Corvids

Crows are actualy pretty common at Lake Merrit, but they're even harder to photograph than Goldeneyes. They just hate it when you look at them. Maybe they're embarassed to be such a goth symbol when they just want to frolic in the daisies.

They prefer when they can glare disdainfully at you from the safety of a tree.

I also spotted a pair of ravens up in Redwood. One of the pair took up the traditional "mock-humans-from-a-tree" post, while the other one...

...did some strange jumping jacks near a picnic table.







It hopped up and down several times, gworked, and flew away.

But the winner of "Best Recent Corvid Picture" goes to Judy, who went on location to the Grand Canyon:

I read Bernd Heinrich's Mind of a Raven... I think this one might be showing a bit of the "fuzzy head" he describes as being typical of a bird being submissive. And look, here you can even see its niticating membrane (the bluish eye) as it blinks.


Both of these behaviors (blinking and fuzzy head) at the same time, plus a sound called "knocking," might indicate a female. Hard to know for sure though without more context; I'm no expert!

Growing Up Ring-Billed

Speaking of changing looks when it's time to breed, here's an example of nature's makeup...

Ring Billed Gull, year 1: Pink beak and legs, brownish eye.

After another year, they get the classic gull look: grey back, white body. The bottom gull is, I think, younger or at least more pathetic than the one above. Its legs and bill are a duller yellow than the one on top. Note that the one on top has a slightly streaky, mottled head. It's not quite in breeding shape yet. I noticed that the tip of the beak on both of these birds isn't a "ring" but a solid tip, so I'll make a guess that both of them are second years and not quite mature. (Gosh, do NOT tell me I'm going to have to buy one of those special guides to the 1001 indistinguishable looks of one kind of gull.)

Now this dude or lady is getting there. The head looks all clean and smooth, the bill is properly ringy.


Finally, check out fatty mcPiggerson here: See the red eyering and mouth? I guess it's kind of like having a face boner.

Sass Factor 5: American Coots

If you are an animal, spring usually means it's time to get your breeding on. Coots are no exception, and they're particularly visible when it comes to reproductive madness. GW Gullion, whose paper on coot displays I also read, has another paper on the red bump of coots. Apparently most migratory coots don't have one during winter, when they are away from their home territory:

But in spring, the testosterone of both males and females sparks the growth of a reddish callus:

...which can get gigantic and menacing.

I took all these coot pictures on the same day. So, why do they have different sized bumps? Gullion says that the most dominant coots--those defending a territory--are the ones with the biggest bumps, and the others are lower on the pecking order. Some coots stay on a territory year-round, and keep their red shield, too. I am wondering, do coots on Lake Merrit have a territory? Do they actually nest there? They are supposed to prefer freshwater. I've never seen a baby coot at the Lake. What are they defending if not nest sites? Are they just testosterone fueled jerks that will fight regardless?

Gullion also argues that coots may recognize each other by the callus, as well, since sometimes they will try to fight their mates until they see their partner's face.

Next time I'm out I'll see if I can compare the faces of the attacking coots and the fleeing coots.

Twitterpated?

"Nearly everybody gets twitterpated in the springtime. For example: You're walking along, minding your own business. You're looking neither to the left, nor to the right, when all of a sudden you run smack into a pretty face. Woo-woo!"



Ok, seriously though, *what* is this gull doing? I've never heard one make this noise like a baby crying. My first guess was that it was some kind of breeding display type of thing, but if it's displaying for the other gull in the shot, it's surely robbing the cradle! Er, the nest? The... rocky patch?

Ad that's not the only sign of ring-billed gull madness around the lake these days:



My guess is that it's trying to drum up some business. For its mouth. And by business I mean worms.

Borges Ranch

Borges Ranch is a mini-park, part of Mt. Diablo. It was mostly very muddy, and I forgot the camera, but got this nice image of the farm with the trusty cel-phone cam. And see that area where the fence's shadow makes kind of a grid? There's a bunny there:

See? (Binoculars to cel-phone picture, that is SO 2010)


Based on the range maps in the Peterson guide to mammals, I will guess that this is a brush rabbit.

The birds, man, of Alcatraz

Alcatraz isn't really known for having birds on it. It's more of a history and architecture thing.

Architecture with some jungle let into it.

You probably wouldn't be that surprised to see a gull on it...


But what about HUNDREDS of gulls (the white dots) fighting over various patches of weed-choked asphalt?

It's true, Alcatraz is actually an important breeding site for Western gulls, as well as Brant's cormorant and Pigeon Guillemots (which nest in abandoned pipes!). I only spotted gulls, but it might be worthwhile to come back in the summer and try to see baby gulls...

As a bonus bird, on the way back, I saw a grackle outside the ferry building. It's a common bird, but I have only seen one once, at a random rest stop in Arizona. So, rare for me.

In case you are thinking the above picture looks like just some boring blackbird, compare it to this picture of an actual boring blackbird from the same tree.

See? ACTION GRACKLE with Long Tail accessories.

Arrowhead Marsh, President's Day

Inspired by some equipment I saw at the Flyway Festival, I decided to make my own camera-to-binoculars gasket. One toilet tube and a roll of handlebar tape later...

I had something which was marginally easier to use than just pressing the camera up to the lens.

I went to Arrowhead Marsh to test it out.


First victim: Cross-process turkey vulture eating some roadkill:

Starlings:

This trip got me thinking about the old "habitat specialization" thing. Shorebirds are the classic example of supposedly splitting up resources according to behavior and even body shape. Shovelers have big ol' beaks for filtering plankton:

And a nearby green-winged teal does its thing.

The avocets also seemed to like the "surrounded by grass" water more than the "mudflat" water. You can see from this pic that their heads are turning red for breeding...

Jackrabbit also likes the tall grass.


Also in the grass-water environment, a greater yellowlegs held itself aloof from the duck-avocet-gull party. It's probably working on its novel, feeling deep feelings that others just don't 'get'.


Meanwhile, on the other side of the road, kildeer picked up tiny things from on top of the algae-covered rocks:
Suddenly we saw the kildeer take off, followed by a big flock of avocets, and then the starlings. Who did that?
Me. It was me. Hawk. I'm actually not sure what kind of hawk this is. It's one of those difficult "brown, probably young" IDs.... it was making the red-shouldered hawk sound, keyerr-keyerrr, and I sort of saw that pale half-moon on the wing. It doesn't have the red tail's tum-band, but then, it doesn't have a stripy tail, either. The dark head and non-streaky sides might mean a harrier... Well, chalk another one up to "keep practicin' the raptors."

A bit later though, we DID see a red tail, which we saw lift into the air, burdened down by something heavy and squirming. But then ol' buttertalons dropped it and flew into a tree further away. Turns out the snack was a ground squirrel. An ex-ground squirrel.

What's up, redtail? You put it on your plate, now you have to eat it! What's wrong, you don't like eating near children playing badminton? Yeah, me neither.

But back to the habitat split up thing. Away from the rocks and grass-water zones, there's the tall grass-mud-salt water land, favorite of the willet and marbled godwit. I saw the godwits really shoving their faces down in the mud and they definitely had a few more inches of face than the willet. They were picking up what looked like jellybeans and chomping them down. Tiny clams maybe? Do they eat the shells too? Hmmm...

A lucky spotting this time, a clapper rail! Its distinctive call gave it away right before it scurried across the channel as the tide went out. Right back into the tall grass.

Last time I saw a clapper rail here, it had a radio antenna sticking out of its back. The CA subspecies of this rail is endangered, so they're prime candidates for being tracked for conservation. It's impressive that they are able to survive here, so close to the airport and freeway. Maybe the antenna helped them blend into the long grass too...

On the bridge overlooking the deeper water, there was a surf scoter, or, as I like to think of it, a crazy-eyed clown face duck. Love these things:


Anyway, these photos are obviously still not professional grade or anything, but if you look back at the first photo of the marsh at those tiny white dots, that shows you how far away most of these birds actually were... I think the toilet-tube has done a pretty good job.