Hung out for a few midday hours at Stewart Park on this beautiful sunny day.
In the morning a juvenile bald eagle was perched over the lagoon, giving good looks to SFO groups, other birders and photographers, and passers-by alike. Meanwhile across the way the osprey continued adding sticks to its nest. Yesterday our SFO group saw a Canada goose on the next platform briefly before the osprey shooed it off and buzzed it a couple times in the water. In the lagoon was a pair of relaxed Hooded Mergansers while a third flashy male would come in frequently looking for trouble, with the first pair's male telling it to leave - via chasing but not hood-flashing. Soon I spotted a female fly out of the nest box just northeast of the first suspension bridge, and before long the flashy male came in to make unwanted advances at that female, with multiple unsuccessful long chases. Later a presumably different male came in and hung out more amiably with that female, and this pair also hung out rather amiably with the first couple. So, it looks like one female is occupying that nest box (something to keep an eye on), and I'm wondering/conjecturing whether the other couple have agreed to some sort of nest-sharing agreement. I walked up Renwick Woods along fall creek and sat at the lagoon opposite the fire training structures, and heard exactly one bout of a winter wren's intricate song. When I walked back, I heard some nasal chip calls (reminiscent of red-bellied woodpecker) accompanying some mouse-like scurrying around a woodpile, but could never get a binocular view of the bird to confirm that it was the winter wren. Earlier in the day I'd stopped by the Stewart Avenue bridge over Fall Creek to see a red-tailed hawk sitting in the nest, presumably incubating. Suan _____________________ http://suan-yong.com -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
