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crow roosts; Sweetwater Reservoir, woodpeckers

lehman.paul@verizon.net
 

County-wide, the two largest currently known crow roosts are the perennial ones at the Plaza Bonita Mall area and immediately east of Lake Hodges, on the east side of I-15. Another large roost of ca. 2000 birds was found by Barbara Wise back in February 2018 in northern Oceanside, just west of Highway 78 X College; but its current status is unknown. The roost alluded to by others in posts yesterday in the Miramar area is in fact located in a riparian swale next to the Miramar landfill on the north side of Highway 52, and it has been active for quite a few years, although it is not as large as the others just mentioned. I am unaware of a current active roost at UCSD. Also of slight interest is the discussion about crows being willing to cross major bodies of water. It is my understanding that they are indeed loathe to cross such "barriers," whereas ravens are not as concerned, which is perhaps why a fair number of offshore islands have been colonized by ravens but not by crows.


Yesterday at Sweetwater Reservoir, there were continuing high counts of 136 Greater White-fronted Geese, 11 Cackling Geese, and 22 Bonaparte's Gulls; as well as 1 continuing Snow Goose and 2 continuing adult Bald Eagles. A couple thousand waterfowl overall. Large amounts of water are being added to the lake, so the shorebird habitat has disappeared, alas.


At Santee Lakes yesterday, in addition to the continuing Lewis's Woodpecker at Pond 5, there was a Red-naped Sapsucker in the upper northwest corner of the campground, above the ponds.


--Paul Lehman, San Diego

Susie Amundson
 

The Oceanside crow roost west of Highway 78 x College Blvd is alive and well.  I cannot attest to the total population, but it's definitely well into the hundreds.



On Tue, Nov 29, 2022 at 5:02 AM lehman.paul@... via groups.io <lehman.paul=verizon.net@groups.io> wrote:
County-wide, the two largest currently known crow roosts are the perennial ones at the Plaza Bonita Mall area and immediately east of Lake Hodges, on the east side of I-15. Another large roost of ca. 2000 birds was found by Barbara Wise back in February 2018 in northern Oceanside, just west of Highway 78 X College; but its current status is unknown. The roost alluded to by others in posts yesterday in the Miramar area is in fact located in a riparian swale next to the Miramar landfill on the north side of Highway 52, and it has been active for quite a few years, although it is not as large as the others just mentioned. I am unaware of a current active roost at UCSD. Also of slight interest is the discussion about crows being willing to cross major bodies of water. It is my understanding that they are indeed loathe to cross such "barriers," whereas ravens are not as concerned, which is perhaps why a fair number of offshore islands have been colonized by ravens but not by crows.


Yesterday at Sweetwater Reservoir, there were continuing high counts of 136 Greater White-fronted Geese, 11 Cackling Geese, and 22 Bonaparte's Gulls; as well as 1 continuing Snow Goose and 2 continuing adult Bald Eagles. A couple thousand waterfowl overall. Large amounts of water are being added to the lake, so the shorebird habitat has disappeared, alas.


At Santee Lakes yesterday, in addition to the continuing Lewis's Woodpecker at Pond 5, there was a Red-naped Sapsucker in the upper northwest corner of the campground, above the ponds.


--Paul Lehman, San Diego

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