GGAS Bicycle Trip

Upper Alameda Creek/Quarry Lakes/Union City Library Pond

Union City, Niles & Fremont - Sat, Nov 13, 2010

The outstanding sighting of a great birding day was the
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher at the SE corner of Quarry Lakes; we saw it through the
fence in the bushes adjacent to the northern unpaved side of Alameda Creek.
From the same point we saw a very cooperative singing Bewick's Wren.

Nine of us started at Quarry
Lakes by biking around Rainbow Lake to Lago Los Osos and Willow Slough before heading up the trail to
Shinn Pond and Niles Community Park where we had lunch. During the patching of
two flat tires (avoid the Star Thistle!) a flock of Bonaparte's Gulls landed on
the creek adjacent to the park. Continuing up the trail we crossed over to the
Niles Staging Area and the end of the trail. The birding was quite good there,
with an Acorn Woodpecker, Belted Kingfisher, Spotted Sandpiper, Lesser
Yellowlegs and Cedar Waxwings. We thought we saw a Golden Eagle but it was
quite far away so I haven't put it on the list.

Going back downstream on the paved side of the trail, we
went north onto Decoto Rd then left on Royal Ann to the Union City Library Pond  where we saw the Wood Ducks and Wood
Duck/Mallard hybrid as well as the American Wigeon and what seemed to be an
American/Eurasian Wigeon Hybrid. There were also numerous Mallard hybrids that
one often sees in parks, including one that seemed to have some Shoveler
qualities. 59 species plus the hybrids:

Pied-billed Grebe

Horned Grebe

Eared Grebe

Western Grebe

Clark's Grebe

American White Pelican

Double-crested Cormorant

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Wood Duck

Wood Duck/Mallard Hybrid

Canada Goose

Green-winged Teal

Mallard

Northern Shoveler

Gadwall

Eurasian/American Wigeon hybrid

American Wigeon

Greater Scaup

Common Goldeneye

Bufflehead

Common Merganser

Ruddy Duck

Turkey Vulture

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

American Kestrel

American Coot

Killdeer

Black-necked Stilt

Greater Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

Spotted Sandpiper

Bonaparte's Gull

Ring-billed Gull

California Gull

Western Gull

Forster's Tern

Rock Pigeon (I)

Mourning Dove

Anna's Hummingbird

Acorn Woodpecker

Northern Flicker, red-shafted

Black Phoebe

Western Scrub-Jay

American Crow

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Bushtit

Bewick's Wren

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

American Robin

Northern Mockingbird

Cedar Waxwing

Yellow-rumped Warbler

California Towhee

White-crowned Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

House Finch