By Jane Turner Hart

This past spring and summer I had the chance to observe a remarkable period of a Black Oystercatcher’s life: the nesting, brooding, hatching, protecting, feeding, and fledging of its chicks in the exposed, rugged territory of the rocky intertidal zone along the Pacific Coast.

In February, Noreen Weeden of Golden Gate Bird Alliance emailed me about volunteering to help with a survey project undertaken by Audubon California and others. The purpose was to collect baseline data on the Black Oystercatcher population, with a focus on the breeding and fledging success of pairs along California’s coast. How many eggs were laid in the nest? How many chicks would successfully fledge from that nest this year? In recent years, biologists have become more aware of the very small population size of Black Oystercatchers, thought to be about 10,000-12,000 individuals globally. Data suggest that the survival rate of their young has been dropping; they appear to have low reproductive success. I was definitely interested.

In late April, I began to head out to Land’s End in San Francisco where Black Oystercatchers had been seen recently. 

View towards Land’s End, the Cliff House, and the rock islands from Ocean Beach.

My early observations were from the back deck of San Francisco’s Cliff House. With a scope, binoculars and a smallish 50x Canon Powershot SX50 HS, I set up in the south corner of the deck to look west at three offshore rocks, collectively referred to as Seal Rocks. The distance from the deck to the rocks was roughly 450 feet. 

The Seal Rocks: Cone Rock (left), Arch Rock (center), and Repose Rock (right).

In Mid-April, I spotted a group of Black Oystercatchers flying north over the Seal Rocks. They circled the three islands, and two birds dropped down and landed on a sunlit bed of black and golden mollusks and limpets on Repose Rock.

The two black/dusky birds were difficult to see, except for their blood-red bills moving against the dark shell background. They walked slowly around the carpet of invertebrates, poking and pulling meaty bits from the mollusks. One of them stepped down into a deep pool of tidal water on the ledge, dunked its head in the pool several times, leapt out, shook off the drops, and then found a spot to sit and preen contentedly for several minutes.

I soon learned that Repose Rock was the Black Oystercatchers’ go-to spot for successful foraging at low tide.…

By Krista Jordan

In late 2014, I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and that’s when I saw it – a post by Golden Gate Bird Alliance for a Master Birder program, in partnership with the California Academy of Sciences. I had never heard of such a thing and was immediately intrigued. I had been birding in earnest for about two years at that point, and was really wanting to get to a “next level” but wasn’t quite sure what that would look like or how I would get there.

I quickly read the description and felt a rush. I had to do it. I can be impulsive but I hesitated as I read the requirements for the class. I really wanted to show up prepared and give it my all. Would I have enough time? Could I identify the requisite number of species by sight (100) and by ear (25)?

I slept on it for a night and the next day I printed out an ABA checklist and brought out my highlighter – 109 species by sight and 32 by sound. Not bad. I thought, “I can do this.”

My goals for taking the course were to:

1. See birds that I might not see otherwise, mostly because I lacked knowledge of when and where to find them.
2. Build my birding network by finding a group of people that are as nutty about birding as I am. (I might have been starting to annoy my non-birding friends.)
3. Get more involved in the Bay Area birding community through volunteering, advocacy, and conservation efforts. I had taken enough from the birds, it was time to give back!

What I got — and got to give — was so much more.

Master Birding class at Coyote Hills in March 2015, by Krista Jordan

Here are some course highlights:

The Instructors: You won’t find three expert birders who are more generous with their knowledge and time than Eddie Bartley, Jack Dumbacher, and Bob Lewis. Besides being approachable and kind-hearted, their passion for birds is positively contagious. I asked a lot of questions in the field (not all of them exactly smart) and was met with respect and kindness. Bring your curiosity and thirst for knowledge!

The California Academy of Sciences specimen collection: AMAZING! I have never had the opportunity to see museum specimens so at first it was a bit weird. Dead birds. Not for everyone.…

By Ilana DeBare
The day began clear and cold, so cold that the grass sparkled with frost until mid-morning in some areas.
Over 130 enthusiastic birders fanned out across San Francisco and northern San Mateo County on Tuesday in the 33rd annual San Francisco Christmas Bird Count. The morning chill soon gave way to a crisp, sunny day — perfect for birding.
The preliminary total announced at the CBC Compilation dinner was 182 species, although by Wednesday the count compilers had raised that total to 186 — which would beat last year’s record of 184 species. (The total may still change slightly as additional reports come in and rare sightings are verified.)
Among the highlights reported at the dinner:

• Two species that had never been found in the S.F. count before — Swainson’s Thrush in western Golden Gate Park, and Eastern Phoebe at the San Francisco Zoo.

Eastern Phoebe at the SF Zoo, by Bob Gunderson
Orchard Oriole at SF Zoo, by Bob Gunderson

• Other unusual sightings: Sooty Shearwater, Brown Booby, Orchard Oriole, Bullock’s Oriole, Burrowing Owl and Ferruginous Hawk.
• Over 40 Western Snowy Plovers on Ocean Beach near Golden Gate Park, and probably about 80 on all of Ocean Beach. That is an encouraging number of this threatened species on this very busy beach!
• Large numbers of Double-crested Cormorants along the southeastern waterfront, including Pier 94, where GGBA volunteers do habitat restoration each month. Plus lots of birds, people, and pinnipeds competing for fish at Mission Rock Resort. It’s herring run season!

Counting at Pier 94, by Ilana DeBare

• 957 Red-throated Loons at Lake Merced, along with four pairs of Marbled Murrelets flying offshore. The Lake Merced team also spotted two Ancient Murrelets and some White-throated Swifts.
• Six woodpecker species in eastern Golden Gate Park.
• American Bittern in western Golden Gate Park.
• Some impressive young birders (including a 10-year-old expert birder) on the San Bruno Mountain team.
• At Mussel Rock in Pacifica, Joe Morlan noted that, “in the place where the feral cat colony used to be, there was a nice fat coyote.”
• The team covering downtown San Francisco, aka the “pigeon corridor,” counted 1,046 Rock Pigeons. And one Peregrine Falcon on the Hilton, who clearly has some hunting to do.

Fort Mason count team, by Ilana DeBare
Surfbird near the Wave Organ, by David Assmann
The Crystal Springs team almost had a Bald Eagle in its tally. Eddie Bartley reported that, “We were setting up our scopes at Lake San Andreas when 150 ducks came shooting up the lake.…

By Richard Bangert
About 100 California Brown Pelicans made an unusual appearance on the old wooden dock on the south side of Alameda Point near the U.S.S. Hornet on December 23. The visit provided a rare close-up view of this colorful and iconic bird, but also a reminder of their struggle to survive as a species. Only one of the pelicans could be identified as a one- or two-year-old.
During the past four years, the breeding rate for California Brown Pelicans has been dismal. This recent trend has been directly attributable to the dwindling supply of sardines along the California coast, according to a Brown Pelican status report issued in October by the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife. The sardine population has dropped so low that in April of 2015, the agency responsible for managing Pacific Coast fisheries banned commercial fishing of sardines until the end of June 2016.
Brown Pelicans resting on old recreational boating dock on south side of Alameda Point in December. Photo by Richard Bangert
Brown Pelicans in Alameda by Richard Bangert
In May, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service urged the same agency to consider additional management measures to stave off a decline in northern anchovy, another important food source for pelicans and other marine life.
Brown Pelicans were removed from the federal endangered species list in 2009 with great fanfare after recovering from the devastating effects of the agricultural pesticide DDT on their eggs. But they no sooner recovered from chemical contamination than they fell victim to a plunge in food supply.
“Although most essential nesting and roosting habitat throughout the subspecies’ range is protected, the California Brown Pelican has experienced unusual mortality events and a multi-year decline in breeding success since delisting, both of which appear to be due to the lack of adequate forage,” wrote the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to the Pacific Fishery Management Council on May 14, 2015.
Brown Pelicans by Richard Bangert
About 10 percent of California Brown Pelicans nest on two islands in Channel Islands National Park off the coast of Southern California. The remainder nest and rear their young off the western coast of Mexico.
The University of California at Davis and the Mexican national conservation agency conducted a study of the 2014 nesting season off the coast of Mexico. The U.C. Davis news summary of the study results stated, “The scientists found that this year, areas that typically host hundreds or thousands of nesting pairs held only a few hundred at most, and in some cases zero nesting pairs.”…

By Dominik Mosur
During the most significant drought in California in a millennium, a trickle of water continues to wind its way down Glen Canyon, nestled between the Glen Park, Diamond Heights, and Miraloma neighborhoods of south central San Francisco. These headwaters of Islais Creek — thought to be the largest creek in pre-settlement San Francisco — eventually empty into the Bay below Highway 280. It is some of the last and most extensive riparian habitat remaining in the City.
Riparian habitats — those along rivers, streams and other water courses — are scarce in San Francisco. Virtually all the creeks and streams once weaving their way down the hills and through the canyons on which the City was built have long been subjugated to human will through underground channelization. The only other free-flowing creek in San Francisco, Lobos Creek in the southwest corner of the Presidio, is mostly fenced off from public access.
With year-round water and high-quality habitat, Glen Canyon remains a prime spot to seek out locally-scarce riparian nesters and the gleaner flocks that also favor this location during migration and winter.
Main path in Glen Canyon Park, by Lee Hong Chang
Glen Canyon boardwalk and marshy area, by Alan Hopkins
Bewick’s Wren in Glen Canyon Park, by Lee Hong Chang
The steeper, upper section of the canyon where willows mix with scrub offers a unique plant community blend, where one can encounter locally rare resident Wrentit and Bewick’s Wren. In sum, close to 30 species of birds can be expected to at least attempt nesting in Glen Canyon each spring and summer, depending on the conditions.
In the past decade, under the management of San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department’s Natural Areas Program, restoration efforts along the creek have improved the habitat resulting in nesting success by Pacific-slope Flycatcher and probable nesting attempts by Swainson’s Thrush and Bullock’s Oriole. All three of these species are medium- to long-range migrants that spend their winters in the tropics.
Summit with Red-tailed Hawk, by Lee Hong Chang
Glen Canyon Park in winter, by Dan Harris
For seekers of rarities, the canyon over the years has hosted unusual migrants like Red-eyed Vireo, Rock Wren, Black-and-white-Warbler, American Redstart, Northern Parula, Indigo Bunting, Summer Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak among others.
Additionally, the canyon is home to some of the longest continuous resident Great Horned Owls and coyotes in San Francisco. These subsist in part on the introduced Eurasian brown rats that abound in the City, but their diet is also bolstered by meadow voles, a keystone rodent species that can be observed throughout the park.…