A Blessing of Birds

I went Arrowhead Marsh today, one of my favorite birding spots, and a place that makes me proud of Oakland. Arrowhead is part of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline Park. It was overcast, making it easy to see without squinting. Tide was high, so I got to see a lot of the little birds near the pier: marsh wrens, white-crowned sparrows, and, my favorite for the day, male and female common yellow throats. I take umbrage with the "common" in their name: they are rare enough to me, and far too beautiful to be considered "common." Ducks were abundant, too: northern pintails, green-winged teals, cinnamon teals, mallards, American wigeons, greater scaups, surf scoters, common goldeneyes, and buffleheads. The mallards were doing their mating displays, something I hadn't seen before. I spent an embarrassingly long time scrutinizing some rather faded looking canvasbacks. They turned out to be DECOYS. Although why there are decoys in a protected marsh is a bit mysterious, and rather unfair, I thought. Salvaging what remained of my dignity, I continued on in my perusal of nature's bounty. Highlights include the glaucous-winged gull and the great egret that joined me on the pier, and the plethora of American avocets. The avocets were great: some were still in their grey winter plumage (I think of it as Quaker grey), some were in breeding plumage, and some were in between.

Complete sightings (40 species):

1. horned grebe
2. double breasted cormorant
3. Canada goose
4. mallard
5. northern pintail
6. American wigeon
7. northern shoveler
8. green-winged teal
9. cinnamon teal
10. surf scoter
11. greater scaup
12. common goldeneye
13. bufflehead
14. ruddy duck
15. American coot
16. glaucous-winged gull
17. western gull
18. ring-billed gull
19. great blue heron
20. great egret
21. snowy egret
22. clapper rail
23. black-necked stilt
24. American avocet
25. killdeer
26. lesser yellowlegs
27. willet
28. least sandpiper
29. northern harrier
30. red-tailed hawk
31. turkey vulture
32. anna's hummingbird
33. black phoebe
34. marsh wren
35. northern mockingbird
36. yellow-rumped warbler
37. common yellowthroat
38. white-crowned sparrow
39. song sparrow
40. savannah sparrow