Date: 9/12/26 12:51 am From: Amy Dawson via groups.io <dawson.amy...> Subject: Re: [EBB-Sightings] White-tailed Kites Roost in Pleasanton -anyone remember the one in Livermore?
Hi all, Speaking of Kites, does anyone know if the large roost found in Livermore in 2011 is still there? At the time, I saw over a hundred!
Here is a string of emails that I dug up from that time, it has the location, so if anyone can go look it would be good to know! And it was this time of year as well.
Amy in Oakland
From: purrboycasey <thompson14ster...>
To: <EBB_Sightings...>
Sent: Wed, September 7, 2011 10:01:44 AM
Subject: [EBB_Sightings] White-tailed Kites in Livermore
For the last two afternoons, just before sunset, these kites have gathered in large numbers. There were perhaps 30 on Monday and maybe 10 yesterday, allowing me to get some nice photos. They gather around my house on Felicia Court near the west entrance to Lawrence Livermore Natl Laboratory on Vasco Road. They perch in the tops of the redwoods trees, with a lot of takeoffs and landings.
Larry Thompson
1069 Felicia Court
Livermore
-----------------------------I found a large roosting tree in the back yard of a house between Evelyn Way and Jessica in Livermore. The kites started circling at 7:15 and started landing 2 or 3 at a time from 7:30 to 7:45pm. In all more than 65 kites landed in just this one tree!
Bill Clark
Livermore-----------------A friend and I drove down to Livermore at dusk yesterday to see the kites - and we're so glad we did - it was a wonderful sight to see.
We arrived sometime between 7:15 and 7:30 and began to see a few kites here and there, flying into the area from all directions. As time went on, we saw 20, then 30 or even 40 or more in the air at one time.
They would fly around, some would hover a bit, before landing on various trees only to take off again to fly around over head. Eventually they all settled down for the night - from what we could tell - primarily in the top of some three trees in the area. Even after it was fairly dark, we could still see a few flying in to roost.
We think we probably saw well over one hundred - but this is a conservative estimate as they kept landing and taking off again - making it hard to keep track of them.
It seemed the best spots to watch them were on Jessica Drive, just south of the park and across from Anita Court - where you could see them landing on trees behind the homes on the right and left side of the street. Specifically, that would be the block between Jessica Dr.and Felicia Ave. and Jessica Dr. and Evelyn Way. They were also roosting on the trees between the park and Evelyn Way. In addition, if you go down and make two right turns onto Evelyn Way - to where it turns to the left, you will have the sun shining on the birds as it sets, and you'll be closer to some of the trees - so it may be easier to see them and better for taking photos.
It was good to run into Larry Thompson - who first posted about the kites - thanks Larry!
Amy in Oakland.
---------
Sunday evening I went to Evelyn Way to watch the white-tailed kites come in
at sunset.
Most didn't start to come in until it was too dark to photograph, but it was
fun watching them come in to land on a treetop, discover it occupied, and
circle for another tree roost.
Allen
On Friday, September 11, 2026 at 09:28:19 PM PDT, ireddy via groups.io <ireddy...> wrote:
Hello birders, Following up Dominik Mosur's message from sept 8 and Patricia Bacchetti who kindly shared this article on the roost in Sacramento https://journal.cvbirds.org/index.php/cvb/article/view/514/814I feel I should share some updates about the very big White-tailed Kites roost I discovered in my neighborhood in Pleasanton on August 28 and that I have been observing since then. I have been in contact with Ed Pandolfino (co-author of the article above) and Jeffrey Dunk (author of the White-tailed Kite entry for Birds of the World) as soon as I realized that this roost was massive and that there wasn't a ton of information about them. Ed and Jeffrey are both the co-authors of the soon to be released new version of the BOW entry and are very interested in the information we can find at this roost. I try to count the number of birds who arrive at the roost each night. Since I started, the roost has changed place and the numbers fluctuate. It was first on Woodthrush Way, but then moved to Crestline Street and is now spreading to Willowren and probably further West to what I gather. Their numbers are often in the hundred or more (138 tonight) but it is hard to know if all the birds are accounted for. I also try to record the directions they are coming from or leaving to. I also take notes of what they are doing, their use of trees - especially the tall pointy ones where the first comers perch (cypress/pine/redwoods). It would be interesting to know the proportion of juveniles/adults but it is very hard to tell because of the low light. Their arrival time is shifting earlier every day - now before 7pm and all is quiet by 7:45pm. In the morning, they always leave a minute after the first crow calls around 6:20am. At this roost, they take more time to leave than the 3-5 minutes mentioned in the above article and they seem to first depart much later. I experimented coming earlier, at 5:10am but nothing happened until 6:20am. The mystery, though, is that I count less birds in the morning as compared to the evening. For those of you who want to experience this roost and gather information on it, ebird if a good place to record it. I am putting all of my notes here https://ebird.org/atlascalifornia/hotspot/L76641473/activity?yr=all&m=And of course, as Dominik mentioned, if you come, be mindful of the residents, the kites are very much in the trees that border their houses (in their frontwards or backyards). If any of you has observed a roost before and wants to share info with me of what they saw, where it was located, its size, when they saw it... I would love to know. I find it all very interesting. Enjoy the birds, they give us so many opportunities to learn! Isabelle
