Note: This is the tenth in a series of occasional 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.

By George Peyton

Some of our friends thought we were a bit crazy to fly to Duluth, Minnesota — one of the coldest, snowiest parts of the United States — right after Christmas. However, it turned out to be a big success, allowing Lani to finish her Big Year of Birding with a total of 641 bird species seen during 2015 in the Lower 48 States, more than many birders have seen in their entire lifetimes.

We left home for San Francisco International Airport at 5 a.m. on December 26, our Christmas dinner barely digested, for our early morning flight to Duluth, and when we arrived late afternoon, it had been snowing all day, about 10 inches on the ground.

The next morning we met our excellent birding guide, Kim Risen, at 6 a.m. and headed out driving through the snow to the famous Sax-Zim Bog area to start our birding for the the day around dawn. At our first stop Kim checked the outside temperature – two degrees above zero. We were pleased that Kim had just put new snow tires on his SUV the previous day.

Kim Risen (left), Lani Rumbaoa, and George Peyton at Sax-Zim Bog

Due to the snow and the subfreezing temperatures, we did much of our birding from inside of Kim’s SUV. The first good sighting was a Great Gray Owl in the early morning light – not new for Lani, since she had seen one at the same general location in June, but still impressive.

Kim had our list of Target Birds that would be new for Lani’s Big Year List. The first addition was Hoary Redpoll, found in a flock of Common Redpolls, instantly recognizable as a plump puffball, much lighter-plumaged than its companions.

Common (left) and Hoary Redpolls, by Seabrooke Leckie (Flickr Creative Commons)

That day Kim located three more new bird species for Lani’s Big Year List — Pine Grosbeak, Northern Shrike, and Snow Bunting. The new snowstorm had covered up most of the normal grassy feeding areas for Snow Bunting, but after substantial searching Kim located a flock of fourteen feeding right on the edge of the road. Every time that we approached too close, the bunting flock would fly away for a little over a minute but then return to the same spot, so we had great views.…

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.”…