Editor’s Note: Golden Gate Bird Alliance is sponsoring a birding tour to Ecuador in fall 2016. Here’s an account of one member’s visit to Ecuador this winter.
By Krista Jordan
In January, I traveled to Ecuador for a birding adventure with my friends Jack and Farley Connelly. Our small party spent the trip with one guide, Ecuadorian naturalist and guide Miguel Hipo. Over nine days, we traveled several hundred kilometers, stayed in three lodges, and ranged from altitudes of 2,300 to 11,000 feet. I wish I’d tracked miles walked, but I can guess we averaged five or six miles each day. We slogged through mud, waited in the rain, gasped for breath at high elevation, braved large creepy crawlies, and even took a night walk three-quarters of a mile through the rain forest. We asked for the most rigorous path in order to see the most species. We got what we asked for.
Was it worth it? Emphatically, yes! I wish I could do it all over again. We saw 293 species in that time, each one magical. Below is a log of our journey:
Farley and I flew from SFO to Panama City and eventually into Quito, where Jack was waiting for us. It was my first time in South America and I was amazed at the terrain. Quito is located in the northern highlands of Ecuador and, at around 9,340 feet, holds the title of the highest capital city in the world. It is flanked by volcanoes, some snow-capped and visible on a clear day. The city is 1,600 square miles with a population of 2.2 million. We drove along the edges — deep, dry canyons hugging the walls of the foothills. Everything was so different, with sparse vegetation and desert-like terrain. We passed through suburbs and barrios, eventually leaving the paved roads for a steep muddy trail leading up to our lodge – an 18th century Spanish hacienda located in the highland rainforest at nearly 11,000 feet!
View of Quito from lodge grounds by Krista Jordan
The San Jorge Quito Eco-Lodge sits on 230 acres of untouched, protected land. When we arrived, it looked like paradise. Beautiful grounds lined with gardens, all stacked with hummingbird feeders. We immediately pulled out our binoculars and field guides and forgot how hungry and tired we were from the travel. But eventually we sat down for lunch and watched Sparkling Violetears and Shining Sunbeams dive bomb one another, sometimes really close to our heads.…

By Ilana DeBare
Whether you count birds for your life list or simply count the days until your next bird outing, here’s a number that will impress you:
106 donors.
Each of whom gave money to sponsor Dan Harris in last year’s Golden Gate Bird Alliance Birdathon!
Yes, Dan got 106 of his friends and family members to donate to Birdathon, raising a whopping sum of $2,526 – the most of any Birdathon participant in 2015.
Hearing a number like that, you might think that Dan has some kind of fundraising super-powers. Maybe a salesman by profession? Or a bundler for political candidates?
But no… this super-fundraiser is a normal guy who loves birds, volunteers with Golden Gate Bird Alliance, and got over his initial fear of asking people to support GGBA.
“I was somewhat apprehensive at first asking family and friends for money,” Dan recalled, “but was pleasantly surprised, overwhelmed, and humbled by the tremendous support received from so many people.”
Dan Harris / Photo by Ilana DeBare
Dan, a retired environmental planner with the U.S. Department of Transportation, lives in San Francisco and started birding about seven years ago when his friend Jeff took him to see waterfowl at Las Gallinas Storage Ponds in San Rafael. He loved it and bought his own binoculars. Jeff would take Dan and other friends birding in Marin and Sonoma Counties and out to the Sacramento Valley. But after a while Dan realized, “Hey, I’m retired, I don’t have to wait for Jeff and my other working friends to go birding, I can go on my own!” and started taking part in Golden Gate Bird Alliance field trips and classes.
Dan’s first Birdathon was 2013. He signed up for a trip to Coyote Hills and saw that the suggested fundraising goal for that trip was $500.
“I thought, ‘How am I going to raise $500?’” Dan reasoned, “I figured a $10 donation is not too much to ask, so I just need to get fifty people to give $10. I sent emails to 50 or 60 people. I was overwhelmed by their generosity and ended up raising $857.”
Ring-necked Ducks, photographed in Golden Gate Park during a past Birdathon by Dan Harris
How did he come up with a list of 50 or 60 people? It wasn’t as hard as it sounds. He sent emails to various folks from his hiking group, his havurah (a Jewish family group), his friends and family, his wife’s friends and family, former co-workers, and fellow birders he’d met on Audubon walks.…

Editor’s Note: The San Francisco Chronicle ran an excellent story this weekend on San Francisco’s Snowy Plovers, which we are reprinting here in case you missed it. Our only quibble is with their description of longtime GGBA stalwart Dan Murphy as a… “hobby birder!” That’s kind of like describing Stephen Curry as an “adequate basketball player.”  (Wink.) Click here to view the original story with the Chronicle’s plover photos.
By Lizzie Johnson
Tucked among the dunes of Ocean Beach, dozens of white-breasted shorebirds roost. And this year, their numbers have quadrupled.
The sandy shores of the Crissy Field Wildlife Protection Area and Ocean Beach are a stopping-point for the Western snowy plover, a 6-inch shorebird with dark patches on its back. The average count at the bird’s overwintering ground is usually in the mid-20s. But this January, National Park Service workers counted as many as 104 plovers in a single day.
That’s a record number since the Park Service began observing and monitoring the population in 1994, a year after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated the species as threatened. The snowy plover population on the West Coast — with 85 percent in California, and some in Oregon and Washington — has dwindled to 2,100 individuals, and they remain threatened by habitat loss, predation and human population growth.
Adult male Western Snowy Plover / Photo by Jerry Ting
Local number grows
“It’s really exciting that we have so many of these birds out there at the western edge of San Francisco,” said Bill Merkle, wildlife ecologist for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. “The last couple of years, the local population has been increasing, especially this year. It is likely because the birds had good breeding years.”
But local numbers aren’t indicative of an overall snowy plover growth trend. The population has remained steady, largely because of habitat protection and education, said Andrea Jones, director of bird conservation for Audubon California.
“The population hasn’t been increasing or decreasing as a general trend,” Jones said. “That is both good and bad. There is a ton that goes into protecting these birds in their nesting habitats. At the same time, the population isn’t getting to where it needs to be.”
It has been tough for the species to recover because the snowy plover breeds and overwinters in different places, said Cindy Margulis, executive director of the Golden Gate Bird Alliance. The birds breed in coastal dune habitats in areas like Monterey and the Point Reyes National Seashore, and then rest in San Francisco during July through April.…

By Ilana DeBare
The East Bay Regional Park District board made a welcome decision on Tuesday to shut down the Chabot Gun Club, which has been leaching toxic lead into the watershed of Lake Chabot.
But the board, apparently trying to placate gun owners, gave the club a full year to shut down – six months more than was recommended by park district staff, and far more time than is necessary.
“It’s a sign of progress that the gun range’s days are now finally numbered,’ said Golden Gate Bird Alliance Director Cindy Margulis.  “However, it’s regrettable that the District’s Board is effectively allowing this public health menace to continue for an entire year.”
The gun range’s lease expired in January 2015 and the EBRPD board granted it an extension until January 2016, then another extension through the end of this month. With this week’s vote, the range can continue operating through March 2017 but then must close.
Park neighbors, park users, and conservation groups including GGBA and Sierra Club have been urging the district to close the range because of its toxic lead pollution and noise issues.
Debris at Chabot Gun Club / Photo by gritphilm (Creative Commons)
Male Bald Eagle at Lake Chabot / Photo by Mary Malec
Lead was not commonly seen as a health danger when the range opened in 1963, but today it is well documented as causing anemia, brain damage, neurological disorders, kidney damage, reproductive disorders in humans as well as wildlife. In addition to being a popular site for hiking and picnicking, and a home to many wild species including Bald Eagles, Lake Chabot is an emergency drinking water source for the East Bay.
The cost of cleaning up past lead pollution from the gun range is estimated at between $2 million and $20 million. Each additional year of shooting will cost at least $200,000 to clean up – costs that will fall upon the park district and the East Bay taxpayers who support it.
“We had been asking them to shut down in under six months,” said Pam Young, chair of GGBA’s East Bay Conservation Committee. “Those previous extensions provided plenty of time for the club to make plans for closure. The longer it goes on, the greater the cost and the greater the harm.”
Both Young and Margulis testified at the EBRPD hearing yesterday, and GGBA board members emailed the park district board this week pressing for a final and speedy closure.…

Note: This is the final installment in a series of 11 blog posts by GGBA member George Peyton about his other half Lani Rumbaoa’s effort to see over 600 bird species in the Lower 48 states in 2015. Lani finished the year with a total of 641 species on her Big Year list!

By George Peyton

When Lani and I were birding on the King Ranch in South Texas in early November 2015, looking for a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, a difficult-to-see bird species, we ran into Brandon Reo, who was also doing a 2015 Big Year. By that time he had already seen 644 species in the Lower 48 States, while Lani had then only recorded 620.

I asked Brandon what was the secret to his Big Year success, and he promptly responded: “Unlimited time and money.” He went on to indicate that he was the CEO and owner of a successful company in New Jersey, and while he continued to manage it, he was able to leave work for birding at any time. Furthermore, he had the money to be able to fly immediately to any sightings of rare birds needed for his Big Year list. He pointed out that he had flown twice from New Jersey to Texas in the past month alone, each time to chase after just one rare species to add to his list.

That is definitely not the way it worked for Lani and me. But it is true that Lani had arranged to be away from her work as a store manager for up to half of the year, and we actually birded outside of the San Francisco Bay Area — 15 states in addition to California — for almost a full six months of the year. Also 2015 was without question by far the most expensive year ever for us, due to the high cost of air travel, rental cars, lodging, and food, as well as other expenses such as bird guiding fees related to Lani’s Big Year of Birding.

While someone could undertake a localized Big Year effort – such as trying to see the maximum number of species in a specific county  — without major additional expense or time off from work, any serious effort to carry out a Big Year in North America or the Lower 48 States as Lani did would require taking major time off from work and spending at least $25,000 to $30,000.…