Vaux Swifts are making their southern migration and one of their overnight roosting stops is at McNear's Brickyard in East San Rafael, just south of the Peacock Gap housing development.
Dick Jordan and his wife, Cindy, went to the brickyard with friends about 6 PM on Wednesday and saw the swifts (which zoom around like swallows) darting back and forth across the sky. About sunset (6:38 PM), they began to dive down into the is
inside the brickyard's left chimney stack.
Rusty Scalf from
Berkeley
estimated that over 5,000 swifts entered the chimney Wednesday evening, and that they were probably part of a group that had flown in from Oregon.
On Monday, Rusty reported that:
"Last night's Vaux's Swift 'count' at McNear Brickyard was 4,280. In
recent days numbers have been running between 2,000-5,000 birds. We
haven's seen the huge numbers of last year when typical evenings of late
Sept had 6,000 to nearly 20,000 birds. Roosts in Oregon and Washington
retained very large numbers of birds until quite late this year. It's
possible that the drought has suppressed insect populations and the
birds are not staging as long as in previous years. In any case, this
season has been quite different from the previous two years."
The brickyard is private property, but
Dan McNear of McNear Brick & Block, allows birders to come into the brickyard per these rules, passed along by Rusty:
Parking:
The entrance (McNear Brickyard Road) narrows well before it
approaches the gate. At first it is rather wide with shoulders that
easily accommodate parking. It is important that you not park along the
entrance road beyond where the road narrows.
Park either along Point San
Pedro Road or along McNear Brickyard Road at the widest part (the first
~20% of its length). This is important. There are private residences
past the gate and beyond the facility; their wishes must be respected
Entering:
You may walk around the gate and enter the brickyard on foot.
Never enter the manufacturing facility itself. Stay outside the brickyard area.
Do not go past the tan house on the left and the office
building on the right. Stay in the employee parking area.
Organized trips:
If you are organizing a field trip it is important to
contact McNear Brick & Block and give them warning as much ahead of time
as possible. Email: dan@mcnear.com, phone number: 415-453-7702.
Brickyard Operations:
Occasionally their kilns operate on a 24 hour basis. When that's the
case trucks might be entering and leaving, workers could be about and
there is a potential to disrupt their operation. Obviously this must be
avoided so please be sensitive to the possibility.
An employee of McNear Brick & Block and his family live on the upper
floor of a building that is inside the brickyard. Please respect their
privacy and peace and quiet.
Act like well mannered and respectful guests and feel fortunate to have
such kind hosts.
Parking: The entrance (McNear Brickyard Rd) narrows well before it
approaches the gate. At first it is rather wide with shoulders that
easily accommodate parking. It is important that you not park along the
entrance road beyond where the road narrows. Park either along Pt San
Pedro Road or along McNear Brickyard road at the widest part (the first
~20% of its length). This is important. There are private residences
past the gate and beyond the facility; their wishes must be respected.
Entering: You may walk around the gate and enter the brickyard on foot.
Never enter the manufacturing facility itself. Stay outside the brick
yard area. Do not go past the tan house on the left and the office
building on the right. Stay in the employee parking area.
Organized trips: If you are organizing a field trip it is important to
contact McNear Brick & Block and give them warning as much ahead of time
as possible. Email: dan@mcnear.com, phone number: 415-453-7702.
Occasionally their kilns operate on a 24 hour basis. When that's the
case trucks might be entering and leaving, workers could be about and
there is a potential to disrupt their operation. Obviously this must be
avoided so please be sensitive to the possibility.
An employee of McNear Brick & Block and his family live on the upper
floor of a building that is inside the brickyard. Please respect their
privacy and peace and quiet.
Act like well mannered and respectful guests and feel fortunate to have
such kind hosts.
Thank you,
Rusty Scalf
Berkeley
- See more at: http://birding.aba.org/message.php?mesid=527981&MLID=CA09&MLNM=CA%20-%20North%20Bay#sthash.mJ5W17D1.dpuf
This week we hike in Mount Tamalpais State Park.
Because of the federal government shutdown, on October 15th we hiked at Devil's Gulch in Samuel P. Taylor State Park instead Tennessee Valley in the GGNRA.
