Pier 94, San Francisco, CA

Another day out with the California sea blite (Suaeda california) monitoring at Pier 94 is always a good day. Today was particularly good because I spotted a couple Red-necked Phalaropes (Phalaropus lobatus) that had come to the north basin. One of the smallest seabirds found their way into the San Francisco Bay on their migration north.

There were at least two nesting birds at the site, too. An American Avocet (Recurvirostra americana) was nesting near the rip rap, which is how I spotted the first phalarope swimming in fast circles.

Later, while we were trying to complete our monitoring, we discovered an angry Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) that was very happy when we were out of her way. Those birds can live up to their "vociferus" species name! She had 4 eggs, but the nest was very low so I'm not hopeful that they'll not get washed away by the tide.

Heron's Head Park, San Francisco, CA

After doing an interview at Pier 94 with the San Francisco Examiner, I headed over to Heron's Head Park down the road. It's a great birding location that never fails to be a good time. Before leaving Pier 94, there were a pair of American Kestrels and a pair of mocking birds flirting on the fence.

The best part of the trip was seeing the HARLEQUIN DUCK again that I saw first at Pier 94 around October, then again at Heron's Head Park during the December 27th Christmas Bird Count.

Also out at Heron's Head today included:

1. Common Goldeneye
   
2. Red-breasted Merganser
3. Black Oystercatcher
4. American Avocets
   
5. Dunlin
   
6. Black-bellied Plover
   
7. Long-billed Curlew
8. Willet
9. Snowy Egret
   
10. Greater Scaups
11. Belted Kingfisher
12. Least Sandpiper
13. Spotted Sandpiper
    
14. Horned Grebe
15. Western Grebes
    
16. American Widgeons
17. Ruddy Ducks
18. Buffleheads
19. Surf Scoters
20. American Coots
21. Double-crested Cormorrants
    
22. Mew Gulls
    

Crissy Field Wildlife Protection Area, San Francisco

After participating in Saturday's docent training program through the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, I went out to take a look at the threatened Western Snowy Plovers that spend most of the year at the beach. There were four plovers on the back dunes of the beach that were scurrying around as kites flew overhead, paddle ball was played on the beach, and several off-leash dogs walked by - all competing for the small area of the beach designated as the Wildlife Protection Area. Looks like we'll have plenty of opportunities to do outreach to the public about sharing the shoreline in San Francisco.

Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

Just went on a quick trip to see if I could find some of the birds that I've heard were at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park. I got a glimpse of a female Wood Duck in the evening, but didn't see other birds that I'd read about online.

Afterward, I went to Strybing Arboretum and listened to an interesting talk about Alaskan bird areas under threat from oil development and logging.

Harding Park restoration site at Lake Merced in San Francisco

On Saturday, I was at the Golden Gate Audubon restoration day at Harding Park, which is on the golf course at Lake Merced in San Francisco and part of the Natural Areas Program. While there pulling weeds with 31 volunteers, I spotted the wintering OSPREY skimming the lake and fishing in their distinctive way. I had not seen an osprey before at Lake Merced so it was quite a treat. The osprey had a brief encounter with a red-tailed hawk just as we were loading up the tools and calling it a day.

Just walking back and forth across the bridge I also saw -

• Western grebes
• Pied-billed grebe
• Ruddy ducks
• Double-crested cormorants
  
• California towhee
• White-crowned sparrows
• Scrubjay
  

Many more birds out on the lake, but I was busy pulling weeds and didn't get to look for too long.

Pier 94 restoration site in San Francisco

While out surveying the plants at the restoration site for the endangered California sea-blite (Suaeda californica) at Pier 94 in San Francisco, I checked out what birds were around as the tide was going out. Pier 94 has the world's largest population of California sea-blite and is a successful reintroduction of the species that went extinct in San Francisco in the 1960s, but was reintroduced from a population in Morro Bay, California. In fact, we just had two spontaneous Suaeda plants start along the tide line. If you go birding there, please avoid the intertidal areas and stepping on any flagged native plants, especially the sea-blite.

Some of the bird highlights included -

• Two black oystercatchers, which are on the Audubon Watchlist of threatened birds
• Long-billed curlew, which is also on the Audubon Watchlist
  
• American avocets, which have nested in the past at Pier 94
• Greater yellowlegs
  
• American widgeons
• Greater scaups
• Western gulls
• Canada geese
  

A Bird Year Resolution

In 2008, I'm making a New year's Resolution to go birding weekly with a focus on learning more about the birds that live here in the Bay Area. Of course, some of my birding adventures will happen outside of the Bay Area, but I'm committed to knowing my local birds better and seeing how many species I can view during my "Little Year" resolution.

What's a "little year"? Well, birders will participate in competitions to have a "big year" or "big day" or the like. Since I'm only in this to challenge myself and to blog my results, I'm calling it my "little year".

As I started off my new year, the first bird I saw as I was driving back from Lake Tahoe was a raven. Once uncommon in the Bay Area, you see them everywhere now because of the impacts development have made urban environments inviting to ravens, but difficult for other native wildlife.

My first official weekly birding outing will be at the kick off event for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area Big Year. It's a great yearlong event to highlight the 33 endangered species that call the GGNRA home and what participants can do to help those endangered species. Participants are challenged to not only find and view the threatened and endangered plants and animals within the boundaries of the GGNRA, but also to complete conservation actions to help those species. The GGNRA Big Year reminds us all that the Endangered Species Act and the National Park System alone are crucial in protecting wildlife from extinction.

I encourage any readers to come to the San Francisco Zoo on January 6, 2008, at 1 PM for the first of many events in 2008. To learn more and to participate, please visit the GGNRA Big Year website: http://www.ggnrabigyear.org/

We will be visiting Ocean Beach in San Francisco to view the Western Snowy Plover, a threatened bird species that struggles to survive on busy urban beaches in San Francisco. This adorable bird deserves a boost in public awareness of how we can all do more to "share the shoreline" with plovers and other shorebirds.