By Ilana DeBare

It’s the time of year when some old, out-of-use chimneys at a San Rafael brickyard become a site of avian wonder.

Tens of thousands of Vaux’s Swifts migrate south through California each fall, stopping to sleep overnight in brick chimneys, a modern version of their traditional hollow-tree roost. There are only a couple of places where the swifts are known to stop, and these sites draw up to thousands — sometimes as many as 19,000 — birds on a single night.

One of their roosting sites is the McNear Brickyard in San Rafael, discovered in 2010 by Golden Gate Bird Alliance field trip leader and birding instructor Rusty Scalf.

Rusty continues to visit the brickyards several times each week, counting the number of swifts for a citizen-science tracking effort led by Washington state biologist Larry Schwitters.

This year’s numbers in San Rafael have been generally lower than last year. Since this year’s initial sighting on September 18, they’ve ranged from 855 to 4,000. Last fall, by comparison, the low was about 3,500 and the high was over 19,000.

McNear Brickyard in San Rafael, before dusk. The swifts prefer the chimney on the left. / Photo by Ilana DeBare

I went out with Rusty on Wednesday and we counted just over 1,200. That sounds meager in comparison to last year, but it was still an amazing sight.

We waited. And waited. Saw some quail, bluebirds, House Finches, but no swifts. We waited some more, almost ready to give up. Were the swifts done with their migration already?

And then at 6:27 p.m. we saw a few, swooping near the chimney top. And then some more. And then suddenly it was a swarm, a blanket of black dots, looping and twirling in the wind.

Swifts start to arrive / Photo by Ilana DeBare Swifts in San Rafael / Photo by Ilana DeBare

The swifts flirt with the chimney. They circle broadly around it, as if toying with the idea of entering, and then swirl away out of sight with a gust of wind. They return and circle, and again swirl away. They could be a blizzard of dark snowflakes. They are like dancers doing some wild, fluid choreography in the wind. They are like children having too much fun to go to bed.

Finally some start popping into the chimney — one, two, ten, twenty, fifty. Hundreds continue swirling around, dozens are entering.…

By Burr Heneman and Janet Visick

We did our first high country trip in a long time in early August, and we took three of the best possible companions along with us: Ted Beedy, Ed Pandolfino, and Keith Hansen. They accompanied us in the form of their entertaining, informative, and beautifully illustrated and produced new Birds of the Sierra Nevada – Their Natural History, Status, and Distribution.* Thus armed, we set off in search of the elusive Gray-crowned Rosy-finch.

Let’s get out of the way what this book is not. If you have a copy of Discovering Sierra Birds** and know that Birds of the Sierra Nevada started out as a revision of the earlier book, you should forget there is any connection. This is an entirely new work with new and expanded information covering more species and a greater geographical area. The Introduction explains its “stronger focus on status, distribution, and conservation of Sierra birds.”

Birds of the Sierra Nevada

And it is graced by Keith Hansen’s illustrations of each of the 276 species that occur most regularly in the Sierra Nevada. (In his preface to the book, Rich Stallcup said of Keith’s artwork, “the precision of every detail is simply amazing. How does he do that?”)

Birds of the Sierra Nevada is not a field guide. If you’re not interested in the mass of behavioral, status, and habitat information in Birds of the Sierra Nevada, just stick with your Sibley guide or whatever you use. If you’re like us, you won’t lug this book into the field. It’s for enjoying in the car on your way to and from the high country, and in the evening as you recover from a day’s exploration at higher elevations than you may be used to.

Three features — the species accounts (310 of the book’s 430 pages), the strong chapter on ecological zones of the Sierra, and the unique chapter on population trends of many species over the past 40 years — make it an excellent resource on the Sierra Nevada avifauna.

The chapter on Ecological Zones and Bird Habitats is more informative than most such chapters in natural history guides. Example: it has long been known that blue oaks are not regenerating well in the oak savannas of the Sierra foothills, and grazing has received the blame. But did you know that recent research shows competition with non-native weed species may be as important, and that simply removing cattle can make that problem even worse?…

Sharp Park Golf Course is located in Pacifica but owned and operated by the City of San Francisco. For several years, Golden Gate Bird Alliance has been advocating for conversion of the golf course to a more natural park that supports wildlife. This is an update on the issue by our allies at the Wild Equity Institute. 

By Amy Zehring and Rachel Carter

Closing Sharp Park Golf Course and transforming Sharp Park into part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area is a win-win-win situation. We can save taxpayers money, improve recreation in San Francisco — including access to affordable golf — and protect habitat for the two endangered species that the golf course threatens.

Golden Gate Bird Alliance has partnered with Wild Equity since the Restore Sharp Park campaign began in 2009. Together, we’ve had many successes, but the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department (RPD) is still blocking long-term habitat restoration and expanded recreation opportunities at Sharp Park.

What is Sharp Park Golf Course? 

Located along the Pacific Ocean, Sharp Park contains a wetland and coastal lagoon system that provides habitat for two imperiled species: the threatened California red-legged frog and the endangered San Francisco garter snake, our nation’s most beautiful and imperiled serpent.

Tropical Kingbird at Sharp Park / Photo by Joe Morlan

Sharp Park is also home to an incredible diversity of birds. The San Francisco (or Salt Marsh) Common Yellowthroat , a California Species of Special Concern, breeds at Sharp Park.  The rare wetland and coastal lagoon ecosystem attracts rarities and vagrants every year, like this Tropical Kingbird that Joe Morlan photographed near the boundary of Sharp Park’s wetlands.

Unfortunately, in the 1930s — long before environmental review and planning codes existed — San Francisco decided to build a golf course at Sharp Park.  The city spent 14 months trying to dredge and fill Sharp Park’s wetlands and lagoon to create enough dry land for the golf course, and surrounded the remaining natural areas with golf fairways and greens. San Francisco also destroyed the natural dune system that protected Sharp Park from ocean storms so that golfers could observe the sea while they played.

This decision was one of San Francisco’s great ecological and financial mistakes — a mistake that today’s environmental laws would have prevented. Today, Sharp Park Golf Course is San Francisco’s worst performing golf course, both environmentally and economically.

Environmental Failures 

California red-legged frog

San Francisco garter snakes, which hunt in the cool waters of Sharp Park’s remaining wetlands, must bask in the sun to stay warm.  …

By Patricia Bacchetti and Mark Rauzon

Fifteen years ago, Sausal Creek wouldn’t have been even an afterthought on most Bay Area where-to-bird maps. Running from Joaquin Miller Park in the East Bay hills down to the Oakland estuary, the creek was long confined to concrete channels, with its tree canopies cloaked in ivy.

But in 1996 volunteers from the newly-formed Friends of Sausal Creek (FOSC) together with the City of Oakland began to liberate the creek along its run through Dimond Canyon. Since then, thousands of cubic yards of invasive plants have been removed and local-to-the-watershed natives have been added to the creek’s banks and its tributaries in the hills. As the riparian vegetation began to mature, animal life emerged, and the creek now hosts an increasing list of breeding and migrant birds, currently at 120 species.

If you follow Sausal Creek as it meanders from the hills down to the estuary, you encounter the full range of urban birding in the East Bay.

Headwaters

The creek’s headwaters are in the redwoods along Skyline Boulevard, near Redwood Regional Park. A trip to Fern Ravine (near the Sequoia Horse Arena) offers the opportunity to find nuthatches, Brown Creeper, singing Pacific Wren, and Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers the year-round, and House Wren in spring. There have been sightings of Pileated Woodpecker across Skyline Boulevard near the Chabot Space and Science Center, one of the few places in Alameda County where they can be found.

Sausal Creek near Mountain Blvd / Photo by Alberto Fox

The Fern Ravine wetland is one of the newer areas restored by FOSC, so look for more species to appear as the habitat matures. It is the only spot in the watershed that still hosts California Quail, and a migrating MacGillivray’s Warbler was counted here on the last bird-monitoring survey.

As you work your way down the hill, a short hike up the steep Palos Colorados Trail along Palo Seco Creek in the spring holds the possibilities of Pacific Wren, Hutton’s Vireo, Black-headed Grosbeak, Olive-sided and Pacific-slope Flycatchers, towhees, and migrating warblers. (The trailhead is at the end of Joaquin Miller Court, off Mountain Boulevard.)

Dimond Canyon

The most developed part of the restored creek bank is in Dimond Canyon along Park Boulevard. This stretch of the creek is becoming a reliable area to find breeding riparian species and is a migrant trap in spring and fall. Here the hills meet the flats, and conifers merge with riparian vegetation that surrounds the park.…

Want to learn bird calls but not sure how to start? Here are some tips from Denise Wight, who teaches Golden Gate Bird Alliance’s popular Birding By Ear classes. 

By Denise Wight

1. Learn to listen. While birding, be still and remain silent for a minute or two. Begin attentive listening to the bird sounds around you. Try to stay focused on individual sounds. Repeat often.

2. If you can, watch a bird as it sings or calls. Observe a vocalizing bird for as long as possible. Be aware of the habitat, season, time of day, smells, etc. Let the entire experience burn new path- ways of memory in your brain.

3. Start with the common birds. Get to know the vocalizations of House Finch, chickadee, Mourning Dove, and additional birds you encounter regularly.

4. Record the sound. Even the faintest sound recorded on a cell phone will help you recall the bird’s vocalization. Add comments at the end of the recording if possible.

Photo by Denise Wight

5. Use various techniques to recall bird sounds. Try mnemonics, silly phrases, or line drawings, or record yourself making the call! If “Chicago” prompts you to think “California Quail,” use it. Most of all, use what works for you!

6. Go out with someone who knows bird sounds. Join a GGBA field trip or take classes. You’ll learn much faster. Ask questions, take notes, even ask the leaders what tricks they use to recall the sounds you hear. This may also be an opportunity to find out just what bird species you may be missing due to hearing loss.

Spotted Towhee / Photo by Denise Wight

7. Consult apps and recordings. This can be helpful, but try to listen to the real bird in the field for as long as possible before you listen to recordings. They often sound similar, but sometimes they don’t, for various reasons.

8. Use additional information. Check books and online resources. Many links are on my website, denisewightbirds.com

9. Take a look at sonograms (also called spectrograms). They are bit advanced, but are a great way to visualize bird sounds. Check out xeno-canto.org or macaulaylibrary.org.

10. Just get out and listen! Go out as often as you can, in different locations, weather, time of day, time of year. Listen with a joyful heart and without fear.…