More Adventures in San Francisco and Around the Bay

    On June 9th I went on another trip to the City, this time shorter than the first. We started in the early afternoon when my parents drove me to Fort Mason Park. There, I walked to the end of the municipal pier in hope of finding the Pacific Ocean's only Northern gannet resting on Alcatraz Island, as it has been doing so for the last few months. No luck though, as the fog began rolling in and the already distant island where I hoped to somehow find a white speck that wasn't one of the numerous western gulls became even more obscured. I did get a consolation prize-ish in the form of a life bird PIGEON GUILLEMOT swimming around on the walk back.

This bird is my first alcid (auks, puffins, etc.) on my life list. All alcids live on the ocean and this species is the one that usually ventures closest to shore.

Last year Santa Clara County had its first ever record of a pigeon guillemot - a juvenile bird lost at the Alviso salt ponds. I tried a few times but did not get to see it. Interesting how just the peninsula of the SF Bay can be such an effective barrier between where the guillemot and other species of seabirds are fairly common and where they are almost nonexistent.

Nesting Western gull

     We then went west through the Presidio, making a brief stop before heading south to Golden Gate Park. There, I continued my search for the redstart which was still supposedly around but my attempt was fruitless. I then switched my focus in trying to find a male wood duck reported near the boathouse in Stow Lake, a short walk away. As I reached the area, all I saw were mallards and I nearly gave up but then the WOOD DUCK swam out from the willows, showing off his gorgeous coloration. Certainly not where I expected to see my first representative of this beautiful duck, with the species being far more common in the mountains of Santa Clara County than in suburban SF lakes.

Clear, unobstructed view of the Golden Gate Bridge

Juvenile white-crowned sparrow

Recently-fledged starling. More invasives have come to continue the takeover of the City.

What a magnificent bird. Aeks I mean Aix sponsa.

Gotta preen those feathers

As their name suggests, these ducks nest in trees. The documentary Planet Earth has a stunning and too-adorable-for-life sequence where the ducklings of the mandarin duck (same genus and same habits) jump out of the nest to the ground below as they start life. 

Here is a link to the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVqS1UMr-eI

If only every bird could be as cooperative as this mallard. Oh wait didn't I say this in the previous post?

    The final stop of the day was at Fort Funston right by the Pacific. Strong winds, heavy fog, and an ocean roaring from below me standing at the edge of a cliff made for an unforgettable experience. The most abundant bird in the area had a very fitting name: the common raven. I had never seen so many of these large corvids in one place before and they seemed to be enjoying the "pleasant beach breezes", performing aerial acrobatics and just appearing to be playing games with each other. The highlight of the trip was a single BANK SWALLOW, probably one of the members of the local breeding colony on the cliffs, which I was unfortunately unable to locate. No pictures were taken as the bird flew by rather quickly. After that brief encounter, I bid the ocean farewell and returned home.

Coast buckwheat

Beach strawberry patch

Oh the ocean. Despite the howling winds, this was a moment of serenity and mystique. Oh the possibilities of what lies beyond that metaphorical veil of fog. Or that literal veil of fog. Well I do know what lies behind the literal veil: thousands of pelagic birds.

Tree lupines in full bloom

Seaside daisies growing by the side of the sea.

    On the 16th, I again decided to go and see the sunrise, getting up early to catch it at Shoreline before embarking on a pleasant half-day birding trip. The rising sun was beautiful just like last time, this time being partially covered with clouds. A small breeze also blew, making the slough's water not glassy still like last time but with gentle waves, creating a different but equally enchanted feeling. Birds seen at Charleston Slough were all the usual crew and the only skimmer I saw was one that noisily flew over without performing its amazing skimming so I did not get a chance to redeem myself for the horrid pictures taken on the 30th of May.

Oh the treasures of being alive - to experience nature at its best

Fog being illuminated by the rising sun. 

    My next stop was at salt pond A2E, where I enjoyed breakfast-ish on my favorite concrete slab. From there, I observed white pelicans working together to corral fish and terns gracefully flying around, with the occasional dive. As I got back on my bike to continue this little adventure, I spotted a pelican flying far out over the water that seemed different from the whites. Looking through binoculars, the bird turned out to be brown pelican, the first of its species seen by me in the county this year. A little bit further and I started to notice a tiny bit of movement to my right in the dried salt flats. The tiny scuttlers were snowy plovers, also new for the county this year (I saw them last year at the same place with chicks). I continued to bike through salt pond A3W, the Sunnyvale WPCP, and the Sunnyvale Baylands. Nothing was out of the ordinary but fledging Bullock's orioles at the Baylands and Vaux's swifts among the swallows at the WPCP were interesting to observe.

Forster's tern

Great blue heron

Snowy plover

Baby American avocet at A3W. What an adorable fluffball.

Marsh wren nest made by one talented weaver

The marsh beside Yahoo had a late / oversummering (more likely the latter) female bufflehead. 

Hope she has friends around as it will be a few more months before the buffleheads return in large numbers for regular overwintering.

Large number of swallows at the WPCP

Vaux's swift

A family of Canada geese, with the young ones looking practically identical to the adults except for a slight size difference. Oh how quickly they grow up.

The most epic-looking cormorant ever.

Male Bullock's oriole

One of the fledglings struggling in the nets. Only a short summer left for it to master flight in preparation for the migration. Good luck little ones.

    The last point of interest for the day was the 9 mile Alviso loop. There, I hoped to see some early phalaropes and a late redhead duck. As I arrived at the bayside location, the first thing I noticed was a huge flock of black birds (but not all blackbirds). The flock contained hundreds of red-wingeds in the saltmarsh and European starlings along with many Brewer's. I then scanned through the flock, eventually finding 3 adult tricolored males mixed in. These endangered birds were told apart from the red-winged peers with their contrasting white lines beneath the red wing patches and more blood red color in these patches than the red-winged's more orange red hues. There were likely more birds mixed in the flock, with younger males and females being harder to identify amidst the mixed flock.

Morning at the salt ponds

Err it's much better to see the enlarged version of this picture (click on it)

Tricolored male above and red-winged below.

Reflections of blackbirds (and brine flies on the surface)

    As I continued biking the trail, I saw no phalaropes in any of the ponds but in Salt Pond A17 I did find the redhead, the first and only year bird of the day. Other interesting things seen on the trip included more giant flocks of birds, this time with cliff swallows as they descended over the saltmarshes to catch insects. From the saltmarsh also came the countless voices of many song sparrows and marsh wrens.

A mat of brine flies

A beautiful Caspian tern prowling the ponds

Don't know how this gull died. No signs of a struggle that would indicate predation. Did it really just get stuck in the algal mat? What a scary thought.

Tons of cliff swallows

Fascinating macro-algae that I believe to be Codium fragile, a somewhat invasive species.

SO MANY BIRDS

Hmm what could this strange, moving object be?

It was a bat ray!

I wonder what this beautiful fish was doing in such shallow water. Hopefully this isn't near-death behavior as last year in around the same area of Salt Pond A10 I saw a dead ray floating around.

The partially leucistic eared grebe (right-most bird) was still present in Salt Pond A12. The bird entered breeding plumage along with its friends.

    With that, my loop around the salt ponds was over and I began to head home. The way back was not quite as interesting as the way there and the windy conditions were somewhat annoying. However, the trip as a whole was very satisfying, with perhaps the most individual birds (not species) seen by me in a day.

Anise swallowtail by A3W

Expert fisherman at Shoreline Lake

    Yep I am pretty behind on my posts, especially as I have another huge section to cover with my recent lovely trip to Indiana. To those who read this blog, thanks a ton and until next time, enjoy life and love nature!

 

Hunt of the Warblers

    On the 3rd of June, my mom decided to do another one of the drop me off at SF during her work day to wander around days. Similarly to last time with the gray catbird, there were eastern vagrant birds within Golden Gate Park, this time with two: the chestnut-sided warbler and American redstart.
    Just like last time, I started the day by going to the botanical garden. Within the New Zealand Christmas trees in full bloom with their bottlebrush-like flowers near the entrance, I got my first yearbirds of the day: Allen's hummingbirds and (embarrassingly enough) purple finches. The rest of my few hours at the gardens yielded no new birds but gave me nice views of unusual plants and abundant insects.

Anna's hummingbird at one of the Christmas tree flowers.

Banksias have such fascinating flowers. In this species, the foliage is also quite interesting as well.

I did not expect to find any California quails in the gardens or in the City at all as they are usually mountain birds. According to my later ebird range map research however, it turns out Golden Gate Park is the only place within San Francisco where these attractive birds are regularly found.

The bobbing of their topknots is definitely within my top 10 most adorable things seen in the natural world.

The spot where I waited so long for the catbird that would never appear. For more about that day, read here: http://insertcreativetitleheregkoprs.blogspot.com/2014/01/hunt-of-catbird.html

Male Allen's hummingbird

Female Anna's hummingbird

West Coast Lady, the only native butterfly seen during the entire day.

Raccoon remains

Wonder who was tearing the dead guy apart

Great blue heron at the pond

Chestnut-backed chickadee nest

Tachina sp. (I think) on yarrow at the native plant garden

Purple finch

Protea cynaroides, the national flower of South Africa and the largest flowerhead of all proteas. What an awesome flower. This fantastic genus of plants is just one of the countless reasons why South Africa is high up on my bucket list.

Right before I exited, I took a little time to enjoy the wonderful alpine garden. The yellow mossy-looking patch is Raoulia australis - in full bloom. This genus is apparently quite difficult to cultivate, requiring moisture but also perfect drainage along with relatively cool conditions, not a plant for me to attempt in the south bay.

    Following this fun three hour foray, I walked over to Stow Lake, as I had misinterpreted directions to the Eastern vagrants I was seeking. However, the trip was still a nice walk, with many interesting sights to see.

This bushtit nest was quite a spectacle

Parents visiting

Botta's pocket gopher enjoying a nice morning of not getting eaten.

Double-crested cormorant

Their sky blue eyes are so fascinating

If only all birds could be this cooperative.

One of the several newly-fledged robins out and about

Brewer's blackbird enjoying a nice, free lunch. Hope it doesn't ingest any plastic.

    I then continued wandering, taking a while to figure out where this "Pioneer Meadow near the Log Cabin" was. When I arrived there, I proceeded to check every single oak in the area as the warbler was reported in one, with my mind focused only on live oaks as I didn't realize that other oaks grew in the area. Oops. I finally noticed a patch of soft-leaved oaks and only then did it dawn upon me that those were oaks too so I headed towards them. Another person then appeared on bike while I began to look up into the tree. The beautiful male CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER stood there in plain view. The person who had magically forced the bird to appear turned out to be Josiah C., the birder who first found this lost guy a few days ago and who I met last year at the catbird stakeout.

Bird of the day

    Josiah then showed me around quite a bit of the park and told me a lot about urban ecology, especially about the dynamics within the local area. For example the poison hemlocks, although being non-native, invasive, and toxic, tend to harbor large numbers of aphids as well as host caterpillars, both valuable food resources for the native birds. A very interesting lesson.

Just a small leak in a pipe can become a welcome birdbath. This pygmy nuthatch that came down from the trees was just one of the many birds attracted to the tantalizing running water.

Never would have noticed this if Josiah didn't point it out. Apparently this is where a mole has been burrowing underground.

Possible California gull at Lloyd Lake

The bird was significantly smaller than the surrounding Western gulls and had a less heavy bill.

Male mallard showing off his spectacularly purple speculum.

    From Lloyd Lake, Josiah biked home while I headed back to the Log Cabin area to continue my search for the redstart. However, no redstart was seen or heard. 

Bathing song sparrow in the leaky pipe

Tree swallow flying about in the meadow. There seemed to be several nesting in the nearby eucalyptus trees.

    Deciding then that my time would be better spent elsewhere, I went to the Academy of Sciences for the first time in forever and stayed for the hour before closing. Oh what a wonderful place it still is. 

A beautiful school of altum angelfish

Just a few of the beautiful tridacnids at the reef tank's shallow area

Young mangroves

One of my favorite butterflyfish, the copperband.

Cownose ray with pompanos

Four-eyed fish. Their eyes are half above and half below water.

The tank was dedicated to the shrimp / goby mutual partnership but I was most impressed by the non-photosynthetic organisms thriving, as they often require constant plankton feeding. At the separate sea pen aquarium, the water seemed to be filled with small particles so perhaps there is a 24/7 feeding system.

Harlequin shrimp in a separate tank. These guys on the other hand require feeding of sea stars and nothing else. The husbandry staff here is amazing.

Arapaima at the flooded forest tunnel. The largest freshwater fish of all.

Steinhart reef aquarium. The kaleidoscope of fish was breathtaking. The reef's other highlights were the dazzling schools of multiple anthias species that didn't hang around with the larger fish and the garden eels.

The green roof

Owl butterfly in the rainforest

Doris longwing

Violaceous euphonia

Turquoise tanager. Unfortunately my favorite bird of the birds that this exhibit supposedly has, the paradise tanager, did not appear.

Saffron finch

    I stayed until closing time after which I went back....to the log cabin. A few other birders appeared, hoping to find the redstart and chestnut-sided but it seemed that now both of the lost Easterners had moved on. I walked around and saw a few WILSON'S WARBLERs, my first seen ones, and a small flock of late cedar waxwings.

What a delightful-looking little guy.

Bathing purple finch

Mother and child robins.

Chestnut-backed chickadee feeding on hemlock insects

   Shortly afterwards, my mom picked me up and I went home, concluding my great day spent at SF. I hope that I can do another one of these days soon! Until next time, enjoy life and love nature! Or wait, is there more?

For an especially scarring picture, continue scrolling down.

In case you were wondering, this is the face of a dead rat, flattened to cardboard-thinness. The head is pointed to the right (see the snout?) and the eye is still present. The scariest thing is that this rat looks almost exactly like Remy's dad from Ratatouille. Ok have a great day.