Neighborhood Critters
January 24, 2016
I feel like I've been neglecting the neighborhood wildlife lately. It's winter, I should be out collecting those local bird pictures. I haven't been doing that.
I've been a little under the weather over the last week. I figured if I wasn't up for a decent day trip I could at least get out and at least make up for a little lost local time.
So, let me introduce you to my neighbors.
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| Western Gull -- Oakland/Alameda Estuary, Alameda, CA |
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| Bufflehead |
I live a block from the Oakland/Alameda Estuary. As you can imagine, we see a lot of seagulls. I don't take a lot of pictures of seagulls, though. They're too damned hard to identify. I keep my out for easy ones. Ring-billed gulls. California gulls. Western Gulls. Adult gulls, no juveniles. I've got no chance with juveniles.
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| Bufflehead -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA |
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| Brush Rabbit |
Rabbits and ground squirrels are common on the shoreline. Brush rabbits can be found just about anywhere while black-tailed jackrabbits stick to a particular fenced-in are of the MLK Shoreline. At night they seem to spread out across the entire fenced-in area, otherwise they tend to stick to the back corner.
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| Black-tailed Jackrabbit -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA |
What keeps the rabbit population in check? Poachers, for one. I've heard stories of shotgun shells being found in the rabbit corner and the population being decimated only to rebound in a few months. I'm not sure if there's anything to those stories. Northern harriers are commonly seen in the area, as is the occasional cooper's hawk. I expect the main cap on the potential rabbit population growth is this particular red-tailed hawk shown in the picture below. It's rare to visit the area near Arrowhead Marsh in the morning and not see this individual bird, and he/she has been there for at least three years. I've even seen the bird eating a rabbit in a tree.
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| Red-tailed Hawk -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA |
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| Greater White-fronted Goose |
Canada geese are always around in winter. Sometimes a few greater white-fronted geese will stop by as well. Last year one had an injured foot and stayed for the entire winter.
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| Canada Goose -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA |
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| Common Goldeneye |
Shorebirds are plentiful on the shoreline. Like gulls, I tend to avoid shooting shorebirds because they can be difficult to identify. Some aren't difficult and some are even kind of exciting. The shoreline is one of the few places one can find a ridgway's rail. I didn't see any ridgway's rails on Sunday, but I saw a few sora's and even a couple of virginia rails.
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| Sora -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA |
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| Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA |
My favorite inhabitants of the shoreline are the burrowing owls. It takes a little luck to see one. They're only around in winter and I've only seen them early in the morning. They look like large potatoes with big yellow eyes. They tend to hide behind the burrow mounds so I often can only see their heads.
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| Burrowing Owl -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA |
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| Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA |
What keeps the rabbit population in check? Poachers, for one. I've heard stories of shotgun shells being found in the rabbit corner and the population being decimated only to rebound in a few months. I'm not sure if there's anything to those stories. Northern harriers are commonly seen in the area, as is the occasional cooper's hawk. I expect the main cap on the potential rabbit population growth is this particular red-tailed hawk shown in the picture below. It's rare to visit the area near Arrowhead Marsh in the morning and not see this individual bird, and he/she has been there for at least three years. I've even seen the bird eating a rabbit in a tree.
