Date: 4/5/24 8:59 pm From: Ethan Monk <z.querula...> Subject: [EBB-Sightings] early spring misc.
As spring kicks into full gear I have found once again some more time to get out and bird around Contra Costa County. Below, in reverse chronological order, are some highlights.
Today 4/5 after the rain (and in some places snow) last night I headed out to Richmond for a check of the bayside spots. Brooks Island was active, but nothing unusual. 35 Brant and 10 G.w. Gulls linger, and I estimated 100 Caspian Terns and 200 California Gulls at their colonies. 2 Snowy Plovers on the beach were likely wintering birds lingering since 10/22. At Landfill Loop later there was an alternate ~3rd+ cycle Lesser Black-backed Gull (perhaps the same as the bird first noted here on 12/22 by Jack Hayden, Dan Sidle, and Noah Arthur and seen two-three times since) and the highlight of my morning was a Great-tailed Grackle in Stege Marsh, singing at the "Richmond Pond"! The handful of documented/acceptable west county reports are all from spring time, and this was my first for Richmond. Right off Meeker Slough was a raft of about 120 Aechmophorus grebes, almost all Western to my eye. Normally Clark's Grebes are dominant or close to in Richmond, but this big raft of Westerns seems to form here routinely in March and April, and maybe to a lesser extent in late fall? In the winter there are often Aechmophorus rafts here, too, but my sense has been that there is a distinct and noticeable increase in overall numbers and numbers of Western Grebes in spring.
On 3/31 I made a visit to Bethel Island where I found a Red-throated Loon swimming in Frank's Tract to add to this season's inland bumper crop. Turns out Owen Bowie had one nearby on 3/3, and is then likely the same bird. Interestingly, the year has not seemed that exceptional for Red-throated Loons where they are expected in Richmond. I certainly recorded more last winter... Other birds of note on Bethel included a migrant m/f pair of B-w Teal on Bethel Isl. Rd., two newly arrived female Pintail, and an uncommon migrant Rough-winged Swallow over Frank's Tract.
3/30-3/31, a Thick-billed Fox Sparrow was very vocal but visually much less cooperative at the county's only reliable location for this species on Green Ranch Rd. (Mt. Diablo SP).
3/26 about 200 Snow Geese were grazing on Bethel Island, and on Holland Tract a largish flock of ~400 Blackbirds in the channel appeared majority male "nominate" Red-winged Blackbirds. Typically I think of adult male nominates as departed by April, but perhaps not considering the few hundred so close to the end of the month. There was also a m/f pair of Yellow-headed Blackbirds in the group, the male singing frequently. All of these blackbirds, Yellow-headed included, were gone on the 31st.
