12.7 City Birding
Today I got out for a couple of hours and had a few interesting
sightings. By far the most interesting were the at least 5 ACORN
WOODPECKERS directly in front of the Conservatory of Flowers.
I watched them for about 15 minutes and was stunned to find out
that they are using the Washingtonia fan palms in front
of the conservatory as a granary. At least one of them appeared
to be trying to extract seeds from a pine cone rather than from
the oaks in the vicinity, though what was being put into the
granary looked like an acorn.
Later on, I ran into Alan and we had nice looks of the SORA at Stow Lake.
Other sightings of local interest:
Sora (3)
Acorn Woodpecker (2)
Hutton's Vireo (1)
Steller's Jay (2, 3)
Varied Thrush (1)
Spotted Towhee (1)
White-throated Sparrow (1)
Locations:
1) Lick Mtn. (Dec 07)
2) Conservatory (Dec 07)
3) Stow Lake (Dec 07)
12.13
King Eider
I received a phone call from Hugh
Cotter about 11:00 this morning indicating that he found an eider,
probably a King Eider, in Lincoln Park. Fortunately, I was in
the area and had my birding gear, so after picking up a couple
of books from my house I raced over to Lincoln Park, breaking
several traffic laws in the process. After a comical and 
frantic few minutes,
I finally located Hugh just below the overlook in Lincoln Park
just west of Sea Cliff. The bird was actively feeding at this
point, but I soon good on the bird and got good if somewhat distant
views in fair to good light. The bird was drifting towards the
Cliff House, and after obtaining some unsatisfactory digiscopes,
I raced over to the East Wash, descended, and found myself with
an unobstructed view of the bird that was fairly close to shore
at this point. Miraculously, the sun came out for one of the
few times during the course of this blustery, gray day.
Just as Alan Hopkins arrived, the bird drifted back towards Sea Cliff on the incoming tide. Alan moved east and refound the bird and called us over. We then spent quite a bit of time watching the bird and trying to obtain satisfactory digiscopes with mixed success as shown. The notes below are based on the cumulative set of observations and the ensuing discussion between the three of us.
Description:
Overall, a brownish duck or duck-like bird noticeable smaller than the Western Grebes that were roughly in the same part of the ocean. The bird superficially resembled a scoter, but upon closer inspection had numerous significant differences. The bill was almost entirely dark and was noticeably concave and structurally reminded me of bill shape of a White-winged Scoter. In very good light at high magnification, the bird showed a distinct nail at the tip of the bill that appeared elongated and possibly oval in shape. At the edge of the nail, there was an extremely fine pale line that demarcated the nail from the upper mandible. The forehead was quite steep, reminiscent more of Ross's Goose than Snow Goose.The feathering about the face and bill was quite complex. When the bird was facing
directly towards us, it was clear that the feathering on the face extended well down the culmen and was noticeably darker than the rest of the feather on the face. In profile, the feathering on the base of the bill could be seen to extend onto the upper mandible, above the gape, former a triangular wedge at the base of the bill. The shape of this wedge is conceptually similar to what I think of the blue patch at the base of the bill of a Ross's Goose. The lower edge of the feathering on the upper mandible abruptly ended at the gape, showing clean black at the gape. The feathering on the upper mandible became quite pale at the tip of the feathering, contrasting strongly with the darkness of the bill. As well, the feathering on the chin of the bird extended a smaller distance onto the lower mandible of the bird and similarly pale as the feathering on the upper mandible, which only served to further accent the contrast with the dark bill
The face was brown with some indistinct mottling and one shade paler than brown that was found on most of the rest of the bird. There was a prominent white eye ring surrounding an eye that appeared dark at that distance. There was a distinct if fine post-ocular stripe running horizontally from the rear of the eye to the rear of the auriculars and then well down the sides of the neck. The breast and what was visible of the flanks were indistinctly mottled brown.
The scapulars had pale brown to buff edges with noticeable dark centers, giving a
speckled impression for the back of the bird. The rump was mottled brown, perhaps slightly more distinctly than other parts of the bird, and the uppertail coverts seemed to extend well onto the upper tail feathers. The greater coverts were dark centered, edged pale brown. The median coverts where paler and roughly concolorous with the rest of the brown on the bird. The tertials were black with just a hint of pale edges. The primaries were jet black with no pale edges. The bird did rise up out of the water to flap its wings briefly, showing a wing panel with entirely dark remiges and with the dark greater coverts separated by a fine pale brown to buff wing stripe with the greater coverts and the remiges contrasting strongly with the rest of the upperwing coverts. Also, when the bird preened, it hinted at a pale underwing; however, I did not get a look in any detail at the underwing of the bird. The feet were a dull greenish with hints of yellow that could appear dark depending on the angle of the light.
Analysis:
Before we consider sea ducks, it's worth noting that freshwater ducks can show up on the open ocean (I've seen Northern Pintail land in the water near the edge of the continental shelf). In particular, Wood Duck can show white around the eye, a post-ocular stripe. However, adult females show and elongated white eye patch, gray spotted flanks, uniformly gray upperparts, white edges to the primaries and no feathering on the bill. No other regularly occurring freshwater North American duck shows an prominent white eye ring.We're left with the sea ducks. Scoters deserve some discussion. White-winged Scoter shows white around the eye in many plumages, but no plumage shows a post-ocular stripe. Also, all plumages show entirely white secondaries. Neither Surf nor Black Scoter show a post-ocular stripe in any plumage. Some plumages of Long-tailed Duck can show prominent white around the eye, but virtually all plumages of Long-tailed Duck show quite a bit of white no various different portions of the bird and no plumage is uniformly brown in overall appearance. In fact, no family of ducks show a white post-ocular stripe and feathering on the bill than the eiders.
Four species of eider occur in North America. Spectacled Eider shows prominent "spectacles" in all plumages and is unrecorded in CA, perhaps unrecorded outside of Alaska. Steller's Eider is also easily eliminated by its heavy bill, lack of feathering on the upper mandible, lack of strong post-ocular eye line and broad white tips to the secondaries and greater coverts.
So we're left with Common and King Eiders. Separating King from Common requires a bit of care. Head shape is a good differentiator between the two species. Common has a heavy head with a shallow forehead leading to a heavy triangular bill while King has a more "normal" duck-like head with a concave upper mandible. We can already sex the bird; males of both species show some amount of black on the body in all plumages. Clearly, this is a female bird.
Female Common shows prominent barring in all plumages on the upper breast while female King shows a more scaly or mottled pattern. Common shows a weak post-ocular eye line while this is more prominent and paler in King Eider. The scapulars on Common tend to be more barred while they are more scaly in King. King Eider tends to show more pale on the feathering extending on the bill than Common. In summary, head shape, bill shape, feathering on the bill, breast pattern and scapular pattern all are better for KING EIDER Somateria spectabilis rather than Common Eider. Aging female eiders is difficult, but the unmarked dark scapular centers and pale head suggest a first year bird.
12.21 City Birding
I spend some time today out, mostly
photographing birds at the brush pile at Harding Park. At least
one SWAMP SPARROW continues along with at least one WHITE-THROATED
SPARROW. The loons at the south end of Ocean Beach were mostly
Red-throated, but there was also at least one PACIFIC LOON.
Other sightings of local interest:
South End of Ocean Beach
Pacific Loon
Brush pile
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Hermit Warbler
Sutro Heights
Orange-crowned Warbler
12.24 City Birding
I did a brief seawatch from the Sutro
Baths overlook and had a SOOTY/SHORT-TAILED SHEARWATER in fairly
close to shore. The underwings seemed pretty uniformly gray other
than a small flash near the base of the outer primaries, but
in this light, I reserve judgment. Lots of sleeping, brownish
ducks in with the scoter flocks; something good could easily
be hiding in there...
12.27 Ancient Murrelet, Northern Fulmar
Paul Saraceni and I had an ANCIENT
MURRELET fairly close to shore from the Point Lobos observation
platform. The bird was on a line from the north end of the platform
to somewhere between Mile Rock and the Pt. Bonita Lighthouse.
Kevin McKereghan joined us shortly thereafter and we had a fairly
pale NORTHERN FULMAR from the overlook at the west end of Ft.
Miley.
Also, we had the TROPICAL KINGBIRD at the Sharp Park Golf Course.
12.28 Vaux's Swift, Snow Goose, Green-winged
x Common Teal, Hooded Merganser
Today, Alan Hopkins and I got out
this morning for little birding. At the Las Gallinas Sewer Ponds,
we were surprised to see 4 VAUX'S SWIFTS flying near the parking
lot. Also, a huge flock of Canada Geese contained 4 SNOW GEESE.
But perhaps the most unusual bird of the day was an apparent
hybrid GREEN-WINGED x "COMMON" TEAL drake. The bird
exhibited the horizontal white line along the scapulars characteristic
of Common Teal but also showed a faint vertical white bar along
the breast suggesting some Green-winged Teal in its gene pool.
At the small pond along Deer Valley Rd., there were two HOODED
MERGANSERS.
Birding from Marin at Fort Baker, Alan found a dark morph POMARINE JAEGER that I did not see and there were large numbers of FORSTER'S TERNS as well as a few BONAPARTE'S GULLS. All of these birds were both in San Francisco and in the SF CBC count circle. From the San Francisco side of the bay, we also had a few FORSTER'S TERNS, but there were many BONAPARTE'S GULLS quite close to shore at Fort Point. Unfortunately, Fort Point is not currently accessible to the public.
Other sightings of local interest
Las Gallinas
Vaux's Swift 4
Eurasian Wigeon 2
Green-winged Teal x Common Teal
Snow Goose 4
Peregrine Falcon
Loggerhead Shrike 4
Deer Valley Rd.
Hooded Merganser 2
Fort Baker
Pomarine Jaeger (ASH only)
Bonaparte's Gull
Forster's Tern
Crissy Field
Say's Phoebe
Forster's Tern
Bonaparte's Gull
Marsh Wren
12.30 SF CBC
Covering Lake Merced with Stefanie Arthur, Siobahn Ruck, Sam
Stuart and Claire (sorry, no last name), we had a few interesting
birds. After whiffing on the Swamp Sparrow at the brush pile,
Sam and Claire found a SWAMP SPARROW at the northwest corner
of the concrete bridge, about halfway down the ramp to the fishing
pier on the west side of the ramp. In the same area there was
a YELLOW WARBLER and possibly another warbler whose description
sounded good for Prothonotary Warbler.
At the extreme northern end of Lake Merced along Skyline near the bus stop, there was a NASHVILLE WARBLER and much earlier in the day, there were two CANADA GEESE ssp. minima at the Concrete Bridge. Both VIRGINIA RAIL and SORA were heard at multiple locations.
The most unusual find of the day was an entirely white dove that was clearly not of North American origin that was banded (?) sitting near the edge of the Vista Grande Canal. Did the zoo loose some of their flock? If so, they should take a look at the canal and see if they can refind it. It seemed to be quite cold and shivering, so it may not have survived the night.
Finally, if you haven't been to the concrete bridge in the last couple days, be aware that the Vista Grande Canal flooded rather badly during Monday's storm. My estimate from the garbage strewn along the canal is that it crested a good six feet above its banks, maybe more. Near the concrete bridge, the floodwaters flowed from the creek across John Muir Drive and into Lake Merced just north of the fishing pier, cutting three foot deep gouges in the newly-restored habitat.
Swamp Sparrow description:
A bird quite similar to a Song Sparrow with the following essential differences. the tertials and the greater coverts were almost entirely bright rufous. There were two lateral crown stripes that were brownish-rufous and the ear coverts were not markedly darker that the rest of the grayish face. The malar stripe was quite thin and black; the underparts were completely unstreaked otherwise.All plumages of Song Sparrow are marked by a heavy malar stripe and significant streaking on the underparts, never shows almost entirely rufous scapulars or greater coverts. Lincoln's Sparrow has a buffy wash on the breast and submoustachial region with fine streaking on the upper breast, buffy highlights to the coverts. Immature White-crowned Sparrow lakes prominent rufous tertials and coverts, has prominent wing bars, yellow bill and belongs to a different family.
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