The Lost Vagrant: Hunt of the Catbird

Christmas morning 7 am. I woke up to my alarm clock and hitched a ride with my mom to work (yeah she worked on Christmas day) in San Francisco, getting dropped off at Golden Gate Park’s Botanical Garden. It was a rare San Francisco morning with no fog and the sun shone brightly. With the monkey puzzle trees backlit by morning sun and steam rising from wet benches around the pond, the park had an almost prehistoric feel.

However, a rare bird was to be chased and I got to work immediately. My primary goal was to locate the grey catbird first reported in the Andean Cloud Forest around a month ago and which was spotted the previous day. As I arrived on the scene beneath a large fruiting photinia tree, the first thing I saw was a pile of gray feathers. They turned out to be pigeon feathers, which gave me a sparkle of hope for sticking around. As time went by with no luck, I decided to bird throughout the rest of the park. The other bird I was specifically trying to find, the overwintering NASHVILLE WARBLER, was actively flitting about shrubs near the closest bathroom, giving me excellent views but terrible pictures. Elsewhere in the park, robins were in large numbers, feasting on the many fruits currently present, while many song and fox sparrows foraged in the abundant leaf litter. Additionally, being a plant collector, I couldn’t help but notice the beautiful and unusual plants around.

Pinus aristata - note the resin flecks that distinguish this species from the closely related Pinus longaeva, another bristlecone pine

Erica caniculata - This heather in the South African garden was around 8 feet tall and completely covered in these tiny flowers

another picture to appreciate this plant :)

Orange-crowned warbler on Salvia cardinalis

Townsend's warbler

Blooming Aloes

After this walk, I returned to the grey catbird stakeout and waited for a long while. Still no luck.

I then decided to take another walk and found something very interesting as I strolled the native plant garden. Around the quaking aspen grove, I saw a monarch butterfly flying around 100 feet from me, too far to get a picture, unfortunately. It was very strange seeing a monarch this far north this late in the year, especially with our recent cold snap that took the lives of many of my orchids (which had withstood 28 degree temperatures the prior year). Good luck to that individual.

After that encounter with the monarch, I returned to the grey catbird area. This time, several birders were present, all trying to find this vagrant. One of them thought he heard a mewing sound from a fruiting yellow-berried holly from across the street. The large shrub also had a tantalizing shaking branch. Maybe this was our bird? However, the black-capped mimic decided to not show itself and as the other birders left, I left the park as well. Perhaps the large number of chatting humans taking advantage of free admission in the park had scared the bird today? Catbirds are a shy species so that was a possibility. Additionally, I saw Cooper’s, red-shouldered, and sharp-shinned hawks in the fruit tree at different times, with the red-shouldered eating a bird. The raptors also could have forced the catbird into hiding, if they didn’t already catch it. Better luck next time (if there is one).

Juvenile red-shouldered hawk

My sister then picked me up (a few hours later than I had imagined) and we returned home along Highway 1, a very scenic route with ocean views. We stopped at a beautiful location near Gray Whale Cove State Beach on a cliff overlooking the ocean. The sun was starting to set in the background and I scanned the sea with my pretty bad but still dependable binoculars. As we were on a cliff and the only visible birds were hundreds of feet away, identification of many of the things was difficult. An interesting thing I saw though was a “kettle” of around 20 or so ravens flying above the ocean along with several unidentifiable (probably western) gulls. I didn’t see any marine mammal carcasses or the like below where they were so I had no idea why they were behaving this way. Nothing else was of much interest except for a prowling peregrine falcon and some coastal plants.

Artemesia sp. I think it's pycnocephala but not certain

Lupinus arboreus - This "tree" lupine probably suffered from heavy foot traffic so it became almost prostrate in growth pattern

This plant, however, is a "normal" specimen, being around 3 feet tall and looking more like a shrub

Short-growing coyote brush from foot traffic and coastal winds

Dried flowerheads of the lizard tail Eriophyllum staechadifolium

Unfortunately, the invasive pampas grass was growing here as well

Coastal vegetation covering the cliffs

Next, we stopped at Pillar Point as the sun was setting. The view was really spectacular from the rock jetty as I walked to the southernmost end. I had hoped to see some ocean birds such as overwintering loons and scoters other than surfs but given the time and the number of people using beaches on Christmas day, none were found. Additionally, I don’t have a scope so I probably wouldn’t be able to see them anyways… The only new bird I got here was a juvenile MEW GULL (which I really should have gotten much earlier in Santa Clara County) but shorebirds put up an interesting show. Sanderlings fought some of the most adorable territorial squabbles in the natural world while sleeping grey plovers that I startled as I walked by hopped away on one leg, not bothering to put down the other. While the sun finally set, I returned home.