November 25, 2020 – Lake Merritt
When we assembled for the November 4th-Wednesday not-really-Golden-Gate-Audubon walk, the day seemed perfect – sunny and still, with just enough nip in the air to make a thin jacket comfortable. What could be better? Six birders joined the two leaders, and their day started with an air show: a dozen American Crows chased a young Red-tailed Hawk over the trees behind the boathouse parking lot, dipping and diving and risking occasional wing strikes. (I kept hoping the hawk would flip over and grab one, but no such luck.)
Turning back to the lake near the dome cage, the scene was properly busy for the season, with the floats full of Double-crested Cormorants, both White and Brown Pelicans, and assorted gulls, and the water was lively with the same, plus American Coots, the occasional scaup, and a few Common Goldeneyes. Several Snowy Egrets patrolled the beach, but the local Green Herons stayed resolutely out of sight.
We strolled around the bird paddock, carefully studying each duck in the hope of finding the female Northern Pintail reported to be hanging out there, but no luck there either. Mallards one and all, with orange bills instead of black. The drakes were mostly Mallards too (with mustard yellow bills), except for the new white domestic ducky who’s taken up residence there: huge and sparkling clean, with a brilliant gold bill. The Muscovy Duck flock is down to two or three that I can’t tell apart; they’re all Idaho potatoes with feet and gnarly red faces, each one lumpier than the next.
From the Nature Center shore (still sheltered by the islands and unaware of impending trouble) we spotted a seldom-spotted Spotted Sandpiper, a species last seen here last February and not for five years before that, working the rocks edging the bird paddock. As usual, it was easily identified by its completely unspotted white breast and briskly pumping rump: another member of the Bird Name Frustration Club. Yes, it sometimes does have spots – for a few weeks in the spring when it puts on its party vest – but then and the whole rest of the year, it hardly takes a step without pushing its tail down and up and down again.
So then we headed alongside the playground in happy innocence, looking first at the Nature Center (to admire the newly re-inhabited Black Phoebe nest) and then at the inland bushes (to enjoy a flock of Lesser Goldfinches and some other small birds among the branches).…