Of Urban Redoubts, Refuges, Havens & Sanctuaries for the Wild Birds of Berkeley

Redwood trees add grandeur at Codornices Park

Berkeley is renowned for many things – a world-class academic institution, a first-rate arts scene, unparalleled diversity and culture, and wacko trend-setting politics.

Red-shouldered Hawk at rest

But thank Goddess

for the beautiful Berkeley Hills.

Benner Falls just outside the park on private property

Topping out at Vollmer Peak (1905 ft.), the Berkeley Hills offers up boundless recreational opportunities, with over 10,000 acres of mostly undeveloped (heavily managed) park lands to explore – Tilden, Wildcat and Briones.

Ruffled feathered Anna's Hummingbird

On this side of the ridge, though, the neighborhood side, what may be known only to Berkeley's residents (who have included a veritable Who's Who of the Famous and Infamous), one finds a trove of hilly, forested, veritably wild city parks (if one looks).

Dense forest of canopy and understory provide food and shelter

Mini-nature getaways, Berkeley's "nature parks" offer up abundant evidence of small miracles at every turn, places where one experiences, as I wrote in a post on Codornices Creek:

Orange-crowned Warbler

. . . a bonk on the head reminder that you don't have to venture far afield from your doorstep to partake of the glorious pageantry

of Mother Nature unfolding in undisturbed, timeless rhythms, however small or hidden.

Codornices Creek gushing along after a downpour

Because I can't always get to Tilden / Wildcat / Briones, I've been forced to take advantage of exploring our city parks (poor me), a cluster of them within walking distance from my North Berkeley neighborhood.

Mary walking in a relatively secluded spot in the park

Codornices, Live Oak, Mortar Rock, Indian Rock, Grotto Rock, Remillard, Cragmont, Great Stoneface, John Hinkel.

American Crow

I have discovered they are places of understated natural beauty, perfectly wonderful habitats aflutter with transient and permanent bird species, owing to the parks' rustic settings among volcanic boulders, redwood trees, streams, waterfalls, and pockets of hidden forest and brush.

Codornices Creek flowing through the forested park

For us humans, the parks provide much needed respite from jarring city life and the madding crowd, but for the birds . . . well, these places truly are for the wild birds of Berkeley.

Mama Sharp-shinned Hawk on high alert

I've spent the past few days checking out Codornices Park enjoying the comings and goings and doings of a bounty of bird friends, an abundance of avian amigos, a plethora of passerine pals, from Juncos and Jays, to Chickadees and Kinglets, to Thrushes and Warblers and Wrens.

A Bushtit's nest

At the end of a two-hour birding session, I'm lucky to spot a beautiful Sharp-shinned Hawk, North America's smallest.

This Sharp-shinned Hawk is a permanent resident of the park 

Only once before had I espied one so up close and personal, amazingly, in the 108-year old Interior Live Oak tree out my bedroom window. Both, wonderful and unexpected surprises, and no small miracle.

Sharp-shinned Hawks are hard to distinguish from Cooper's Hawks

So I'm hangin' out watchin' for birds in my usual place – the upper reaches of the hilly park – where only dog walkers and teen stoners pass by – when I'm struck by an urge to explore more, as though there's any more exploring to do in the very delimited park boundaries hedging up against tall Redwood fencing abutting spacious back yards.

Peaceful retreat and hangout at Codornices Park

But indeed, a deer trail leads into sylvan pockets of dense tree cover and brush, promising areas I'd peered up into from below, but never checked out until now. Stooping to clear some tangled foliage, I startle a big bird from his hiding place in thick brush.

Sharp-shinned Hawk checking me out maybe

Emerging into the open, I glance up at a nearby tree branch and see the perching Hawk, busy with his freshly killed meal, which, I realize, is probably one of the little songbirds I'd just been admiring. I can't really tell, but I do see a red and white gloopy glob of something fall from his sharp yellow beak to the ground, to no great apparent concern.

Wilson's Warbler heading to creek to sip 'n dip

These handsome Accipiters, with their sturdy squared-off tails that act as rudders, swoosh and swoop through dense forest cover in deadly assaults on songbirds and mice. The stealth creature's diet consists of 90% of their avian kind, but they're not secretive for nothing – they themselves are subject to being preyed upon and eaten as a tasty meal by larger stealth creatures, such as the Northern Goshawk.

Red-tailed Hawk on the wing

Specialized "pursuit hunters" such as the Sharp-shinned Hawk chase down and snatch songbirds out of thin air, or pounce on mice from perches just 36 inches from the ground. To be lucky enough to stumble on one them in wild feasting mode, in a local city park, reaffirms the necessity of preserving our urban redoubts, refuges, havens and sanctuaries for the wild birds and animals (and weary humans).

Upper back side of Codornices Park is a bird haven

Certainly, this Sharp-shinned Hawk is a regular nester, somewhat known (among the avianscenti in North Berkeley) for its uncharacteristic frequent appearances over the tree-tipped skies (often harassed by a swarm of Crows).

Mayhem and murder in the sky

But, surely, permanent residency is to be expected, for Sharpies are no dummies, attracted to easy pickings in the urban-cum-woodsy setting of North Berkeley where bird feeders attract a year-round smorgasbord of songbirds (Warblers, Robins, Thrushes, Sparrows, poor little things).

Red-shouldered Hawk alighting in Live Oak Park

Crazy fact:

11,000 (!) Sharp-shinned Hawks

were spotted on a single day

in October on Cape May Point, New Jersey.

Coupla Jay feathers

The unexpected sighting in Codornice Park of a gorgeous Sharp-shinned Hawk reminds me of a chance sighting I had in the same area of another rarely seen and pretty bird – a Varied Thrush.

Varied Thrush in no rush

I spotted him flapping from branch to branch, then landing and remaining still for a nice look. I happened to take a shortcut through an area where a homeless person was encamped, and was pleasantly surprised (rewarded) when the bird flushed out of the brush.

The colorful and secretive Varied Thrush

A flurry of impressionistic colors: burnt orange, sooty black, a flash of turquoise. Such a precious gem of a creature unnoticed in this intimate, fleeting moment in time and place.

Tree hugging rock
Great Stoneface Park in Berkeley

 Unnoticed, that is, except by me.

Canyon Trail in El Cerrito
offers birds a chance

In a chance sighting I shall not soon forget.

Benner Falls
 quite the exotic get-away
in the Berkeley Hills

Read more bird-related posts to discover Berkeley's "Nature Park" gems

providing urban recreational experiences & sanctuaries

for birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles & humans:

BIRD WALKABOUT IN THE BERKELEY HILLS PARKS (December 10, 2013)

BACKYARD / URBAN BIRDING (July 23, 2013)

BIRD-LICIOUS MOMENTS @ LIVE OAK PARK (August 10, 2014)

UNSEEN BIRDS, INFINITE, HIDDEN WELL (May 17, 2015)

JOHN HINKEL PARK BIRDBATH SPRING (August 23, 2015)

EXTRAORDINARY ORDINARY URBAN BIRDS (April 24, 2016)

URBAN PARK SIGHTING OF PALM WARBLER (February 11, 2019)

ESSAYS & MUSINGS ON THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF BIRDS

Chicken watch

part of urban birding

Enjoy a walkabout with Gambolin' Man in two of Berkeley's charming, bird-rich parks:

HOMAGE TO CODORNICES PARK & CREEK (2009)

LIVE OAK PARK WANDERINGS (2011)

California Towhee
fixture of urban birding

Bonus videos of beloved parks & creeks in North Berkeley:

WALKABOUTS & BIRDING ALONG CODORNICES CREEK

WALKABOUTS IN JOHN HINKEL PARK

Crow
common but interesting
urban adapted bird