Mokka mit Schlag » Birding

Mount Davidson had had a fallout earlier in the week while I was at JavaOne. I didn’t know if the winds were favorable for Sunday, but the sun was shining, and I wanted to get up there at least once. If nothing else, I could check it out as a potential site for a future Birding BoF at JavaOne. Unfortunately the birding gods were not with me this morning. The buses were slow and confusing. The 36 goes right to the trailhead, but runs very infrequently. I eventually gave up and took the third 43 to come by while I was waiting for the 36 instead.

The 43 goes around the other side of the mountain and does not stop at the park. I guessed the best place to hop off, and pulled the cord. I then used my GPS to figure out how to get to the actual park. (Most of Mount Davidson is covered in houses.) As the crow flies it wasn’t very far, but the roads around there are extremely steep. I found one Dark-eyed Junco in somebody’s backyard as I walked by. I did however, eventually find my way into the back end of the park.

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I entered Land’s End near the Northeast corner about 4:00 P.M. I was planning to walk along the cliffs but some Violet-green Swallows got me to detour briefly over to the golf course. Also present were Mouring Doves, Brewer’s Blackbirds, and about 100 loud motorcycles. However, they all passed and I returned to the main cliff trail.

This trail has some of the most impressive views in San Francisco. Among other things I was watching soaring ravens from above. However, my camera battery ran out of juice near the end of the Presidio so no pictures in this report, sorry.

At least one Aechmophorus grebe was swimming in the bay, but without a scope pinning it down as a Clark’s or a Western was hopeless. Even looking down at the bay from the heights was a little dizzying and I had to steady myself against a Redwood.

A little further down the path, though, you can walk down some steps to the edge of the water. From here it was easy to pick out numerous Brandt’s Cormorants as well as a dozen or so Surf Scoters (almost all female). Roughly nine Brown Pelicans and one Caspian Tern flew by. There may have been some Common Murres in the surf too, but they were too far away to be sure.
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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.

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The Presidio was one of the stops I’d planned to make this trip, and the Palace of Fine Arts on the Eastern edge was having some sort of festival. One of the participants was the Golden Gate Audubon Society, which was doing bird walks around the lagoon so I decided to start there. The trip was led by Harry Fuller.

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Saturday morning I woke up early and started out to Golden Gate Park, whose southwest corner was just a couple of blocks from my hotel. (So why is the Golden Gate Bridge not in the Golden Gate Park? And just what is the Golden Gate anyway that it has both a bridge and a park?) I walked into the park and was immediately confronted with several Common Ravens, which, unlike in New York, are actually common out here. I heard and saw many more throughout the day.

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After leaving JavaOne 2007 and collecting my baggage form the Phoenix Hotel where I’d left it, I cabbed over to the Oceanview Motel on Judah Street for the next few days. This hotel was both cheaper and closer to the sites I was planning to bird over the weekend. It was also a larger room with a genuine ocean view and air conditioning (not that you often need that in San Francisco in May.)

From my window I could see ravens and gulls. I didn’t have a lot of time before dark but I decided to hop over to the beach to see if any shore birds might be around. I wasn’t expecting much on this city shoreline, so I was pleasantly surprised when a quick scan down the beach revealed some obvious shorebirds. I walked a little further down the beach, where the larger birds proved to be Marbled Godwits, just before some offleash dogs chased them away. There were also dozens of Sanderlings running back and forth.

Turning back North up the beach I found a largish bird with a curved bill. After pulling out my binoculars, it resolved into a Whimbrel. It too got chased off by a dog, but I relocated it a little further up the beach where it was joined by a second Whimbrel.

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