By Dave Quady and Bob Lewis
Though the weather forecast for Sunday, December 14, was favorable, caution seemed warranted as Count Day approached, because 3.4 inches of rain had fallen in Oakland in the preceding few days. Happily, early owlers in Redwood Regional Park found crisp temperatures and clear skies, heard the three expected owl species, and then heard a totally unexpected Long-eared Owl, the count’s first in eleven years. Oakland’s 74th annual Christmas Bird Count was off to a good start.
Good weather and good birding continued throughout the day. A record-high 257 field observers, together with a dozen feeder watchers, detected 180 species, two more than our recent average, and three fewer than our record high. Our total of 98,920 individual birds was some 3,000 higher than our recent average. Local press coverage allowed others to share the fun vicariously, and everyone can now reflect on it at leisure:
San Francisco Chronicle
Contra Costa Times
Berkeleyside
None of this year’s ‘rare’ birds could hold a candle to last year’s Painted Redstart, but a Barn Swallow over Alameda, chosen as Best Bird, was only our second since 1974 on count day. Swallows seem to be wintering here in higher numbers recently; Tree Swallow has become almost expected on our count (one was over Alameda this year), and other local CBCs also recorded Barn Swallow. A Black-headed Grosbeak, a Black-and-white Warbler, and two Western Tanagers were other nice finds.
Among the handsomest of all warblers, this Black-and-white Warbler displayed its nuthatch-like feeding behavior at Berkeley’s Codornices Park. Photo by John Colbert.
 
Seen sporadically in Claremont Canyon over the preceding weeks, this male Black-headed Grosbeak obligingly appeared on count day as well. Photo by Kay Loughman.
Seventeen Snowy Plovers along the Alameda shoreline were not totally unexpected; small flocks have occurred there episodically over the last couple of decades and GGBA volunteers won protective fencing for them on part of Crown Beach during 2014. Red-necked Grebe, House Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and Hermit Warbler (all single individuals) rounded out this year’s list of review-worthy species.
A Snowy Plover at Oakland’s Middle Harbor Park raises hopes that other small shoreline beaches might also provide wintering habitat for this threatened species. Photo by Calvin Lou.
Nearly every year at least a few species occur in record-high numbers. But this year many species exceeded their previous records by at least twenty percent: Green Heron, American Coot, Semipalmated Plover, Spotted Sandpiper, White-breasted Nuthatch, Western Bluebird, and Hermit Thrush.…

By Bob Lewis
Two quite rare sparrows have turned up in the Bay Area this winter. Both are birds that breed in northern areas and winter further south. Their normal fall migration generally takes them on a route far from the Bay Area, but these two, probably blown off course by winter storms, are spending their non-breeding season with us.
The Rustic Bunting (Emberiza rustica), first found by Alan Hopkins, has been coming to an area across the street from the California Academy of Sciences (where we teach our Master Birding class) since Dec. 7. How convenient is that?! A lot of folks have been able to see the bird, including some photographers, so it’s being well documented.
Rustic Bunting breeds in Northern Europe and Asia as far east as Kamchatka and Sakhalin, and normally migrates to Japan and China for the winter. A handful of sightings have been made along the West Coast, with four reported in Rare Birds of California prior to 2006. Because of its large range and population, it is not considered endangered by the IUCN Redlist, although its population is decreasing. Our bird apparently got on the wrong side of the Bering Strait, and then migrated down North America instead of Asia.
Rustic Bunting in Golden Gate Park by Bob Lewis
Rustic Bunting in Golden Gate Park by Bob Lewis
LeConte’s Sparrow (Ammodramus leconteii) was found on the Point Reyes Christmas Count by Wendy Dreskin, and identified by Scott and Ryan Terrill at the count dinner.  There are 32 accepted records of this colorful little sparrow in California (as of 2006) but this is a first for the Bay Area.  It breeds in Northern British Columbia east to Quebec, and migrates through the center of the US down to the south-east where it winters in Texas, Missouri and Kentucky east to northern Florida.  It’s a ground-loving bird, and generally hides in wet grassy areas, where it’s difficult to see.  It’s status on the IUCN list is, like the bunting, a bird of Least Concern.  It has a large range and significant population, although diminishing.
Our bird apparently got on the wrong side of the Rockies and migrated south, finding familiar habitat in Point Reyes.
LeConte’s Sparrow at Abbot’s Lagoon by Bob Lewis
The trek is a long one to see this sparrow, to the south side of Abbot’s Lagoon.  But usually after a significant wait, birders have been rewarded with fleeting views of the little skulker as it feeds along the edge of wet areas. …

By Ilana DeBare
Most of the beachgoers hurried obliviously through the parking lot, intent on reaching the sand and the waves. But for one group of about 20 people, the parking lot was the main attraction.
There in the Monterey pine! Those little dark shapes that looked like pine cones! Through a scope, they were in fact Cedar Waxwings. And just a little further on, the willows were filled with Yellow-rumped Warblers, Townsend’s Warblers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets….
This was the next-to-last field trip of the year for the Master Birder class co-sponsored by Golden Gate Bird Alliance and California Academy of Sciences – a mid-November trip to Stinson Beach, Bolinas Lagoon, and the amazing studio of bird artist Keith Hansen.
For the twenty Master Birder participants, the advanced year-long class involved much more than being able to spot warblers and waxwings. Over the course of 2014, they:

• Chose a local birding “patch,” visited it at least twice a month, and kept a field notebook of their findings.
• Examined and handled dozens of bird specimens from the Academy’s collections.
• Learned about bird anatomy, evolution, behavior, and calls, as well as habitats and plants associated with different birds.
• Wrote descriptions and personal observation of three different bird species.
• Delivered a ten-minute talk on an aspect of birds or ornithology.
• Took part in over 20 field trips
• Led a field trip themselves – often for the first time!
• Volunteered over 100 hours for a conservation organization.

It sounds daunting. But participants said the class was one of the high points of their lives as birders.
Master Birders at Bolinas Lagoon / Photo by Ilana DeBare
Yellow-rumped Warbler / Photo by Bob Lewis
“I’ve taken a lot of Audubon classes, and in this one, the content is really broad and detailed,” said Rachel Davidson. “Having it spread out over the course of a year solidifies your understanding.”
“The lectures were amazing,” said Jane Hart. “Bob talked about what produces color on birds, Eddie talked about changes in the Bay Area landscape since early geological time, and Jack talked about migration. It just makes you want to learn.”
Hart was referring to the class’s three co-instructors – GGBA board member Bob Lewis, naturalist Eddie Bartley, and Cal Academy curator of birds and mammals Jack Dumbacher.
2014 was the second year that the three of them had taught the class. (NOTE: They will be teaching it again this year, starting in February.…

By Ilana DeBare
Windy, windy, windy!
The 2014 San Francisco Christmas Bird Count will be remembered for its strong winds, which reached as high as 60 mph in some parts of the Bay Area.
One participant sustained a hand injury from wind-blown tree debris. The Ocean Beach/Zoo count team couldn’t count in Pine Lake Park (Stern Grove) due to a fallen tree there.
But about 150 intrepid counters braved the wind and the chill temperatures on Tuesday December 30 to document a preliminary total of 183 species – just short of last year’s record of 184.
The count covered a 15-mile-wide circle extending from the Presidio and Fort Mason south to San Francisco International Airport, Pacifica, and the Crystal Springs reservoir area in San Mateo County. Afterwards, participants gathered for a festive and delicious dinner at the Log Cabin in the Presidio.
Fort Funston sea watch / Photo by Christopher Reiger
SF’s hills offer beautiful views as well as birding / Photo by Marissa Ortega-Welch
The Crystal Springs area team breaks for lunch. / Photo by Noreen Weeden
Among the highlights of this year’s count, which was the 115^th CBC nationally and the 32^nd consecutive count in San Francisco:

• The famed Rustic Bunting in Golden Gate Park was found. (Collective sigh of relief.) The team had spent 45 minutes looking for it, when a photographer with “one of those 5 foot lenses” got the team on a bird that turned out to be the bunting.
• Josiah Clark’s team at the Presidio reported a great flyover: 19 Tundra Swans and one Greater White-Fronted Goose. They also managed to see a Nelson’s Sharp-Tailed Sparrow.
• Bob Power’s team found two Ancient Murrelets and one Brown Booby over the Sutro Baths/Cliff House area.
• The Lake Merced team found 50 White-throated Swifts furiously foraging and a flock of Tri-colored Blackbirds, as well as a Tropical Kingbird, Cassin’s Auklet, Great Tailed Grackle and a Yellow-Shafted Flicker.
• The Eastern Golden Gate Park team had dueting Great Horned Owls and a nice group of 148 Band-Tailed Pigeons. Plus that Rustic Bunting!
• Varied Thrush were abundant, as they had been in the Oakland CBC several weeks earlier. The Eastern Golden Gate Park team spotted 124 Varied Thrush – even higher than their American Robin count of 88.

One of the many Varied Thrushes sighted / Photo by Bob Gunderson

• The Ocean Beach/Zoo team spied threatened Western Snowy Plovers overwintering along the beach, as well as a Species of Special Concern, Burrowing Owl.

…

Bay Nature magazine recently ran an online column on what birds do in the rain, by San Francisco consulting naturalist Josiah Clark. We liked it so much that we’re reprinting it! (With permission of course.)
By Josiah Clark

The sea gives birth to the storm and it’s the seabirds that feel it first. With instincts any sailor would envy, seabirds sense and flee from the storm front, often arriving in numbers days before the weather makes landfall. Larger pelagic birds somehow retain their independence from land, toughing out even the most raging of storms. In these conditions it is the smaller pelagic birds that are brought to the brink. With less mass and running on tighter energy budgets, murrelets, phalaropes, and the aptly-named Storm Petrels near land are signs of an uncommonly torn-up ocean beyond the horizon.

Closer to shore, gulls, pelicans, and loons stream south over wave and bluff in a darkening sky, avoiding the worst of the storm’s wrath. But when seabirds get unlucky, exhausted, and too wet, they are at the mercy of the current. At the Golden Gate on an incoming tide it means getting sucked into the Bay. This accounts for many of the only East and South Bay records for truly pelagic birds. Despite their remarkable instincts and endurance, countless seabirds of many types perish during extreme winter storms. But only a fraction of their corpses can be found at the high tide line after any big storm.

As for land birds, if the rain is not too heavy nor too cold, most birds will keep feeding. Stalwart Christmas bird counters regularly go birding in the rain, and there is often sustained activity with plenty to look at even in heavy rain if you know where to look. But what happens to them when it’s pouring, say, for days?

The water-shedding micro-structures of flight feathers shed droplets off the birds’ back. An oil gland at the base of the tail helps keep the feathers zipped up water-tight. The inner insulating layers of down feathers are kept dry and able to be fluffed up with air, holding in body heat.

Feather repelling rain / Photo by Rick Lewis

If I were a bird I would want to go inside a dry stump. As it turns out, only birds that nest in cavities are likely to have that luxury. Flocks of Pygmy Nuthatches pack into chiseled holes in dead snags like clown cars, where they seem to embody the meaning of “cozy”.…