Natural History Wanderings

and a quick trip to the Great Highway

Yesterday was the last field trip for  Golden Gate Audubon birding class, “Romance is in the Air”, (which focused on bird courtship, mating, nest-building, and raising young) taught by Eddie Bartley and Bob Lewis. We did a field trip to Lake Merced in San Francisco and afterwards several of us did a quick trip over to the Great Highway to see Bank Swallows nesting in a sandy bank along the beach.

Highlights included watching two Red-shouldered Hawks with young in nest, Double-crested Cormorants nesting with young, Mallard swimming with young,and  Great Blue Herons at nests, Also observed were Ruddy Ducks, Clark’s Grebes, Western Gulls,and  Allen’s Hummingbirds doing courtship behaviors. Black Phoebe and Chestnut-backed Chickadee were seen with young. Brewer’s Blackbird and Bushtit were seen carrying food for young. Bank Swallows at the Great Highway and Pygmy Nuthatch were seen at nesting sites. Finally, an American Coot was seen carrying a very large piece of nesting material.

Over forty species of birds were seen.  To see a bird list for the field trip including the number of birds seen for each species and behaviors observed go to the Bob Lewis’s Wingbeats site: http://www.wingbeats.org/classes/lists/12Romance.htm