• San Francisco Christmas Bird Count 2022

    By David Assmann

    While conducting a Christmas Bird Count as an atmospheric river moves through is not ideal, the 2022 San Francisco Christmas Bird Count exceeded expectations. One hundred twenty participants braved the elements for the count. Due to the weather, our boat survey had to be moved to the next day.

    Counters at the San Francisco Zoo (Area 7) during the SF CBC by Megan Jankowski

    By the time Count Week (CW) was over, the species tally was at 188, exactly the same as last year. For the official Count Day, our species total was 178, three fewer than last year’s 181. Our total count of birds for the Count Day was 58,183 – about 6,000 fewer than last year’s 64,176. However, if you add the 9,221 birds counted on the boat the day after, our numbers are actually up.

    There were 29 rare or uncommon birds found on this year’s count, 21 of which were found on Count Day. Twelve of the 18 count areas had a rare species. The best bird on Count Day was a Winter Wren found by Jonah Benningfield in the Presidio. Not only was this a new species for the San Francisco Christmas Bird Count, but it was also the first San Francisco eBird record for Winter Wren.

    The other new species for Count Day was a Sage Thrasher found by Malia DeFelice and Chris Hayward at Sierra Point. A new Count Week bird was a Black Skimmer. It was by far the most challenging species to locate. Acting on a tip from a co-worker of SF CBC co-compiler Siobhan Ruck’s who saw a Tern skimming the water in the dark from a ferry in San Francisco, Keith Maley braved the rain and wind after sunset on December 29th to finally spot a Skimmer just offshore from Pier 14 at 7pm.

    Overall duck numbers were about the same this year, although we missed some of the uncommon species seen last year (Harlequin Duck, Long-tailed Duck, Cinnamon Teal and Redhead). American Wigeon, Bufflehead, and Greater Scaup numbers were up significantly, whereas Surf Scoter numbers continue their long and steep decline. There were 530 Surf Scoters seen, down from 1,144 last year. In 1985 the count for Surf Scoters was 13,600 and as recently as 2015, the count totaled more than 3,000.

    Although the numbers are still small, we did set a new record for Hooded Mergansers, with 27 seen on count day.…

  • Calling All CBC Yard Watchers

    By Ryan Nakano

    Every year Golden Gate Bird Alliance organizes Christmas Bird Counts, providing fun and exciting opportunities for people living in the Bay Area to contribute to community science. Originally pitched by conservationist Frank Chapman back in 1900 as an alternative to Christmas bird hunts, the Christmas Bird Count has been a beloved annual event organized by the National Audubon Society for 123 years.

    This year, our independent chapter is hosting three counts; Oakland, SF and Richmond, and we’re excited to have so many interested birders of all experience levels already registered for each upcoming count. While many registrants will soon be assigned to an area leader (if they haven’t already), sent information about where and when to meet, and mentally preparing for the day-long adventure of striking out with a group of equally impassioned birders to count all the birds they see within their assigned area, some are ready to kick back relax and count from home.

    These are our Feeder or Yard watchers, and you could be one of them!

    Because each count is built on the premise of counting up all the birds within a 15 mile count circle, one space that is completely essential but often overlooked is our own backyards…front yards…sideyards… or more generally, on the properties of the places we live.

    And there are many reasons why you might want to participate in this way. Maybe it’s generally easier for you to count from home. Or maybe, group birding just isn’t your speed. Maybe your time is limited on the day of each count but you’re still wanting to participate and help ID. Whatever the reasons, I want to make an appeal and an argument for being a Yard Watcher this season.

    First and foremost, it takes very little time and effort to contribute valuable data to the Christmas Bird Count.

    Got 15 minutes to spare on count day? Find a cozy spot with a view at home, record the maximum number of individuals in each species you see at any one time, log your start and end time and submit your data to us through our Count Forms (Oakland, SF, Richmond). That’s it!

    Secondly, even though you won’t be out in the field, you don’t have to go it alone. Share the experience with your kids, significant other, members of your family, roommates, housemates, or whoever else you might live with and note their participation in your data so we know it was a team effort.…

  • Meeker Slough

    By Gail Kurtz

    A small mudflat channel along Richmond’s southern shoreline, MEEKER SLOUGH is easy to miss. It cuts a narrow track between UC Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station and the Marina Bay residential community, eventually draining into a tidal marsh nestled against the bay.

    Meeker Slough may be little, but it plays a big part in supporting the local bird population. The Bay Area has lost 90% of its wetlands since 1850, so this remaining parcel has an important role in providing habitat for a wide variety of birds. Surprisingly, the tidal marshes along this part of the southern Richmond shoreline are relatively new. Before the 1950’s, this area consisted of a mudflat and bluff, much like what one now sees at Pt. Molate. It wasn’t until breakwaters and other hard infrastructure were constructed to support World War II efforts that sediment began to accumulate behind the breakwaters. Over the next 20 years, a marsh developed where the mudflats had been.

    According to eBird, 208 species have been spotted at Meeker Slough, including shorebirds, water birds, raptors, and songbirds. Many species take up year-round residence in the slough, while others overwinter here or make it an important stop on their fall and spring migrations. Meeker also offers crucial habitat and breeding ground for the endangered Ridgway’s Rail.

    Much like the elusive nature of the Ridgway’s Rail, tThis special hotspot isn’t so easy to find. Be sure not to use a GPS, as they all (including eBird) direct you to closed gates in the Marina Bay neighborhood. There are two points of entry to the slough, both on the inland side (see directions in the Fast Facts section below). Meeker Slough begins here as storm water runoff from the City of Richmond and then joins a brief stretch of Meeker Creek before entering the tidal marsh. Here one finds a serene channel, a quiet scene for close encounters with birds. One also finds the blurred edges between the natural and human landscapes. Egrets perch on an old section of fence laying catawampus along the shore, Black Phoebes swoop out from metal posts to catch bugs, and several “Duck Crossing” signs pay homage to the rafts of Mallards that congregate near the banks. Continue south along the channel and be sure to watch for fast-moving cyclists. The paths here are part of the San Francisco Bay Trail, which is popular with bikers and walkers.…

  • Lands End

    By Dominik Mosur

    Summertime can be slow for the city birder. Migration is largely over by the end of May and city parks and backyard green belts only harbor a few hardy local nesting species.

    At this time of year, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area parcel at Lands End becomes especially relevant on early mornings when getting out of town isn’t possible. 

    Multiple access points lead to miles of trails weaving through wonderful land birding habitat in San Francisco. Willow thickets on steep slopes hold some of the last breeding territories of Orange-crowned Warblers in the county. Hutton’s Vireos, Swainson’s Thrushes, Purple Finches and Wilson’s Warblers summer here as well.

    On days when prevailing onshore winds die back, the stands of trees along Lands End become vagrant traps where misdirected Eastern Kingbirds, Northern Parulas and Chestnut-sided Warblers show up like a midsummer Christmas gift to brighten a foggy morning. I’ve often thought of this place as the city’s version of Outer Point Reyes.

    Turning one’s attention to the ocean, check out the observation deck above the Sutro Bath ruins. This point overlooking Seal Rocks is a great perch from which to study the activity on the water. Thousands of Common Murres can be present on productive days, joined by other local breeders: Brandt’s Cormorants, Pigeon Guillemots, Caspian Terns (which can be seen all day carrying food to their colonies inside the Bay) and post breeding visitors: Brown Pelicans, Heermann’s Gulls, and by early July, Elegant Terns. Some years, thousands of Sooty Shearwaters will be present offshore for days and an occasional Brown Booby has shown up to join the feeding frenzies as well.

    Walking the Lands End trail, make sure to stop at the “Historical Shipwrecks” sign overlooking Hermit Rock and scan it along with the nearby waters for a returning Parakeet Auklet. 

    Since 2017, a single individual of this species which breeds in Alaska has returned each summer to this point on the San Francisco coastline. As of late May 2022 it was back for its 6th summer. Nesting on Hermit Rock are Pigeon Guillemots and a pair of Black Oystercatchers. By mid-July migrating Wandering Tattlers will start appearing on the rocks as well. All remain vigilant for Peregrine Falcons which rule the coast again with three pairs nesting within a few minutes of here.…

  • Corona Hill

    By Dominik Mosur

    The City of San Francisco is sprinkled with an array of small parks ideal for a birder on a time budget. One of my favorites, especially on a warm, east wind day in Fall, is Corona Hill.

    Standing approximately 540 degrees  above current sea level,  Corona Hill is a lone outcrop on the northeast flank of the San Miguel Hills. It first appears in written history as the site of a brick factory at the turn of the 20th century. The brick makers used dynamite to rip the hill apart to extract the symmetrical layers of chert, a fine-grained sedimentary rock, that makes up much of the bedrock in this part of San Francisco. As the city rushed to develop the last remnant scraps of open space at the end of the 1940s, a parks superintendent named Josephine Randall envisioned a public destination on top of this hill. The result was a park and museum juxtaposed against the residential neighborhoods already sprawled over most of the other peaks of the growing city. Today 100,000 people visit Corona Heights Park and the Randall Museum each year.

    Fall Migration

    September through November, when the weather heats up, migrants move through the Central California Coast. Big numbers of Violet-green Swallows and Vaux’s Swifts and in some years Band-tailed Pigeons, Pine Siskins and other more irruptive species. Over twenty species of raptors have been noted passing the hill in the past 15 years. The bulk of these are turkey vultures, accipiters and red-tails but rarer species like kites, harriers, and kestrels pass over regularly when conditions are prime, as do the rarer migrating hawks like Broad-winged and Ferruginous Hawks, and more rarely Rough-legged and Swainson’s. Depending on the strength of the east winds the previous night, skeins of White-fronts or Cackling geese may pass over into midday as they redirect back to the valley. The hot east wind days can also blow in surprises like Lewis’s Woodpecker, Rock Wren and Townsend’s Solitaire.

    As the seasons pass into winter, birding Corona Hill slows down considerably. Other than the occasional late migrant raptor or flock of misdirected water fowl, few new arrivals are noted after December until the early spring migrants begin their trek back north in March. However, Northern Saw-whet Owl and Burrowing Owl have both shown up in late Fall /early winter. Spring migration can be productive on days when many birds are moving through on the coast.…