This young (female, I think) shows up regularly at the feeder. She tolerates me sitting ina chair a foot away, but sometimes hovers in front of my face giving some chip soundsof annoyance before settl

This juvenile House Finch is visiting my patio feeder lately, trailingalong and somewhat on the perimeter of the always frenetic flock. Earlier in their development they sport two little quail-like fe

I added the two parking locations for Donner Canyon to the SF East Bay Birding Hotspots map as: Donner Canyon 1 and Donner Canyon 2: http://tinyurl.com/2cn9952 You can get complete driving directions

Yesterday, offshore on Bay Farm Island in Alameda, I watched two Horned Grebes (in breeding plumage) fishing a bed of eelgrass. On almost every dive, they came up with a Pipefish. The pipefish is an o

About a week ago, I saw no egrets (Snowy or Great) during the day in the Monterey Pine tree that has served as a rookery for many years. But, near sunset, many of them flew in to roost for the night.

Yesterday I saw two crows perform the mating ritual. As I discovered later on the internet, apparently this is rarely observed because it is only done at bond formation and the bond lasts for life. It

Doolittle Pond is part of the MLK Shoreline and serves as an overnight refuge for waterfowl on the San Leandro Bay. It is a 12-acre, wind-sheltered, calm body of Bay water. I see it as a direct indica

The large mixed raft of scaups, gulls, coots, mergansers (2), comorants, scoters, buffleheads, goldeneyes, ruddys, wigeons and others continues to feed on the roe deposited by the herring-run in the S

Yesterday at 3PM and today again at 10AM large numbers of diving ducks, gulls, and others were feeding on herring roe in the San Leandro Channel on Bay Farm Island. I would guess 500 or more birds. He

This Cinnamon Teal was seen by many who came for the high tide at Arrowhead Marsh today. It was foraging in the canal that bounds the walkway and the marsh itself. It seems to have the markings of bot

Buffleheads are one of my favorite winter visitors and San Leandro Bay (Martin Luther King Shoreline) is an easy place to see them. Their favorite feeding area seems to be the Airport Channel (south o

Yesterday I observed at least five pair of Hooded Mergansers on the lagoons on Harbor Bay Isle (Bay Farm Island in Alameda). I spent a few hours tracking them in the morning and then again in the afte

Yesterday after the high tide at Arrowhead I birded Doolittle Pond along the MLK Shoreline. There was a Spotted Sandpiper, solitary as usual, working a rocky area of the shoreline for food. They have

(The link didn't work for some people, here is another method that might work.) Duck-rockets, I call them. They are one of the smallest (and cutest) of ducks and can reach speeds of 50 miles per hour.

Never before, and likely never again. This morning I put seed in the feeder on my patio. Then, as usual, I went over to the fence to exchange the water in the pan on the cap-rail. Reaching for the pan

Yesterday while photographing more common wintering waterbirds at the Martin Luther King Shoreline (Airport Channel), a Red-breasted Loon popped up in front of me a few feet from shore. The picture sh

Another picture of the Cooper's Hawk that haunts my patio hoping to spot a feeding frenzy of song birds. Rarely successful when swooping in- so many apparently clumsy attempts- but every once in a whi

Yesterday a first-year juvenile White-tailed Kite perched for over an hour high atop a nearby alder tree calling intermittently. I think it had recently been cut from the apron strings by its parents

It seems several months early for Anna's to be thinking of nesting, but yesterday the male Anna's who guards the nectar feeder allowed a female to come in and feed both from the feeder and flowers. It

Although the finches and doves would disagree, I am graced daily by this handsome Cooper's Hawk in its attempts to catch one of them feeding on my patio. The panic when it dives in produces a thundero