Sharp-shinned Hawk which engaged in some "wake hunting" by repeatedly swooping on Golden-crowned Sparrows which I inadvertently flushed from cover as I moved along.

Felt Lake still had some ducks about. I saw a dozen Ring-necked Ducks, six Ruddy Ducks, and a male Northern Shoveler, which species I don't recall seeing there before.

Five White-throated Swifts were among the mixed swallows overhead. Like Mike Rogers over the weekend, I found no Cliff Swallows among them. On 4/1 I visited Foothills Park and saw no CLSW at the Visitor's Center there either. (The Center is only a mile or so south of the Arastradero parking lot.) This is particularly troubling as I used to find a hundred or so nests there before - as the rangers told me - the local ravens found out how easily they could batter the nests apart and eat the contents. On 4/1 a pair of Common Ravens was walking around on the ground beneath the colony site (expectantly?) I wouldn't be surprised if this whole colony has been eliminated. Has anyone observed this pattern elsewhere?

At Hidden Villa today, the incoming migrant bird population is really filling out. Standing by the pig barn I could simultaneously hear Warbling Vireo, Wilson's Warbler, Black-headed Grosbeak, and Pacific-slope Flycatcher, in addition to many outbound Townsend's Warblers.

--Garth Harwood
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