One of many beautiful views of the lake we had!

A Green heron flew out of the willows to the left side of the photo!

Near the end of our walk, we spotted several birds fairly close to the path; we got a good look.

For our last class trip of the Fall 2012 semester, we went to a small local park in Oakland, Lake Temescal (bounded by 13 and 24). It is mostly a small lake surrounded by a small amount of oak and conifer woodland. What it lacks in diversity it makes up in natural beauty (see photos below). It was a beautiful fall day, the sun shone through the overhanging trees and marsh grass, and we made a leisurely circumnavigation of the lake looking for birds and any other wild creatures we might find (mostly turtles and squirrels). We had good luck with water birds, of course, including Great, Blue, Snowy, Black-crowned and Green herons and egrets. Always fun to see the Green herons, since they’re comparatively hard to find in the Bay Area. We saw a number of coots, pied-billed grebes and cormorants, of course, and several gulls (ring-bills). Ducks were lacking, except for mallards, but later in the season you can see Buffleheads, Ring-necks, Goldeneyes and several others. Both jays, of course, but no woodpeckers, which is surprising. Raptors were few, with only one Red-tail, and no vultures! Some of the usual fall-winter songbirds were present, such as the Ruby-crown kinglets, White-crown sparrows, Townsend’s warblers, juncos, titmice and chickadees, Black phoebes and Song sparrows. Heard what I thought was a Bewick’s wren also.Too late for the swallows that usually dart and swoop around the edges of the lake; they’re far to the south by now. Little over 20 species. An invigorating, crisp fall day, with luxuriant shrubs, trees and grasses all around the lake. Brilliant sunshine all the while, everyone had a great time hiking up and down the trails surrounding the lake. The first Winter Bay Area Birds class trip will be on Nov. 28th, with Crab Cove in Alameda. Still time to sign up, the semester goes to Feb. 6th of next year.