Yesterday afternoon I visited the wetlands east of Martinez & east of I-680 on the north side of Waterfront Road. There are two locked gates with parking along the side of the road, and I choose to walk north through the gate that goes into a grassy area that is obviously a park though locals walked the better road north through the gate with clear "no trespassing" signs about 100 yards to the east.
About 15 minutes before sunset (5:30 pm) a short-eared owl started flying around about 1/2 mile north of Waterfront Road and ranged pretty widely. As enjoyable were the large number of White-tailed Kites with numbers building toward dusk and birds still in the air when the owl appeared, my last count was a total of 39 kites, including about 22 on one roost to the northwest of the property. This may well be an undercount given that birds were flying in from a number of directions and I turned my attention to finding the previously report short-eared owl.
Graham Chisholm Berkeley
-- Graham Chisholm c. 510-409-6603 e. graham.chisholm@...
