Note: This post is reprinted from the American Bird Conservancy blog with the author’s permission. 

By Scott Weidensaul

Migratory birds — which must overcome so many natural challenges as they journey from one end of the globe to another — are having a much harder time overcoming the obstacles that humans have added to the mix: habitat loss, environmental contaminants, climate change, and a lot more.

But we humans can be helpful, too. I saw vivid proof of that last January in the highlands of northern Nicaragua, where declining migrants such as Wood Thrushes spend the nonbreeding season. For years, this area has been a stronghold for farmers growing quality shade coffee. Not coincidentally, it’s also known as a paradise for birds.

An Island of Fertile Green

Everywhere we looked, we saw migrants: Philadelphia, Warbling, and Yellow-throated vireos; Tennessee, Chestnut-sided, Wilson’s, and Yellow warblers rolling through the understory in constant, flickering motion; Western Kingbirds and Western Wood-Pewees hawking insects in the treetops; Summer Tanagers and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks mixing with resident species like Black-headed Saltators and Clay-colored Robins. Flocks of Baltimore Orioles descended on blossoming trees and plucked the brilliant yellow flowers, dropping showers of blooms as they drank the rich pockets of nectar they’d revealed.

The highlands of northern Nicaragua, a productive shade coffee-growing region and refuge for migratory birds in winter. Photo by Scott Weidensaul. Baltimore Oriole, one of the many species that winter in shaded coffee farms / Photo by Ralph Wright

Later, in the village of San Juan del Río Coco, I met with members of a cooperative of more than 400 small coffee producers who raise more than 2.5 million pounds of shade coffee every year. These producers raise coffee the way it’s been farmed for centuries there, below the canopy of intact, functioning forests that provide critical habitat for scores of migratory bird species. When these shade coffee farmers prosper, the outlook for migratory birds gets brighter, too.

Seen from space, though, the hills around San Juan del Río Coco are an island of fertile green surrounded by hundreds of square kilometers of land already converted to sun coffee, pasture, and grain fields.

The fertile hills around Nicaragua’s San Juan del Río Coco are surrounded by denuded landscapes like this one—former forests converted to sun coffee, pasture, and grain fields. Photo by Scott Weidensaul.

Increasingly, small shade coffee farms have been destroyed to make way for sun-tolerant coffee—an industrialized, chemical-dependent system that renders what had been prime bird habitat into the ecological equivalent of a parking lot.…

By Ilana DeBare
About 120 birders fanned out across the 15-mile diameter of the San Francisco Christmas Bird Count circle on Friday and set what could be a new record for the number of species in the SF count — 183.
That’s of course a preliminary number. It could change as count compilers Siobhan Ruck and Alan Hopkins pour through the data, and as more reports from count week trickle in.
(It looks like this year’s Oakland species count, which initially had been pegged at a record-setting 184, is being revised down to 182. So, San Franciscans, don’t get too cocky just yet!)
The weather was cooperative — dry and relatively warm. Some birds were also quite cooperative, including a Tropical Kingbird that posed for the South San Francisco count team, and a Burrowing Owl at Ocean Beach.
Tropical Kingbird sighted in South San Francisco. Photo by Ilana DeBare.
Counting in South San Francisco.
But others were painfully absent. Unless they show up on subsequent reports, this year’s count was notable for turning up no Cinnamon Teal, Green Heron,  or California Quail.
The absence of quail — the California state bird — is a particularly sad story. Their numbers in San Francisco have dwindled dramatically in recent years, due to loss of habit and predation by feral cats and off-leash dogs.
Some teams reported low numbers of individual birds in their area, despite the high species count. It will be interesting to see if this is borne out count-wide once the data is tallied — and if so, if it can be attributed to our extremely dry winter.
After the count, participants gathered for the traditional celebratory dinner at the Log Cabin of the Presidio. Many thanks to the Presidio Trust for providing this homey venue, complete with roaring fireplace, and for co-sponsoring the count!
CBC Dinner at the Log Cabin in the Presidio.
Siobhan Ruck and Alan Hopkins read down the list of likely birds. Photo by Jon Sieker.
CBC dinner / Photo by Lee Karney
Among the highlights cited by count teams:

• Two Snowy Plovers (including one banded bird) at the Presidio, and 24 at Ocean Beach – good news for this threatened species.
• A Clapper Rail at Heron’s Head Park.
• Over 2,000 Western Sandpipers at the South San Francisco shoreline.
• Fifty-four Western Bluebirds in the Crystal Springs area. (But no quail.)
• A Long-tailed Duck and Harlequin Duck in Pacifica.

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By Erica Rutherford
It started as an exercise routine. In the spring of 2009, my partner John Colbert and I began a daily brisk climb up the Claremont Canyon trail starting at Stonewall Road and ending at Panoramic Way, a 750-foot elevation gain in a distance of roughly 3/4 mile. Once at the top, we enjoyed the views and exploring various connecting trails at a more leisurely pace.
One day on reaching the top of the hill, John excitedly pointed out a singing California Thrasher perched atop a pine tree not 15 feet away. Although I’d never seen or heard of this bird before, its warbled song would over time become a frequent and familiar accompaniment on our hikes.
In the fall of that same year, we enrolled in Denise Wight’s Birding by Ear class offered by the Golden Gate Bird Alliance. Her teachings and those of other instructors have forever changed and enriched our outdoor experiences. I did not realize then that we would come to know the year-round residents of Claremont Canyon so well and happily anticipate its seasonal inhabitants and stopovers.
View of Claremont Canyon and the bay from Panoramic Ridge / Photo by Ken Cheetham/bapd.org/hamilton-gulch-long-sequence.html
California Thrasher at Claremont Canyon / Photo by John Colbert

Historical and Geographic Context

Claremont Canyon Regional Preserve came into being as a result of community activism in the 1970s that advocated for preservation of the Claremont watershed. The East Bay Regional Park District acquired the first 80 acres just east of U.C.’s Clark Kerr Campus in 1978, and later supplemented this acreage with acquisitions from individual landowners. The purchase of a 64-acre parcel including most of Gwin Canyon completed the preserve.
In earlier days, Claremont Canyon served as both a mail route for the Pony Express and a corridor for transcontinental telegraph lines, as well as a transportation route for horse and wagon travel between Oakland and Contra Costa County. At present, Claremont Canyon Regional Preserve is best known for its hiking/running trails and spectacular views of Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco, the bay, and even the Farallones.
The first known inhabitants of the region were the Huchiun Ohlone Indians. The Huchiun inhabited the East Bay from Oakland to Richmond. They traveled between villages living off the land and used the canyon as a thoroughfare to valleys east in Contra Costa County.
Situated behind the Claremont Hotel, Claremont Canyon Regional Preserve is part of a larger 500-acre watershed for Claremont Creek.…

UPDATE:  As our compilers continue to review data from the count, it now seems like the total number of species sighted was 182, not 184. But there is more study under way. We’ll have final results in February.
By Ilana DeBare
The 73rd annual Oakland Christmas Bird Count  on Sunday brought beautiful weather, beautiful birds, and a record number of species — thanks to our friend the Painted Redstart.
About 250 people had signed up to count birds in the field or in their backyards, our biggest turnout ever.
And – even though we won’t have final results for another month or two – the preliminary count for the day was 184 species. That breaks last year’s record of 183!
One of those species was the Painted Redstart that had been found in an oak tree in a  Berkeley backyard in mid-November. The redstart drew birders and bird photographers from all over the Bay Area for a couple of weeks, a local avian celebrity.
But would the redstart be here for the CBC? Things didn’t look good when, five days before the count, in the midst of last week’s cold snap… it vanished.
Count compilers Dave Quady and Bob Lewis sent a team over to Woolsey Street on Sunday morning just to scout for the bird. They were prepared to stay as long as it took, all day if necessary.
But there it was, in its familiar oak tree.
“The group basically walked up to it first thing in the morning,” said Dave Quady. “Let’s hope it makes it through the winter and further.”
Gathering at San Pablo Dam Reservoir at sunrise – before the day started to warm up / Photo by Ilana DeBare
Barn Owl in palm tree on Telegraph Avenue / Photo by Bob Lewis
Among other highlights of the day (besides an absence of sideways rain):

• A “Vega” form of Herring Gull and a Glaucous Gull, which shared the rare bird award for the day.
• A Swainson’s Thrush, unusual for this time of year, reported in Moraga.
• A Golden Eagle sighted eating a jackrabbit in Alameda.
• Two separate pairs of Ruby-crowned Kinglets that were spotted wrestling, talon to talon.
• Five river otters in the Briones Reservoir. (Okay, they’re not birds, but they are darn cool.)

As Dave  reported on the East Bay Birds email list:

Other unusual species participants were happy to find included a handful of Snowy Plovers along the Alameda shoreline, a single Ruddy Turnstone that flew over San Leandro Bay, Surfbirds along Emeryville’s rocky shoreline, and three Red Knots at the end of the Albany Bulb.

…

By Raunak Bhinge
In spite of the large number of people using Cesar Chavez Park at the Berkeley Marina, the Burrowing Owls have again returned to winter in the northeast corner of the park. Just one day after Golden Gate Bird Alliance’s Burrowing Owl docent training session in late September, our youngest docent (age nine) spotted the first owl of the season.
All the new docents – including me – flocked to the park’s Art Installation Area to spot the new “Art” owl and talk about it to the public.  The second owl flew in more than a month later. Currently there are three owls, two at the Art Installation and one closer to I-80 near the Tom Bates soccer fields.
Many regular park visitors are aware of the wintering Burrowing Owls and start looking for the feathered arrivals each October. Other people read the signs that describe the owls and look for them but don’t see them. Still others walk past the Art Installation without knowing anything about our owl visitors. When docents are present, they provide these people with stunning views of the owls through scopes, binoculars and powerful cameras.
Burrowing Owl at Cesar Chavez Park / Photo by Doug Donaldson
This is why people need docents to help spot the owls! Photo by Doug Donaldson
November had many cold wintry days, and the gusty breeze at the marina only escalated the chill. The owls hunkered down in their burrows, almost invisible to most of the regular “owl spectators.” On some of the warmer days, the Art-area owl made brave appearances into the open, dancing along the northern rip-rap and foraging for rodents during the day. Those lucky enough to witness the owl in action went home with memories to cherish.
Shortly into this year’s docent season, we received some inspiring news. Last year, an injured owl had been found near Aquatic Park in Berkeley. It was taken to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum, where radiographs confirmed a simple, mid-diaphyseal fracture of the left humerus.  The fracture was pinned and wrapped. After a month of rehabilitation, the bird was banded and released at Chavez Park.
Recently Jay Holcomb at International Bird Rescue told us that this bird had been discovered alive and healthy in June by researcher Jamie Groves near Kuna, Idaho – more than 600 miles from Berkeley!
Jamie, who is studying parental/nesting behavior in Burrowing Owls for a master’s degree in Raptor Biology at Boise State University, wrote:

I banded this female, as well as her mate and their 7 nestlings (about 4 weeks old at banding). 

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