December 2000 Field Journal

12.5 [SFBirds] Williamson's and Red-breasted Sapsuckers
The WILLIAMSON'S SAPSUCKER put in an appearance around 9:30 or so this morningin the walnut (?) tree just west of the library in the arboretum. For the two or so people on this list that haven't seen it yet, it's quite tame and allows outstanding close looks.

While the Williamson's Sapsucker apparently has little fear of humans, it clearly does not likeother sapsuckers. A RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER flew in while it was feeding and the Williamson's Sapsucker very aggressively chased the Red-breasted Sapsucker out of the tree and all the way across the large lawn area to some mature cypresses nearer the duck pond. At that point, I saw only the Red-breasted Sapsucker fly out while presumably the Williamson's Sapsucker remained, content on savoring his victory.

12.17 [SFBirds] This morning
Hugh and I headed out this morning with mixed success. Nothing of interest
at the Cliff House, no luck at the Dusky-cappped Flycatcher spot, the
TROPICAL/COUCH'S KINGBIRD continues along the fenceline at the rear (from
the road) of the Buffalo Paddock. It's not easy to get good looks at the
TRKI/COKI; the sun is in your eyes if you walk around behind the paddock and
the bird is a long way away from the road.

At Spreckles, there was a confusing gull which bears some description. The
bird appeared nearly if not entirely in definitive basic plumage. The bird
appeared to be almost as large as the adjacent WESTERN GULLS, though with
slightly less bulk. What was unusual was that the bird had legs that were
easily 30% shorter than an Western Gull. Coloration of the legs was the same flesh
color as a Western Gull. The coloration of the mantle was several shades paler than
that of a Western Gull.

The bill had a pronounced gonydeal angle with a red spot at the base with
just a hint of a black ring _behind_ the red spot. The iris was very pale
and the head had prominent streaking. My initial impression was HERRING
GULL. but I can explain neither the bulk nor the shortness of the legs.
THAYER'S GULL might be better for bulk, but the legs were not bubble-gum
pink, the iris was not dark and the bill looked too heavy. Anyway, this is
probably much ado about nothing, but it's kinda slow out there...

In the Arboretum, we ran into Joe and Dan S. who had the WILLIAMSON'S
SAPSUCKER in yet another tree, this one in tract 27d if memory serves. This
spot is uphill from the California section and just below the large grassy
area on the far side from the walnut tree first frequented by the bird. The
bird flew during their observation and could not be relocated. The duck
pond had two HOODED MERGANSERS (one while we were there) and a NORTHERN
PINTAIL.

12.26 [SFBirds] 12.24 and 12.25 birds
Here's a few sightings from eastern GGP, mostly of interest only to CBC
folks:

12.24
2 Hooded Merganser in the duck pond in the Arboretum
Northern Pintail in the duck pond in the Arboretum
Female Ringed Teal in the duck pond in the Arboretum
2 Hutton's Vireo in separate gleaner flocks in the Arboretum
Steller's Jay in the redwoods in the Aids Dell
Red-breasted Nuthatch in the Aids Dell
Sharp-shinned Hawk in the Aids Dell
(Partial) Albino White-crowned Sparrow in the Zonotrichia flock on the lawn just west of the underpass under Kezar Drive, east of the Children's Playground.

12.25
Varied Thrush in the leaf litter in the fuschia bed in the Fuschia Dell
White-throated Sparrow (white striped morph) in the leaf litter in the fuschia b
ed in the
Fuschia Dell
Hairy Woodpecker below the overlook at the intersection of Arguello and Conserva
tory
Drive
2 White-throated Sparrow (both white striped morph, one very pale individual) in a brush pile south of Conservatory Drive about 50 yards east of the intersection of Arguello and Conservatory Drive
Red-breasted Nuthatch calling near the Fuschia Dell

12.30 [SFBirds] A proposal for 2001
Since it's unlikely anyone's going to want to do a Big Year in 2001 :-), I
thought nonetheless that I'd try to take what we've learned over the last
couple of years and turn it into something more useful. Specifically, I'd
like to do a better job of gleaning information from SFBirds to get a feel
for actual distributions of birds in San Francisco. While Big Years do a
pretty good job of documenting rarities, breeding records and distribution
of migrants are less well served by simply tracking first dates over a
calendar year. Also, the decline of formerly common species also is not
well served.

My proposal is the following:

- Document all rarities as we've been doing before
- Track all sightings of any bird deemed uncommon or rarer during a given
season as defined by Hugh's distribution list at:
http://home.pacbell.net/mweaton/Birding/SFChecklists/CityDistribution.html
- Track all (possible) breeding records for birds which are deemed uncommon
or rarer breeders in San Francisco (hard)
- Track all records for species known to be declining in San Francisco (Dan
M. has a list) (hard)
- Track the arrival and departure dates of all migrants within at least two
weeks of the nominal arrival/departure dates (harder).

Incredibly, I still don't have any listing software, but I could use Excel
in the short term and transfer this to listing software when possible.
Another output of this exercise would be to generate a seasonal report for
San Francisco which would form the basis for a (modest!) SFFO Field
Journal. On the basis that this is rational thing to do, I'll start putting
together various lists and make them available on my web site.

Questions and open issues:

- How do we combine this with the exiting record keeping that Hugh's doing?
- How do we integrate this with the information from the Breeding Bird
Atlas?

We can discuss this over SFBirds and follow up at the next SFFO meeting,
which will be announced shortly.

12.30 [SFBirds] Sapsucker sp. seen on CBC
There was an interesting sapsucker seen on the CBC by Alan's team members.
Most likely, this was the bird Alan and seen on one of his scouting trips
and also likely the same bird seen by Brian Fitch in the Arboretum. The
bird was seen near the sapsucker tree on the berm behind the tennis courts
and also near Lick Mountain, just northeast of Conservatory Drive. It's
also probably the same bird that I had seen on the berm which I dismissed as
a RBSA based on a less-than-careful observation.

The bird nominally appeared to be a RBSA with the following essential
differences:

- The head coloration behind the auriculars was black rather than red
- The feather coloration immediately around the bill was black rather than
red
- The red on the throat abrubtly ended on the upper breast, forming a pale
band or chevron before it equally abruptly continued below

While Sibley suggests that RBSA can have some black in the auricular region
and possibly even around the head, the pale chevron/band is problematic for
any plumage of RBSA. This tends to suggest RBSA x (YBSA or RNSA),
particularly since Sibley suggests that hybrids can be any combination of
RBSA, RNSA or YBSA. However, based on the description above, I'm not
willing to narrow it down.

I'd be curious to hear other analyses, particularly if someone gets has a
better description of each feather tract.

Home

You can contact me via email.