Sunday morning I didn't feel like getting up but I dragged myself up early and drove down to Ravenswood Open Space Preserve again to look for Black Rails. As Bay Road ended in dirt I could see that the burly PG&E workers were back again on a Sunday! Oh no. After they moved their big trucks so I could get to the parking area I parked my car and got out cursing to myself. They were so loud and they were working exactly where I had planned to use their boardwalk under the power towers to get out into the marsh opposite Ravenswood (Baylands Natural Preserve) at high tide. Well, there was no chance of that as long as they stayed working on the towers. I walked around the Ravenswood Marsh hoping and hoping they would leave. The tide began to rise but it was obvious they were there to stay and I had no chance. I left and went to the other section of Ravenswood Open Space Preserve that is just south of the Dumbarton Bridge. I did not realize that this Ravenswood is part of the regional park, Ravenswood OSP, and not the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay NWR, which is also called Ravenswood and is on the north side of the Dumbarton Bridge and currently closed for hunting season.
I walked this section of Ravenswood OSP on a dyke along the edge of they Bay on one side and a salt evaporation pond on the other. Lots of BLACK-NECKED STILTS were in the evaporation side. But not much else. As the tide rose it flooded the pickleweed and came close the dyke but it was obvious there were no rails here. The trail goes as far as the Hetch Hetchy aquaduct which carries our drinking water from high in the Sierra Nevada in Yosemite National Park and nearly reaches the other end of the section of Ravenswood where the PG&E workers were but not quite. There is no trail between the two sections. The tide drove lots of LEAST and WESTERN SANDPIPERS, SAVANNAH SPARROWS and DUNLINS up on the dyke and there were some HORNED GREBES in the Bay but that was about it. There were two NORTHERN HARRIERS hawking for food. I went as far as allowed, looked shockingly at the decrepit pipes that carry my pristine drinking water, and walked back to my car parked beneath the Dumbarton Bridge.
I decided I might as well spend the rest of the time at Ravenswood OSP that is across from Baylands sine I at lesat knew it had Clapper Rails. Indeed when I got back after waiting patiently for the tide to rise I saw a CLAPPER RAIL out in the open along with a SORA. Some more Clapper Rails called from the Baylands side but there was no chance to look for those. As I sat on a viewing platform looking into the marsh the workers took a break and one of them thought he was so funny to yell out where's my gun. Why is that all red necks in all states have a southern accent?
An OSPREY flew over and a MERLIN dive bombed some ducks. There were some DOWITCHERS too far out to identify to species and the only other addition to yesterday's birds was one COMMON GOLDENEYE. When the tide began to recede and the PG&E workers were still there I decided to concede. As I was leaving the marsh a dark brown bird that appeared to be some kind of rail flew out of the grindelia and into the tule reeds and disappeared from sight. It may have been the long sought after Black Rail but was too ambiguous to say for certain.
Later in the day I stopped by Candelstick Point SRA in San Francisco County but the sun was too low and there wasn't much to look at (Black Rails were extirpated from SF long ago). About the only thing intersting here was COMMON GOLDENEYE, RED-BREASTED MERGANSER, BUFFLEHEAD, BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER, MEW GULL, and GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL. I would have to continue the rail quest on Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment