San Francisco, CA (3/12 to 3/15)

Darius Ecker (dariuse@abs.net)
Wed, 17 Mar 1999 07:30:45 -0500 

First, I'd like to apologize because this post is not about Maryland.
However, since most of the help I received for my recent California trip was
from people on this list, It's only fitting that they get to see a brief
trip report.

Paula and I had a nice long weekend birding mostly Point Reyes, and some
birding around San Francisco. We found 122 species in that time, including
10 life birds. New for us were Pelagic and Brant's Cormorant,
Tri-colored Blackbird (only found 3 on Point Reyes, all others were
bi-colored and we looked at lots of blackbirds), Black Oystercatcher,
Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Varied Thrush, Mew Gull, Glacous-winged Gull,
Surfbird, and a Rock Sandpiper.

The Surfbirds were the hardest to find.  I spent nearly 2 hours looking at
Pillar Point south of San Francisco in the pouring rain.  Went back next day
and spent another hour and finally found just a pair of Surfbirds right
before catching the plane home.  I'm told the Rock Sandpiper was the rarest
(more evident farther north). We found one at Seal Rocks in San Francisco.
I had walked down to take photos of a Glacous-winged Gull, and the Rock
Sandpiper just showed up, and I had the camera all set up on the tripod. I
hope the photos turn out.  He really looks a lot like Purple Sandpiper.

It was interesting for me to look at all the Mew Gulls. Head shape and bill
size were very different (than Ring-billed) on all the birds I saw.  The
petite shape to the head and thinner bill really do make it look a lot
different in all plumages. Also, the white at the tips of the first two
primary feathers was evident in flight.  This is a very common bird out
there, occurring in locations were we would see Ring-billed in the east
(city parks, fast food restaurants, etc.).

We were disappointed on Red-breasted Sapsucker.  We looked at all the
locations were they were mentioned in the birdfinding guides with no luck.
They were probably there and we just didn't find the right habitat. Maybe
next time.  Oh, and we saw 10 to 12 Gray Whales from the Pt. Reyes
Lighthouse.  They were close in too.  You didn't even need binoculars to see
them.  I think Paula enjoyed this as much as the birding.

Thanks again to all Maryland birders who helped us plan our trip by
responding to my post.

Good Birding,

Darius Ecker (dariuse@abs.net)

Columbia, Maryland USA

"You almost never find the Red-breasted Sapsucker, but you can always
 find something amazing."