By Cindy Margulis

I absolutely love the energy associated with massive numbers of birds ingathering — especially at dusk.   So I was treated to a particularly breathtaking marvel on September 19 as migrating Vaux Swifts swirled in the sky above the historic smokestacks at McNear’s Brick & Block in San Rafael.

As these astonishingly fast and acrobatic flyers awaited their moment to enter the roost, the sky was graced with a massive spiraling ribbon of birds. Breathtaking!

Adding to my own enthusiasm that evening was the fact that our own Rusty Scalf was there leading the counting of the swifts and attempting to detect – via radio telemetry – any of the six Vaux outfitted in Washington State with transmitters for their arduous autumnal migration down the Pacific Coast.

Rusty had discovered this Vaux roost for the birding community in 2010, when it occurred to him that the site’s dynamics matched those of other major collective migratory roost sites along the Pacific Flyway. This year Rusty marshaled several of GGBA’s dedicated volunteers — including participants in our Master Birder class — to help with the count.

It wasn’t easy to count them all, as the swifts kept arriving by the hundreds, even while an intrepid American Kestrel tried his best to pick one out of the crowd with no success. The kestrel astonished us all as he dove into a smokestack, either hoping to catch a swift inside or seeking refuge from the ones that had mobbed him when he brazenly chose to perch on the edge of their favorite chimney.

There were so many swifts that evening that some had to seek roosting spots in the other smokestacks. Our keen-eyed volunteers were watching for that, and started clicking away on their counters, their thumbs getting quite a workout, as swifts were diving down into the chimneys at almost ten birds per second.

Years ago, Vaux would seek roosts in large redwood snags but now they’ve adapted to use older brick chimneys, which give them a surface they can cling to for the night. Vaux don’t have feet for perching, just for clinging. (Think crampons like those used by mountaineers.) By gathering together in tight quarters, they not only escape the wind but conserve heat energy, especially important on a long migration through uncertain weather conditions.…

By Ilana DeBare

As wildlife lovers, as Bay Area residents, as supporters of Golden Gate Bird Alliance, we already know that climate change means trouble for birds.

But as of this week, we suddenly know a lot more about how bad that trouble will be — and which species will be at greatest peril.

National Audubon Society just released a report on North American birds and climate change that reaches the mind-boggling conclusion that nearly HALF the bird species of North America are at risk.

Of 588 species included in the study, 314 face a severe threat to their survival. Of those, 126 species are at risk of severe population declines by 2050, and another 188 species face the same by 2080 if climate change continues on its current path.

The list of Bay Area birds facing climate trouble includes some species like Snowy Plovers and Least Terns that are already on endangered/threatened lists for reasons such as habitat loss.

But it also includes many local species that seem common — even plentiful — today, such as American Avocets, Allen’s Hummingbirds, and Common Loons.

Bay Area species at greatest risk

Among the Bay Area species we know and love that are at most serious risk due to climate change are:

• Shorebirds. This includes local nesting species such as Black Oystercatchers and American Avocets, along with wintering species such as Marbled Godwits, Long-Billed Curlews, Short-Billed Dowitchers, and even the familiar Willet of our San Francisco Bay shoreline.
• Pelicans. Both Brown and American White Pelican populations are imperiled by climate change.
• Waterfowl. Familiar wintering ducks at risk include Barrow’s Goldeneye, Greater Scaup, Cinnamon Teal, American Wigeon, and even — amazingly — the ubiquitous Mallard, which could see its summer breeding territory shift far north.
• Grebes. Four of the five grebes that winter in our immediate area are at risk: Clarks and Western Grebes, as well as Eared and Horned Grebes.
• Raptors & Owls: American Kestrels, Golden and Bald Eagles, Swainson’s Hawks,  Northern Harriers, Short-Eared Owls, and Burrowing Owls are among the raptors at risk.
• Gulls. Our ubiquitous California and Western Gulls face trouble, as do Ring-billed Gulls.
• Passerines and hummingbirds. Our Rufous and Allen’s Hummingbirds are at serious risk, along with Vaux’s Swifts, Brown Creepers, and Pygmy Nuthatches.

And that’s just naming a few.

“The greatest threat our birds face today is global warming,” said Audubon Chief Scientist Gary Langham, who will be the guest speaker at our monthly Speaker Series on Thursday September 18 in San Francisco.…

By Ilana DeBare
This Monday September 1st will mark the 100th anniversary of the death in captivity of the last Passenger Pigeon.
Several months ago, I read Richard Rhodes’ fascinating biography of John James Audubon and was struck by Audubon’s description of the arrival and slaughter of a massive Passenger Pigeon flock in the midwest around 1816:

“The noise which they made, though yet distant, reminded me of a hard gale at sea…. As the birds arrived and passed over me, I felt a current of air that surprised me. Thousands were soon knocked down by the pole-men. The birds continued to pour in…. The Pigeons, arriving by thousands, alighted everywhere, one above another, until solid masses as large as hogsheads were formed on the branches all around. Here and there the perches gave way under the weight with a crash, and, falling to the ground, destroyed hundreds of the birds beneath, forcing down the dense groups with which every stick was loaded. It was a scene of uproar and confusion. I found it quite useless to speak, or even to shout to those persons who were nearest to me. Even the reports of the guns were seldom heard, and I was made aware of the firing only by seeing the shooters reloading….
The Pigeons were constantly coming, and it was past midnight before I perceived a decrease in the number of those that arrived. The uproar continued the whole night…. Towards the approach of the day, the noise in some measure [having] subsided, long before objects were distinguishable, the Pigeons began to move off… and at sunrise all that were able to fly had disappeared. The howlings of the wolves now reached our ears, and the foxes, lynxes, cougars, bears..
It was then that the authors of all this devastation began their entry amongst the dead, the dying and the mangled. The pigeons were picked up and piled in heaps, until each had as many as he could possibly dispose of, when the hogs were let loose to feed on the remainder.”

Such massive flocks were not unusual: The largest known nesting site was documented in 1871 in Wisconsin with 136 million birds covering 850 square miles.
Their large flocks and communal behavior made the pigeons easy prey for hunters. Faced with massive commercial hunting and loss of habitat, their numbers dwindled. Then, a century ago, they were gone.
Juvenile Passenger Pigeon (left), male (center), female (right), by Louis Agassiz Fuertes
A 19th century Passenger Pigeon shoot
The Passenger Pigeon’s story is particularly cautionary for us these days because, with climate change, we may be on the verge of witnessing a tidal wave of similar extinctions.…

By Maureen Lahiff
Come see a really good mudflat. Come see a really good restored mudflat.
From late July to early April, Middle Harbor Shoreline Park in Oakland hosts a wealth of water birds.   The encircling arms of the park make it easy to observe the mudflat fairly close up even when the tide is out, though having a spotting scope (or a trip leader who has one) is really helpful.
I’ve had a number of Bay Area birding firsts at Middle Harbor. The first Eared Grebe I ever saw with his “ears on” was at Middle Harbor, in late March a few years back. Here is where I first saw a Bay Area Peregrine Falcon on the hunt. On a cold and windy winter’s morning, the ducks and shorebirds at adjacent Point Arnold all took off at once. Sure enough, a Peregrine soared in over the water from the north, close in and on the hunt.
Owned and operated by the Port of Oakland, Middle Harbor is one of the East Bay’s newest parks. If you didn’t know it was there, you’d never think to look for it in the middle of the sprawling container ship port.
Exposed mudflats on a foggy morning at Middle Harbor Shoreline Park, looking west towards San Francisco / Photo by Ilana DeBare
Western Sandpipers at Middle Harbor Shoreline Park / Photo by Bob Lewis
Middle Harbor and its surrounding area were originally tidal wetlands and estuarine marshes. But as cities and shipping expanded rapidly on both sides of the bay, the harbor became a transportation hub.
The once-shallow wetlands were dredged to a depth of 40 feet. Material from the dredging was used to build up land for the Oakland Naval Supply Depot, creating a promontory that today is known as Point Arnold and forms one of the two “arms” bordering the park.
The other boundary of the harbor was the Western Pacific Mole, where the train ended and passengers could refresh themselves before boarding a ferry for San Francisco.
(Bet you didn’t know that a mole is not just a burrowing mammal, skin growth, or internal spy. It’s also, according to Merriam-Webster, a “massive work formed of masonry and large stones or earth laid in the sea as a pier or breakwater.” Oakland also had much larger moles for the Southern Pacific and Central Pacific railroads.)
The naval depot closed in 1998 and the central part of the park opened in fall 2004.…