A juvenile golden eagle is just now catching a thermal over Valle Vista parking lot while being harrassed by a RTHA (which looks tiny in comparison). Lots of white on base of tail and primaries. Beaut

I just heard the loud, resonant call of a pileated woodpecker at my house and was able to locate it near the top of a redwood tree on Heartwood. It just flew south toward Shepard Canyon so if you live

Good morning, birders Yesterday in Sunol we watched a golden eagle, high in the cloudy sky soaring in broad, leisurely circles. At least a dozen rotations and not one wingbeat. Slow, measured, powerfu

Another slate-colored junco is on my deck today in the Oakland Hills. Last time I saw one here was December 2014. Happy holidays, Wendy Colton at Heartwood, Montclair ________________________________

Hello, I've been watching a pair of kites since April and I might have missed their first brood of the season, but now I have a front row seat (with a scope at my front door) of three active, healthy

Hi all, I just saw a juvenile Nuttall's WP at my deck feeder which was a first, so I decided to go back and count the number of fledglings I've seen this year at my house. The number is 15 species so

A dozen pine siskins flew in yesterday to my feeders (actually, blew in with all the wind?), rapidly fed on black oil sunflower seeds, drank water and flew off within five minutes. Do we have to worry

First of season male at the feeder this morning. Happy Spring, Wendy Colton Blvd

Hello, I can add to the chickadee nest failures. Last year I watched a young, eager pair build a nest in a brand new wren box. At the end of the season I took down the box to clean it and discovered f

Hello, I've got a flock of 3 dozen cedar waxwings at my Oakland Hills home right now. They come through every year around this time. Wendy Colton Blvd.

Flying in formation and circling over Skyline Blvd close to Sibley Regional Park. Definitely a new bird species for my local neighborhood list. Wendy Colton/Heartwood, Oakland Hills

Saw a lovely pair of hooded mergansers yesterday at 5:30 pm in the creek on the east side of the bridge. Happy birding, Wendy

I never tire of bird drama and Valle Vista is one of the great avian stages. At the parking lot the orchestra began: a CA quail in the distance, whistling from the European starlings (fresh from a Sha

All, I think that George, Colin and Curtis are right - it's a Northern Mockingbird. Much appreciation for their suggestions and links to the audio recordings of the mockingbird's alarm calls. That als

Hello birders, I just heard a very unusual call - high pitched single note like an alarm call. The jays were making a racket in the same tree so I had to go outside to explore the source of the distur

Alarmed by the Bay Nature article on the 50% decline in kestrel populations around the country, this morning I decided to visit VV to look for the resident kestrel pair. I was delighted to see them hu

Yesterday at 6:30 pm I decided to take a quick hike to Round Top in Sibley to look for golden eagles. Not ten minutes up the trail, two ravens flew fast over my head, loudly squawking. I looked up jus

At around 5 pm on Thursday I drive by the kite territory. The female is perched just a few trees away from the Monterey pine nest tree. She is preening her brood patch (a clue?) over and over, with no

I’ve barely left my gate when there is trouble in the sky. An unkindness (or is it a quorum?) of ravens, 7 or 8, are circling near the nest and a lone white-tailed kite is dive bombing each one. The k

I hear only silence as I walk a morning loop around the kite’s territory. I scan the tops of the surrounding tall pines, cypresses and firs. Against the steel gray sky, I see a kite perched up high in