The Presidio

Of all the places I birded in San Francisco this trip, the Presidio was by far the most impressive, and I feel like I only saw maybe half of it. I’d never been there before except to drive through on my way across the Golden Gate Bridge. The Presidio is a decommissioned military base that has a wide variety of habitat, including ocean and bay coasts. If I had more time, I could easily have spent an entire day or two here.

I started at Crissy Field in the Northeastern corner. I was looking for terns on the bay, but I didn’t find any. I did however spot Great Blue Heron, Song Sparrow, Double-crested Cormorant, Brown Pelican, and Ring-billed Gull in rapid succession.

I stopped at the Crissy Field Visitor center to get directions to El Polin spring. They suggested I walk down the Ecology trail. Top get there, I walked down Halleck Street to Funston Ave. This is an almost suburban neighborhood with small wooden houses and lawns. (Anywhere else in San Francisco there’d be two or three story mansions butting up against each other.) Typical suburban birds were present here: House Finch, American Robin, European Starling, and Mourning Dove. I also had California Towhee and Black Phoebe.

I heard some parrots squawking a ways off behind the gym, probably Red-masked Parakeets but I never saw them. The best bird in this area was the first of several Western Tanagers.

Coming off Funston, I entered the Ecology trail. It’s supposed to be an easy-to-medium incline. Having grown up in New Orleans, all I can say is my idea of “easy-to-medium incline” does not gibe with San Francisco’s. I was huffing very quickly as I headed up the trail. First bird along the trail was a very loud Cooper’s Hawk. A couple of hikers came along and asked me if it was a Red-tailed Hawk. I think the fame of Pale Male has spread to the point where every large hawk is going to be reported as a Red-tailed for some time to come, just like every woodpecker with the slightest bit of red near its head turns into a Red-headed Woodpecker. Also present along the trail were several Dark-eyed Juncos (Oregon race).

I missed the first split in the trail and ended up at Inspiration Point. Very pretty though. I continued around the loop and found the path to El Polin spring. This proved to be wise, as it was packed with. Both Anna’s and Allens Hummingbirds were bathing in the spring.

Several male and female Western Tanagers were in the vicinity. A thrush, probably Swainson’s, made a brief appearance. Various sparrows were bathing in the spring including White-crowned. Wilson’s Warbler and a single Yellow-rumped Warbler made appearances, my only warblers for the day. Finally both American and Lesser Goldfinches showed up. I stayed there for quite a while, though I should have stayed longer. Later in the day other birders found Lazuli Buntings there, but I missed them. :-(

I returned to the Ecology Trail and headed to the South end of the Presidio. After a brief stop st the clubhouse to get some water, I followed the south edge of the golf course along the Mountain Lake Trail. Barn Swallows were hunting over the links, and Brewster’s Blackbirds were foraging in the links. As I continued west along the southern edge of the Presidio, I kept looking for Craig Newmark’s house (with the feeder cams), but I never spotted it. Maybe it’s on a different side of the Presidio. The wildflowers along this trail were especially pretty. California always has so many more wildflowers than New York does.

I arrived at Mountain Lake, and stopped to rest on a bench. Red-winged Blackbirds were calling from the reeds (not phragmites, I was happy to note, unlike in New York parks). A single Northern Rough-winged Swallow was hawking for insects over the lake. A Double-crested Cormorant was perched on a log near the far end. Rock Pigeons, Mallards, and a few Canada Geese were looking for handouts by the playground. The most notable find at this site was a single late, male Ruddy Duck, the only one I saw this trip. Walking away from the lake, I found a single Golden-crowned Sparrow, also a singleton for the trip.

I passed the old hospital, and headed down the Lobos Creek Valley Trail, through some more scrub-like habitat. This area added my first Western Scrub-jay and several Northern Mockingbirds. It is also the last place where the Xerces Blue butterfly (after which the XML parser is named) was seen in 1942. :-(

Crossing Lincoln Blvd, I found my final new species for this site: Chestnut Backed Chickadee. I wandered along the creek and lost the trail. I had to backtrack and discovered I’d gone south of the water treatment plant where I should have gone north. After picking up the trail I arrived at the beach, but no shorebirds or sea ducks were in evidence. (Looking at the map now I realize that the reason I lost the trail is that there isn’t one. That section of the trail hasn’t been built yet. Oops.)

I thought about walking up to the Golden Gate Bridge, but by this point it was about 4:00 P.M., and I had a ways still to go before I got back to the hotel, so I exited the Presidio into what has got to be one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in San Francisco.

Total species count for the Presidio: 34

• Canada Goose
• Mallard
• Ruddy Duck
• Brown Pelican
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Great Blue Heron
• Cooper’s Hawk
• Ring-billed Gull
• Rock Pigeon
• Mourning Dove
• Anna’s Hummingbird
• Allen’s Hummingbird
• Black Phoebe
• Western Scrub-Jay
• Common Raven
• Northern Rough-winged Swallow
• Barn Swallow
• Chestnut-backed Chickadee
• American Robin
• Northern Mockingbird
• European Starling
• Yellow-rumped Warbler
• Wilson’s Warbler
• Western Tanager
• California Towhee
• Song Sparrow
• White-crowned Sparrow
• Golden-crowned Sparrow
• Dark-eyed Junco
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Brewer’s Blackbird
• House Finch
• Lesser Goldfinch
• American Goldfinch

Next stop: Land’s End.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 12th, 2007 at 6:19 PM and is filed under Birding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the Atom feed. You can make a comment, Digg this story, or trackback from your own site.