5.1 Polo Field
Western Tanager
Wilson's Warbler
Hairy Woodpecker
White-crowned Sparrow
Purple Finch
5.2 Mines and Del Puerto Canyon Roads
David Armstrong and I birded Mines
Road et al. and had the following birds of interest:
GREEN HERON 5 total
GREATER ROADRUNNER 2 at Del Puerto Canyon MP 5.7
LEWIS'S WOODPECKER 2 at San Antonio Valley Road MP 0.2
SAGE SPARROW 3-4 at Mines Road MP 5.1 and another at Del Puerto
Canyon Road MP 22.1
LAWRENCE'S GOLDFINCH 10 at Summit Junction
59 species seen:
Canada Goose (1)
Wood Duck (19)
California Quail (6)
Green Heron (1, 4, 9)
Cooper's Hawk (27)
Red-tailed Hawk (5)
American Kestrel (2)
Greater Roadrunner (6, 10)
Anna's Hummingbird (10)
Belted Kingfisher (12)
Lewis's Woodpecker (21)
Acorn Woodpecker (12)
Nuttall's Woodpecker (21)
Downy Woodpecker (4)
Hairy Woodpecker (13)
Northern Flicker (3, 6)
Western Wood-Pewee (20)
Black Phoebe (4)
Say's Phoebe (4)
Ash-throated Flycatcher (3, 10, 12, 21)
Western Kingbird (3)
Hutton's Vireo (17)
Yellow-billed Magpie (1)
American Crow (6)
Common Raven (1)
Horned Lark (2)
Violet-green Swallow (16, 24)
Northern Rough-winged Swallow (3)
Barn Swallow (22)
Oak Titmouse (13, 25)
Bushtit (10)
White-breasted Nuthatch (21)
Rock Wren (7, 10)
Canyon Wren (10)
Bewick's Wren (3, 25)
House Wren (12)
Western Bluebird (21)
Wrentit (12)
California Thrasher (27)
European Starling (5)
Phainopepla (3, 11)
Orange-crowned Warbler (8, 26)
Yellow Warbler (12)
Western Tanager (12, 26)
Spotted Towhee (14)
California Towhee (3)
Lark Sparrow (6, 10)
Sage Sparrow (15, 25)
Dark-eyed Junco (24)
Black-headed Grosbeak (8, 12, 25)
Lazuli Bunting (12)
Red-winged Blackbird (3)
Tricolored Blackbird (16)
Brewer's Blackbird (1, 16)
Bullock's Oriole (3)
Purple Finch (18)
House Finch (1)
Lesser Goldfinch (3, 10, 21)
Lawrence's Goldfinch (20)
Locations:
1) I580
2) Del Puerto Canyon MP 1.0
3) Del Puerto Canyon MP 3.0
4) Del Puerto Canyon MP 3.8
5) Del Puerto Canyon MP 5.1
6) Del Puerto Canyon MP 5.7
7) Del Puerto Canyon MP 6.5
8) Del Puerto Canyon MP 6.6
9) Del Puerto Canyon MP 8?
10) Del Puerto Canyon MP 10.8
11) Del Puerto Canyon MP 11.8
12) Del Puerto Canyon MP 13.1
13) Del Puerto Canyon MP 15.6
14) Del Puerto Canyon MP 19.5
15) Del Puerto Canyon MP 22.1
16) Del Puerto Canyon MP 22.9
17) Del Puerto Canyon MP 23.8
18) Del Puerto Canyon MP 24.1
19) Pond near junction on Del Puerto Canyon Road
20) Summit Junction
21) San Antonio Valley Road MP 0.2
22) San Antonio Valley Road MP 1.8
23) Mines Road
24) Mines Road MP 2.3
25) Mines Road MP 5.1
26) Mines Road MP 7.7
27) Mines Road MP 15.8 (12.05)
5.6 East Wash and Land's End
Western Wood-Pewee
Swainson's Thrush
5.8 Glen Park
Canyon
I was stunned this morning to find
an alternate male BALTIMORE ORIOLE singing in the willows in
the upper portion of the canyon. It was last seen at the extreme
northern end of the canyon in the tall eucalyptus trees just
below the football field at the school. Others heard the Northern
Parula singing from an undisclosed location painfully high in
a eucalyptus tree near the culvert.
Description:
Unmistakeable. Bright orange would be an understatement for color of orange of this oriole. It was so brightly colored orange that the upper breast bordered on red and the rest of the bird was electric orange. The head was solid black as was the bill. The wings were black with white wing bars. The belly and breast were unmarked bright orange.Voice alone would have been diagnostic. The voice had a rattle quite similar to a Bullock's Oriole but the rest of the song was more reminiscent of the song of a Black-headed (or Rose-breasted) Grosbeak, quite unlike the distinctive Chup-duh-duh-dup-duh-CHEOO-CHEOO of the Bullock's Oriole. Voice and plumage unequivocally identify the bird.
Other sightings of local interest:
Allen's Hummingbird CO-ON
Nuttall's Woodpecker female
Warbling Vireo PR-P 5-8
Pygmy Nuthatch
Swainson's Thrush 2 singing
Yellow Warbler singing
Western Tanager 6-8
Song Sparrow CO-CF
Lazuli Bunting 2
Brown-headed Cowbird
Bullock's Oriole
Baltimore Oriole alternate male singing
House Finch
Lesser Goldfinch
House Sparrow
5.12 Chain of Lakes
Most of the fencing is down at North
Lake, but there is bright orange fencing that keeps you on the
trails and prevents you from wading in the algae-ridden water.
COMMON RAVENs are ubiquitous and more than a little initimidating.
Is it my imagination or are Red-shouldered Hawks less common
than before? TREE SWALLOWS are quite obvious, but I saw no evidence
of breeding activity at the snags between the golf course and
North Lake.
Middle Lake
Purple Finch
Tree Swallow
Warbling Vireo
Barn Swallow
Feral Cat sp.
North Lake
Serious algae bloom
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Common Raven 50+
South Lake
Great Egret
5.15 SF Birding
Today, I birded various areas in SF.
BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS outnumber host species by about 3-4 to
one in the East Wash. 7 PIGEON GUILLEMOTs were off of Mile Rock
beach, but I didn't notice any evidence of breeding. 2 PELAGIC
CORMORANTS were nice to see. A WINTER WREN in the West Wash was
singing as was a HUTTON'S VIREO at Fort Miley. 4 young were in
the RED-TAILED HAWK at Lobos Dunes.
I only heard one CALIFORNIA QUAIL at Quail Commons. A RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH was calling unseen from the pines at the the NPS Maintenance Yard below Quail Commons. At Presidio Hills, there were 2-3 unseen RED CROSSBILLS in the conifers just north of the hospital and a HAIRY WOODPECKER called as well. I then went over the native habitat, carefully read the sign urging me to stay on the trail, entered the open gate to walk on one of the obvious trails inside the restoration area and was quickly thrown out as the area is not open to the public apparently. I guess restoration area means not for human enjoyment. Can't we get birders "certified" to enter sensitive habitat?
East Wash
American Goldfinch
Wilson's Warbler
Western Wood-Pewee
Pygmy Nuthatch CO-ON
Red-shouldered Hawk 2
Mile Rock Beach
Pigeon Guillemot 7
Pelagic Cormorant 2
Black Oystercatcher 2
Large feeding flock in channel
West Wash
Wilson's Warbler
Winter Wren singing
Ft. Miley
Barn Swallow 2-3
Lesser Goldfinch
Hutton's Vireo
Lobos Dunes
Red-tailed Hawk nest, 4 young
Quail Commons
California Quail 1
Maintenance Yard
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Presidio Hills
Red Crossbill 2-3
Hairy Woodpecker
5.20 City Birding
Land's End
Elegant Tern 3
Common Murre 3
Lick Mtn.
Purple Finch 2-3
5.22 Outer Point
Reyes
Today, Alan Hopkins and I had a YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER in the
pines and cypresses above the monument at Drake's Beach at Point
Reyes. The bird was singing, but it was somewhat difficult to
get good looks at it. Other birds of note on the outer point
included AMERICAN REDSTART, BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER and NORTHERN
PARULA, all found by Alan in the cypresses just beyond the garage
at the Fish Docks along the road towards Chimney Rock.
Description of the Yellow-throated Warbler:
A rather strikingly-plumaged warbler-like bird. The facial disk of the bird was entirely white, overlayed with a distinctive, three-pointed black mask centered about the eye. One point of the mask extended forward from the eye to the base of the bill, another point extended rearward to edge of the facial disk and another extended downward from the eye along the side of the neck. The overlap of the two regions resulted in white supercilium above the black mask and a white region below a black eyeline rear of the downard point. The black mask was further broken by a white sub-ocular crescent. The bill was entirely dark and seemed to be fairly stout; the sides of the upper and lower mandible were mostly parallel with the upper mandible coming to a blunt tip at the distal end of the bill.The crown was dark, contrasting with steely blue-gray neck and back that was otherwise unmarked, suggesting Grace's Warbler. The downward point of the facial mask extended below the neck onto the sides of the upper breast in a continous black line. At the upper breast, the black line became a set of broad black streaks that continued down the sides of the breast to about mid-belly. Between thet two black lines, the throat and upper breast were bright yellow, in striking contrast with the black stripe along the side of the throat. The bright yellow terminated rather abruptly on the lower breast, becoming clean, unmarked white all the way through to the undertail coverts.
The greater coverts were broadly tipped white with fine white outer edges. Basally, they were very dark, approaching black, appearing to be one shade darker than the rest of the flight feathers. The median coverts were also broadly tipped white, giving the appearance of two broad white wing bars separated by a contrasting dark bar, suggesting the pattern of a Hutton's Vireo. The rest of the wing coverts were dark gray, thinly edged white. The remiges themselves were similarly colored, giving the impression of a contrasting darker wing panel with each feather finely demarcated from each other.
The upper tail and leg color were not observed/noted; the undertail was clean white over the most of the tail, abruptly terminating at black tips. The shape of the demarcation was a straight line but I do do not recall how the boundary was oriented relative to the feather shaft.
The was initially located by its song which was key to tracking the bird. The song might be described as a twittering tseeut-tseeut-tseeut-tseeut-tseeut-tseeut-tuwee-tuwee-tuwee-tuwee, sometimes descending during the song, with the tseeut notes falling significantly during the song, the tuwee notes faster than the tseeut notes and occasionally a somewhat sharp (rising?) terminal note. The song compared quite favorably to the song of a known-species individual in the parking lot immediately after the observation.
Analysis:
Identification is rather straightforward. Pretty much all families other than Peucedramidae, Parulidae and Vireonidae can be eliminated based on size, behavior and overall appearance. In Vireonidae, Yellow-throated Vireo can be eliminated by the pattern of black, white and yellow on the face, lack of spectacles, back color, etc. Olive Warbler can be eliminated by any of several fields marks, most obviously overall coloration. So, we're left with Parulidae.In the genus Parula, both parulas have yellow on the throat and breast with white bellies, but both have greenish backs, lack the distinctive black facial pattern, have yellow on the lower mandible, etc. Yellow-breasted Chat is a large chunky warbler with white spectacles, black lores, greenish upperparts. Prothonotary Warbler has very little black on the face and greenish upperparts.
Finally,we're left with Dendroica. Magnoilia Warbler has a yellow throat, black mask and gray head, but has no black line leading down down the side of the neck, no white on the face below the supercilium other than the sub-ocular crescent, greenish or blackish back and broad white edges in addition to the tips on a breeding adult male. Adult Blackburnian has orange rather than yellow on the the throat, a dark, streaked back and no white on the face.
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's) has no yellow on the upper breast, streaked back and lacks a distinctive black facial mask. Townsend's Warbler has no white on the face, a greenish back, lacks a black stripe running down the side of the neck. Black-throated Green and Golden-cheeked Warblers both lack white on the face and a black stripe running down the side of the neck. Kirtland's Warbler has a blank face, only two white crescents above and below the eye for white on the face, lacks a clean white belly.
Grace's Warbler requires some discussion. It has a steely blue gray back, black on the face, yellow throat, clean white belly, a similar tail pattern to Yellow-throated Warbler and a similar song. However, adult birds have yellow supercilia for most of the supercilium, fine streaking on the back, lack bold streaking on the upper breast, don't have the distinctive black facial pattern and song that didn't fit as well as the song for Yellow-throated Warbler. Of the field marks that separate these two species, all comparisons are favor YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER. The white supercilium suggests ssp. albilora, the most western of the subpsecies that breed in North America.
Other sightings of interest:
Lighthouse
Rhinoceros Auklet 2
Fish Docks
Black-and-white Warbler
Northern Parula
American Redstart
Nunes
Western Wood-Pewee
Oriole sp.
Drake's Beach
Yellow-throated Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
5/24-28 San Francisco
Sorry, this is very late, but I haven't
been very good at getting things posted to SFBirds. On the afternoon
of the 24th, I had a RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD at the east end of Crissy
Field, on the hill behind the warehouses. On the 25th, I ran
into Siobhan in the West Wash (that they thought was the East
Wash), where they had a DUSKY FLYCATCHER. On the 26th, I had
two RED-MASKED PARAKEETS on Mt. Davidson. And on the 28th when
Brian was having a great day in Golden Gate Park, I had two tantalizing
non-sightings. The first was an unseen bird that sounded a lot
like a Red-eyed Vireo when it vocalized from the top, center,
and then bottom of the East Wash before it disappeared. Also,
there was a hummingbird whose wing-trill I can only describe
as sounding like a Broad-billed Hummingbird that also disappeared
immediately thereafter. Clearly, neither of these two birds are
actual sightings.
Writeup of Dusky Flycatcher:
I spent quite a bit of time with it and, after checking some photos, do agree it was a Dusky Flycatcher. It was a little bit farther away that I like to id an out-of-range, silent empid, but the overall coloration, primary projection, pale yellowish wash on the belly, bill length and coloration and fine eye ring (that I really had a hard time seeing) all are pretty good for Dusky Flycatcher. The only thing that gave me pause was how hard it was to see the eye ring and the fact that the tail was shorter than I thought it should be. Primary projection was too short, bill too long and didn't seen large headed enough for Hammond's Flycatcher, and Willow Flycatcher should have no eye ring (at all), all yellow lower mandible and very long primary projection.
5.24
Crissy
Rufous Hummingbird
American Goldfinch
Forster's Tern 10-15
Caspian Tern 2
Black-crowned Night-Heron 2
Common Raven
American Crow
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
5.25
East/West Wash
Dusky Flycatcher
Western Wood-Pewee
5.26
Mt. Davidson
Olive-sided Flycatcher 2
Steller's Jay
Band-tailed Pigeon 8+
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Red-masked Parakeet 2
Cooper's Hawk
5.28
East Wash
Red-eyed Vireo???
Broad-tailed Hummingbird???
Swainson's Thrush
Wilson's Warbler 3
5.28-31 Yuba
Pass
Debi and I had a nice, relaxed trip to the Yuba Pass area. Breeding
birds were ubiquitous at Yuba Pass, with BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER,
WILLIAMSON'S SAPSUCKER, RED-BREASTED and WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCHES
all confirmed breeding in the immediate vicinity of the campground.
HAMMOND'S FLYCATCHERs seemed to be in short supply, but perhaps
this is because it is still a little early. A GRAY FLYCATCHER
was singing in junipers and sage at Red Rock Canyon. An AMERICAN
DIPPER was nesting under the bridge at Wild Plum Campground.
At least two JUNIPER TITMICE were present at the the last pullout before the Nevada State Line on the south side of Red Rock Road. It's amazing how much different the vocalizations are than those of Oak Titmice. Far up the washes near the fact of the Red Rocks, I had a warbler sing that I believe was a VIRGINIA'S WARBLER. While the bird was singing, I compared the voice to a recording of a known-species individual and is indistinguishable other than the final, upslurred note. However, this bird was heard only; it stopped singing before I could chase it up the wash in the early afternoon heat. The Mormon Cricket population is well down from 2002.
78 species seen:
Canada Goose (9)
Gadwall (9)
Mallard (9)
Cinnamon Teal (9)
Northern Shoveler (9)
Green-winged Teal (9)
Ruddy Duck (9)
Mountain Quail (4)
American White Pelican (4, 9)
Black-crowned Night-Heron (9)
White-faced Ibis (9)
Swainson's Hawk (9)
Red-tailed Hawk (4, 9)
American Coot (9)
Sandhill Crane (9)
Killdeer (9)
Willet (9)
Wilson's Snipe (6)
Wilson's Phalarope (9)
California Gull (9)
Band-tailed Pigeon (3)
Williamson's Sapsucker (4).jpg)
Red-breasted Sapsucker (4)
Hairy Woodpecker (3)
White-headed Woodpecker (3)
Black-backed Woodpecker (4)
Olive-sided Flycatcher (4)
Western Wood-Pewee (2, 3, 4, 6, 12)
Hammond's Flycatcher (11)
Gray Flycatcher (10)
Dusky Flycatcher (4, 6)
Western Kingbird (10)
Warbling Vireo (3, 12)
Steller's Jay (3)
Black-billed Magpie (6)
American Crow (10)
Common Raven (4, 10)
Horned Lark (8)
Tree Swallow (2, 3)
Cliff Swallow (9)
Barn Swallow (2, 9)
Juniper Titmouse (10)
Red-breasted Nuthatch (4)
White-breasted Nuthatch (4)
Bewick's Wren (10)
House Wren (4)
Marsh Wren (9)
American Dipper (5)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (10)
Townsend's Solitaire (4)
American Robin (2, 3, 4, 6)
Orange-crowned Warbler (3)
Nashville Warbler (3, 5)
Virginia's Warbler (10)
Yellow Warbler (3, 12)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (3, 4, 12)
Hermit Warbler (11)
MacGillivray's Warbler (4, 11)
Wilson's Warbler (4)
Western Tanager (2, 3, 4, 6, 10)
Green-tailed Towhee (6)
Spotted Towhee (6)
Chipping Sparrow (4)
Brewer's Sparrow (6)
Vesper Sparrow (8)
Savannah Sparrow (9)
Fox Sparrow (4)
Song Sparrow (3, 12)
Dark-eyed Junco (3, 4, 6)
Black-headed Grosbeak (2, 5, 6)
Red-winged Blackbird (7, 9)
Western Meadowlark (9)
Yellow-headed Blackbird (9)
Brewer's Blackbird (7, 8, 9)
Brown-headed Cowbird (4, 10)
Cassin's Finch (3, 4)
Lesser Goldfinch (10)
Evening Grosbeak (3, 4)
Locations:
1) Yuba Pass
2) Herrington's (May 28)
3) Basset's (May 28)
4) Yuba Pass (May 28)
5) Wild Plum Campground (May 28)
6) Mt. Quail Road (May 28)
7) Hwy 89 (May 28)
8) Calpine Corner (May 28)
9) Dyson Lane (May 28)
10) Red Rock Road (May 28)
11) Yuba Pass (May 31)
12) Sardine Lake (May 31)
You can contact me via email.