Natural History Wanderings

The Golden Gate Birder reports that in spite of the strong winds the San Francisco Christmas Bird count was able to document a preliminary total of 183 species – just short of last year’s record of 184. Highlights below.  See full article with photos at 2014 SF CBC was blowin’ in the wind | Golden Gate Audubon Society.

San Francisco Christmas Bird Count Highlights:

• 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.

• The Ocean Beach/Zoo team spied threatened Western Snowy Plovers overwintering along the beach, as well as a Species of Special Concern, Burrowing Owl. They also got a great look at an Anna’s Hummingbird landing on her snug little nest in the cold morning.
• Dominik Mosur’s team on the southeastern waterfront watched an American Bittern fly and then land in a eucalyptus.
• The Pacifica/Daly City team found two male Harlequin Ducks at Mussel Rock. One bird was back for its sixth year, while the second one was a newcomer. That team also included a visiting birder from London, Chris Spooner, who set this year’s migration record for SF CBC participants.
• The downtown San Francisco team found Orange-crowned Warbler, Varied Thrush, and Brown Creeper, the latter two very good birds for Telegraph Hill. They also witnessed a Peregrine Falcon swooping on a Red-tailed Hawk.

• Helen McKenna and Allan Ridley’s team at San Bruno Mountain struggled with the wind but got great views – the wind cleared the air enough for them to see beyond the Farallones! Less thrilled by the wind was a California Thrasher hunkering down in the chaparral.
• The Crystal Springs team missed finding any owls before dawn, but as compensation got spectacular views of a meteor shower.
• The Colma team found Hooded Mergansers, a glimpse of a Rhinoceros Auklet, and 100 (yes, that’s right – ONE HUNDRED) Anna’s Hummingbirds.