Berkeley Backyard Bird Blog: Birding Delights at Jewel Lake, Wildcat Creek & Tilden Nature Area

Black-headed Grosbeak in high tree branches

Tilden Regional Park is a natural wonder on our urban doorstep just minutes away in the Berkeley Hills – even by bike!

Turtles lined up on a log at Jewel Lake in Tilden Nature Area

The lovely Tilden Nature Area is alluring any time of year, especially pretty now with dense brush and forest draped in autumn colors.

Pie-billed Grebe visiting Jewel Lake

A stroll around the Nature Area – if you're a birder – can soak up a few hours in no time just ambling around, checking for birds at the edges of the still-flowing creek, in the rich habitat of the winding boardwalk, and at the aviary otherwise known as Jewel Lake, where birdspotting becomes a special art.

Jewel Lake flush after big rains

Often meeting fellow giddily enthusiastic birders, you're bound to experience a birducopia in a birdutopia!

Cormorant at rest on ball

Show-offy Cormorants flapping their wings.

Mallard mates for life

Mallards and other Waterfowl

gliding about solo

or with little ones or mates in tow.

Walkin the walk, stalkin the stalk

Herons stalking and feeding

in their inimitably Zen-patient way.

Black Phoebe singing "Along came a spider . . ."

Adorable Black Phoebes and Anna's Hummingbirds

flitting about.

Belted Kingfisher comes and goes

Elusive Kingfishers darting to and fro

(if you're lucky to espy the quick flyers).

Always difficult to photograph Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Frenetic Ruby-Crowned Kinglets

in their constant search for insects.

Black-throated Gray Warbler (rare sighting for me)

Several types of Warblers, single-mindedly engaged

in the business of gathering sustenance for survival.

Red-tailed Hawk engaged in aerial acrobatics

And sustenance abounds in the Tilden Nature Area, which accounts for the plethora and diversity of avian visitors and residents.

Acorn Woodpecker checking out cache

The other day I watch gangs of Acorn Woodpeckers in the marsh ponds flit back and forth from their high perches in the Eucalyptus trees to nearby Oaks to gather their bounty and issue forth chiding AAACK! AAACK! AAACK! calls.

Leaders of the flock of wild Turkeys crossing the trail

On Blue Gum Trail, a troupe of two dozen Turkeys crosses my path, only mildly frightened by vain attempts to film them.

Varied Thrush in dense cover

At the edge of a dried out pond, I think a Varied Thrush is hiding in dense understory, but can't verify it until returning an hour later just to see. My patience – or timing – is rewarded within a few seconds with a fine glimpse of the handsome Thrush, crouched in typical hard to spot, camo'd, secretive pose amid a tangle of branches.

Jewel Lake in throes of drought

No hiding from me this time, sweet little birdie, but definitely you're not the easiest bird to photograph.

Juvenile - what? - who?

Now how is it that with multiple dozens of visits to the Tilden Nature Area / Wildcat Creek Watershed, I continue to be dumbstruck by the many different birds I see here . . . that I have never seen!

Wood (?) Hermit (?) Thrush

Not one! Not once!

It makes no sense!

Stern-looking Steller's Jay

Writing for Mount Diablo Audubon Society, Steve Glover casually reports varied sightings of birds spotted in this vicinity / environs that have thus far completely eluded my sphere of awareness.

Red-tailed Hawk chilling on fence post

His list includes the following birds, all of which I have a grand total of ZERO sightings in my own biodiverse backyard! Possibly because some of the birds on his list are non-residents / non-visitors, and may be wayward stragglers? Just a guess based on a quick scan of breeding, wintering and summer ranges (* = possible sighting but unconfirmed)

Allen's Hummingbird (photo by Mary Shattock on Flickr)

*Swainson's Thrush / *Allen's Hummingbird / Red-eyed Vireo / Tennessee Warbler / Chestnut-sided Warbler / Hooded Warbler / Black-throated Blue Warbler / Worm-eating Warbler / Northern Parula / Northern Waterthrush / American Redstart / Western Wood-Pewee / *Pine Siskin / *Winter Wren / Ovenbird / *Purple Finch

Hooded Warbler
(photo by Ninahale, CC BY-SA 4.0
<https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>,
via Wikimedia Commons)

Seriously, how can this be?

Am I not paying attention?

Are the birds determined to not pay attention to me?

Is my timing off?

Western Bluebird standing out

Do I not know a Swainson's from a Hermit?

A Vireo from a Kinglet?

A Lark from a Song Sparrow?

Wildcat Creek beauty in Tilden Regional Park

Surely not. Like my chanterelle hunting bud of old who had an uncanny ability to magically spot barely popping up fungi, it must take another kind of talent, some preternatural connection, to stand there silently, patiently – expectantly? – until an American Redstart or Northern Parula happens to show up.

Laurel Canyon area of Tilden Regional Park

Maybe, has to be, like I said, about timing. These birds must be early morning or late evening appearing birds, and I'm always, or mostly, here from 10 am to 3 pm. In any event, I could also certainly benefit from instructions, lessons, camaraderie, if only I weren't such a maverick and lone wolf about things.

Fox Sparrow (a guess)

I'll settle with my own wonderful sightings recently.

Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron (and Turtle)

A juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron.

Great Blue Heron waiting for his moment

An unflappable Great Blue Heron.

Warbling Vireo photographed in Tilden Nature Area

An exciting first ever sighting of a Warbling Vireo.

Varied Thrush taking cover in dense tangle of branches

The Varied Thrush I had seen earlier on this day.

Bird-rich stretch of Wildcat Creek along the Gorge Trail

I decide to making a last-minute detour hoping to see something different, something special. What are the chances?

Pacific-slope Flycatcher

I head up a path through the big Lone Oak meadow paralleling Wildcat Creek, coming to a picnic area where a heretofore unknown pathway leads down a ways to the Nook Pool area.

Nook Pool gushing after big rainstorm

On the opposite side from the usual approach on Wildcat Gorge Trail, everything seems so unfamiliar, exotic even, with unrecognizable grand Redwood and Bay trees and a thick blanket of forest to discover the secretive world of not one, not two, but three Varied Thrushes!

Tunnel of verdure near Jewel Lake

Unphotographable as usual, I still manage to witness these pretty burnt-orange striped and tinged birds darting and hopping for several minutes, unaware of the voyeur looking in.

Chestnut-backed Chickadee posing just long enough

A perfect capper to a day that also included sightings of frisky Chestnut-backed Chickadees, a lone Townsend's Warbler, blitzing Scrub and Steller's Jays, many Dark-eyed and Pink-sided Juncos, a slew of Ruby-crowned Kinglets.

Robin in berry heaven

Along with one Downy and several Acorn Woodpeckers, two dozen Wild Turkeys, several Vultures, two Red-tailed Hawks, one Bewick's Wren, one Hermit Thrush, a few California Towhees, two Black Phoebes, one Mourning Dove, lots of Bushtits, and a pair of really pretty Adult Male Green-backed Lesser Goldfinches!