San Francisco Bay Flyway Festival

Saturday, February 3rd, 2007

Place: Mare Island, right next to Vallejo, CA.

This was my first time to ever set foot on Mare Island and it took a bird watching mega event to get me there. The turn out for this event was very good as far as I could tell and it looked like people were enjoying themselves. That should be no surprise as birdwatching is done by about one in five people in the US and it shows every sign of increasing.

Here is a view of the event contributors booths:

I’m not going to bore people with a list of attendees or sponsors, you can check out all that information at this link:

I did enjoy very much meeting my first Eurasian Eagle Owl,

an emissary brought up from a young chick by Native Bird Connections located in Martinez CA. This is an educational group and here is their mission statement from their website:

We believe wild animals should be wild. When a wild animal becomes captive, because of physical or psychological injury, that animal deserves the best environment possible. Because captivity is an unnatural state for wild animals, we strive to give that animal what it needs and merits. To that extent we operate on the ideology of three words:

RESPECT	To value wildlife
RESPONSIBILITY	To care for what we value
REVERENCE	To be thankful for what we value

Native Bird Connections trains professionals and educates the public with non-releasable injured native birds.

Our memberships include American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA), American Association of Zoo Keepers (AAZK), International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators (IAATE), Animal Behavior Society (ABS), International Wildlife Rehabilitators Council (IWRC), Audubon Society (Mt. Diablo Chapter) and other community organizations.

There was another raptor they brought with them. This one had injuries that prevent it from ever being release back into the wild. This White-tailed Kite was struck by an automobile and suffered a concussion and blindness in its left eye. It was a sweet bird but it gave me a feeling of sadness I did not feel in seeing the owl and other White-tailed Kites that I have seen in the wild.

Please, if anyone needs a cause to support, consider wildlife care facilities, and if you need a group to come and speak to your business, school etc. Keep Native Bird Connections in mind. Again you can visit their site to get more details at this link.

After we had toured the booths, Charlene and I went on a walk to check out the self guided birding route laid out for the event.

They had a map on the website for the event showing the lookout points, you can see it here. We made it out to the two righthand lookout points, but ran out of steam for the entire route. While out there we saw:

A Northern Harrier:

Dozens of Yellow-rumped Warblers:

A White-tailed Kite resting between hunts:

 

 

A Red-tailed Hawk:

 

 

There were other birds as well, Western Meadow Larks, Black Phoebe, Great Egrets, Red-head Ducks, Ruby-Crowned Kinglets and many I could hear but haven’t learned the song to yet.

 

For the complete set of photos from that day, please check out this page.

 

On the way back home, we saw a sign on Hwy 37 near Sears Raceway that said Vista Point, so we decided to stop and check it out. The site was nice, it had a parking lot and a raised observing deck with park benches. It was a great place to bird watch. Not only were there hundreds of waders, there were egrets as well. A pair of Kildeers put on a show mating close by as well. First time I had seen that happen.

 

That page of photos can be found here.

 

We only stayed a short while, but the birding was great. The bay area is blessed with an amazing diversity of wildlife and it always recharges me to go outside and see it.