[SBB] Charleston Marsh & Slough

[Karen DeMello <[[email protected]]>]

Last night en route to Charleston Marsh:  
As I started into the driveway at the end of Charleston Road I noticed
an odd shaped bird in a puddle.  I slowed down, and much to my
surprise it was a COOPER'S HAWK.  I watched it from the car as it
sipped up water and splashed around a bit.  Its bright yellow legs and
red eye really stood out in the low sunlight, and its crop was stuffed
full.  It looked very heavy.  After 5 minutes I slowly drove by it to
meet Kay Partelow in the parking lot further back, I waved Kay over
and we drove back to see that the Cooper's Hawk was no longer in the
puddle, but up above on a bare branch about 15' off of the ground.  
We had incredible views looking through my car window with binocs. 
After a few minutes we slowly drove by and turned around in the court
so that we could look at its backside.  Chris MacIntosh drove up
beside us and had great looks as well.

We eventually did make it to Charleston Marsh, where the ANNA'S
HUMMINGBIRD is still on the nest in the pine, and BUSHTITS were taking
food into their nest, a GREAT EGRET flew back and forth, and an
AMERICAN ROBIN kept fooling us with its stranger-than-usual songs.

This morning at Charleston Slough:  
In the spirit of exercise, I've been meeting girlfriends for dawn runs
twice a week since March 1st.  About 2/3rds of the time we see a male
RING-NECKED PHEASANT.   Today we saw 2!   One was just beyond the
bleachers (usually it's in the vicinity of the bleachers
give-or-take), the other was further towards the bay and on the other
side of Adobe Creek.

We heard and saw lots of COMMON YELLOWTHROATS, and we had a great
close view of a male CANVASBACK lit with the early morning sun.  Two
BARN SWALLOWS crisscrossed low in front of me on the path, and CLIFF
SWALLOWS are building nests on the pump house building.

A few years ago I used to see Black Skimmers on the island, but I
haven't seen any this past month.  This morning the island was full of
AMERICAN AVOCETS and WILLETS.

Karen DeMello
Mountain View
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