Sightings: The mystery of the Forster's Tern

New friends are showing up at the lake as spring turns to summer... I think this is a Forster's tern. Two years ago there were a ton of these guys hanging out at the lake all summer. I even saw a fledgling tern. Last year, I didn't see any! I wonder if they have decided to give the lake another try this year.

This is another bird that you might not notice right away (especially if you are expecting only seagulls). But you can often hear their distinctive calls, which they seem to make as they chase each other around (read "constantly.") If you get a closer look, you can see that they have forked tails, black heads, and wings so pointy they could be used as ninja stars.


Harder to capture on film is their hunting technique--they fly staring down into the water, and if they spot something, flip a 180 and plunge straight down into the water with a splash.

A rude cloacaning

For weeks now, there have been signs that the pigeons of the lake are Up to Something Suspicious. There's been Neck Puffing... Obnoxious Cooing...

...Tail dragging... Circle Spinning...

But I never could catch the rascals in the act... until yesterday! BAM. Money Shot:

I saw these two covertly "Billing" each other, and my Pidgey-Sense started tingling. I barely had time to turn on my camera before the pigeons leaped directly from First Base to a Home Run. This tender scene lasted all of two cloaca-grinding seconds before they were back to pecking innocently at invisible seeds, nary a blush to be seen on their feathery cheeks.

Since the dude pigeons seem to court any lady in the area, I'm not sure when exactly love leads to marriage/baby carriage, but at some point, Birder's Handbook indicates that they do become monogamous and both pigeons incubate and care for their young.

Pigeons often nest on ledges, especially under roofs or bridges. They don't seem to mind tight spaces, and can even pile sticks right on top of those spiny things put up to dissuade them.

I don't think the eggs in this nest have hatched yet, but I'm keeping an eye on it; my book says it will take 16-19 days. The pigeon family is one of the few that produces "crop milk" to provide protein to their hatchlings. That might be one reason why they develop so quickly and can breed a mere 6 months after hatching--they drink their Milk! It does a pigeon body good.

I LIKE BABIES

I found some more BABIES!



It looks like some Canada geese have managed to hatch some chicks this year. I saw one pair with a single chick...


And one pair with two chicks (only one of them is in this shot). Note the distinctive foot-hole one of the parents has.
I recently looked up the City of Oakland's report on Canada Goose management and learned that they are no longer trying to suppress breeding of geese (if they ever were), because the permanent resident geese don't create as strong a health hazard (=mounds of nasty poo everywhere) as the hundreds of migrant geese which spend summer at the lake.

Also, since they can't fly, the baby geese can only get on land in certain areas of the lake (like the beaches, and a few areas where the retaining wall is graded) and so that's where the babies are most likely to be found. These guys were hanging out in the boathouse parking lot.

Also found: one adorable DUCKLING PILE! These guys were sleeping in the shadow of a cement planter. I think it's the same little family of 8 I photographed earlier, with its single blonde member. They look a bit sleeker this week, less fluffy.

Naughty Squirrels

Squirrels in the park get up to all kinds of mischief. First, they put their mouths on things you would definitely not let your toddler near. This one seems to have been better at finding the last of the Easter candy than a toddler, as well. Let's hope that chocolate isn't as bad for squirrels as it is for dogs.


Second, this squirrel appears to have set up an illicit course for drag-racing. Check out its sweet turbodiesel engine mods.

This squirrel hasn't done anything yet. But it has a glint in its eye.

And uh, this squirrel is guilty of excessive sass. And a blurry head.

My favorite picture of all: Squirrels and public drunkenness.
"What? me? No, I wasn't going to drink this! I was just... sniffing it!"

"Seriously! And after sniffing it, I was planning on throwing it away, to keep our children safe!"

::WINK!::

Sunset, Flowers, prettiness.

Caution: walking around looking for birds can also lead to seeing other pretty things.


Wild onion. The taste is similar to a green onion, but the texture is much gummier.

I know this one is out of focus but it made the lights look extra cool that way.

Redbud is still blooming strong, not like those wimpy flowering cherry trees.

Someone's garden plot is going to have a lot of artichokes soon.


I think this is a flower fly, but it might be a bee of some kind?

Some cool things on the lake that are too far away to take pictures of.

As I've already mentioned, my camera doesn't have a very powerful zoom. So any bird that's more than 100 yards from me comes out looking all blurry in photos:


There are at least 20 Western Grebes hanging out on the lake these days, but they just won't come close enough for me to get a good shot.

But they're doing the coolest things!

Their mating displays are basically long games of "Stop repeating me! Stop repeating me!"

... accompanied by some head puffing and running-while-flapping.

There are also still at least two eared grebe pairs hanging out on the lake. Could they be nesting? Last year I wrote down that I saw17 of them on April 4, and none after that. Here's a picture from someone with a cool camera:

Breeding Eared Grebe
Originally uploaded by Fort Photo.

And while I'm posting photos I didn't take, here's one of the Double Crest that gives the double crested cormorant its name.

Double-crested Cormorant, Morro Bay Heron Rookery, April 8, 2007
Originally uploaded by mikebaird.

Loon Update

I saw the loon again on Tuesday. It had changed location to the other "ear" of the lake, over by the library.


It was doing some typical loon things:


And some rather silly looking things:

Though active, it seemed a bit off-kilter to me--swimming while listing to the left or right... this might indicate some kind of neurological problem, which might be caused by eating some bad algae.


And it didn't forget about its bizarre landlubberishness. Here it is waddling into a storm drain where it hid for the rest of the day. No hope of catching it under there...


Haven't seen it again since then.

All the little beesies all the little bearsies never walk in threesies always walk in pairsies...

It's that time again:


Squirrel humping time! (Lydia took this picture--isn't it great?). I recently read in Hannah Holmes' book Suburban Safari that the reason you will often see stumpy tailed squirrels is that during the spring mating frenzy, several males will chase the same female and bite off each others' tails in their eagerness to get to the front of the line.

And squirrels aren't the only ones. Canada geese are getting mighty feisty as they defend potential nest sites (including one pair I saw on top of a chain link fence enclosing the water main. Pretty sure that's not gonna work, guys.) Last year, I saw a goose which was almost certainly a hybrid domestic goose/Canada goose. And this year I think I found its parents:


Other animals have made a bit more progress on the romance front, and are already building nests. Double crested cormorants are back at the lake with a vengeance, and some of them are sporting some very Doubleicious crests! They're shy though, so they only let me take pictures of them carrying their damp sticks when they're safe in their nest tree on Bird Island. Can you find Waldo--the cormorant with a stick?

And SOOOME birdies have already MADE their babies. Hummingbirds nest early, apparently so that their nestlings can fly long before hungry jays come looking for a snack for their own babies.
This isn't a great shot, but the baby is on the left looking straight up. Mom is on the right. And if these hummingbirds are going to continue being super fast while hiding in the dark canopy of a tree, that's probably the best I'm likely to get!


And of course there's mallards. They've been acting super crazy, with males chasing females through air and water while quacking up a storm. Mallards have some very disturbing reproductive biology which you can read about here. Once your jaw is back in place, enjoy these... DUCKLINGS!


(not pictured here are the FIVE drakes which were STILL chasing this lady about.)

What the Easter Bunny brought me:

When I went to Alaska back in 2002, I had torn a ligament and was hobbling around on crutches. This impediment prevented me from doing much hiking and probably was a big part of the reason that the only loons I saw in their summer breeding ground were on postcards in gift shops. Since that trip, I longed to see a loon. The internet told me that others had been lucky enough to photograph them off the Berkeley Marina, so I hoped it was only a matter of time before I was lucky enough to see one. And on Saturday, my day finally arrived!

My sister and her boyfriend spotted something on the muddy shore of the lake on their way to my house. "It's brown and fluffy," they said, "like a baby bird. But really big!" Despite the fact that they had been traveling for the past 3 hours, I demanded they take me immediately to this so-called "baby tern." They walked me over to what Tom and I have dubbed "turtle bridge" (where the stream runs under Broadway) and there on the mud was the cutest giant waterbird of my dreams...

... glancing sexily at us from over the shoulder. A Red-throated loon in its brown fluffy winter plumage! Now, there is only one thing wrong with this picture. Loons are water birds (in Britain they're called Divers) and, as you can see from the picture above, their legs are so far back on their bodies that they can't walk on land. Though it seemed alert and was preening vigorously, its terrestrial lounging cued us that something might be wrong with our fluffy new friend.

A call to the International Bird Rescue Research Center in Fairfield confirmed that Loons Should Not Be on Land. The patient guy I talked to advised that we try to catch the loon and bring it in, if we could. He recommended throwing a towel over it and then grabbing it, taking care to hold it away from the face as it tried to kick and peck with all its ungrateful might. It could spend the night in a dark warm place and be brought over to the center when it opened in the morning. We readied some supplies:

The loon shyly watched me climb down the cement wall onto the squishy, mussel encrusted mud it had chosen as a hangout spot:

I threw the towel like a champion bird-catcher...

Aaaand the loon scooted penguin-style, on its belly, into the water and away from me. I was left holding the muddy towel, which now resembled a loon Shroud of Turin.


Looks like it wasn't so sickly after all! My sister got these last 2 pictures with her mighty 10X zoom.

Knowing that loons migrate in spring, on a journey that can stretch from Baja to Alaska, my best guess is that it was exhausted from a long flight and stopped for a breather and maybe a warm-up. I looked for the loon over the next few days but didn't see it again. May it have a safe journey up to Alaska and make a million babies!