Date: 4/21/24 6:55 pm From: Jim Chiropolos via groups.io <jnc...> Subject: [EBB-Sightings] Black Vulture, Mines Road (and reflections on birding Mines this year)
Mines Road Birding and Biking - Black Vulture!
Today I birded and biked my Mines Road patch. For April 21, it was amazingly non- birdy at a time when migrant songbirds should be around. I think I only saw/heard 20 migrant songbirds with half being ash-throated flycatchers, about 6 house wrens and only 3 warblers over 20 miles to the county line. Not one gnatcatcher!
On the way back,hot and tired as it may have hit 80 degrees, I saw an odd dark raptor, flying north. My first impression was bald eagle as it appeared to have no head and tail - thinking it was the light, but the wings were too short and broad and it seemed too small. As I studied the bird, it indeed had a dark small head and a very short tail with broad wings. Bald eagle not! Red-tails, Turkey Vultures and a raven were all flying in the area and this raptor was very different in proportions with wings held horizontal and a steady flight. Smaller than the TVs - Wow - a black vulture!!!
My friend Aaron told me its the first black vulture sighting, maybe, in Alameda. It will not be the last! Several years ago, a black vulture hung around in Marin for several years, mostly centered over Pt. Reyes but I saw it flying over Mt. Tam summit. Look out for vultures!!! Hopefully, it sticks around and we get more sightings- and based on the Marin vulture, it may cover a large area.
Mines road has been very slow the three times I have birded it this year. I still have not seen a golden eagle off Mines this year,a bird that I usually see maybe 75% of the time. Yellow-billed magpie numbers seen low, I have only seen one this year off Mines - most years, every ride I see 4 or more in the first 5 miles. Phainopepla numbers also seem low- usually a reliable bird biking mines and today I saw my first over three rides. I used to see Roadrunners off Mines most years biking but I birdied it more the last several years and have not seen a roadrunner here the last 3 or 4 years.
I have also yet to see the Lawrence goldfinches at the coral (mile 17.65). Today looking for them at the coral area,I was 75 feet from my bike. As I watched, a pickup peeled into the dirt and parked 2 feet from my bike. As I walked towards my bike, the guys in the pick-up were debating who would get my bike. They then saw me, and as the pick-up spun onto Mines Road, the driver thinking fast, said “Are you OK”. I cannot get that far from my bike these days…. Crazy!
