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September 2015
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SPOTLIGHT
Monte Vista welcomes new principal By Paulina Fischer, Photo by Imran Ali
Monte Vista High School started off the new school year by welcoming a new principal, Dr. Kevin Ahern. Mr. Ahern was announced to be the new principal after a couple of quick changes that took place over the summer, but his road to this job was not that fast. Ahern says his aspiration was that “when I graduated from college, I was going to be a college football coach”. He adds that he realized the job was less rewarding than he initially thought and that it was “not going to work”. Instead, he says he decided to get
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On Sunday, October 4 The Save Mount Diablo Challenge bike ride will kick off at Athenian School in Danville and climb up Southgate Rd to the summit of Mount Diablo. All proceeds benefit Save Mount Diablo’s land conservation efforts to create a national park-sized wilderness in your backyard for you, wildlife and future generations to enjoy. For event info go to www.savemountdiablo.org/activities_events_ chal.html.
White-tailed Kite By James Hale
The White-tailed Kite is perhaps our most elegant raptor due to its striking coloration. It is often mistaken for a gull with its overall white plumage, highlighted by a black shoulder patch, silvery-gray wing coverts and tips. The sexes are alike. The black “eyeliner” becomes apparent at close range. A broad, diffuse, rufous band with spots on the breast and brown gray back of juveniles is diagnostic. The adult plumage is acquired in the first winter. Juvenile birds have yellow brown eyes while the adults are bright scarlet. The crow sized White-tailed Kite has an almost buoyant flight as it soars and glides over the landscape. It has sometimes been referred to as the “Angel” hawk because of its appearance of “floating” in the air. They are frequently seen along
the highway 680 corridor hovering in pursuit of prey. Grasslands, oak savannahs, and marshlands are preferred foraging habitats where they hunt for small rodents, especially California voles, insects, and other prey. When prey is located as they hover overhead from fifty to one hundred feet, White-tailed Kites do not dive or stoop, as do other raptors. Rather they glide downward feet first, to seize their prey before swooping upward, a technique known as kiting. It has about an 80% hunting success rate. In flight the wings are usually held upward in a dihedral, sometimes with the tips pointed downward in gull fashion. Soft, repetitive vocalizations are heard year-
round, particularly when hunting or near the nest sites. Shooting, egg-collecting, destruction of foraging habitat, and perhaps downturns in the cycles of rodent populations in the 1930’s and 1940’s resulted in the almost extinction of White-tailed Kites in California. Fortunately in recent years, populations have recovered, although distribution is patchy. In the San Ramon Valley, Whitetailed Kites are a fairly
This month’s Special Section:
Fall Home andpages Garden 8-9
common backyard nesting species. The tops of live oaks or conifers are preferred trees, where they construct mediumsized stick nests high in the crown on thin branches. Most egg clutches consist of four beautifully marked eggs, formerly coveted by eggcollectors. The creamy white eggs are blotched with varying shades of warm brown. The See KITE page 5