SF Bird Club October Newsletter

September Recap

In case you missed it you can find last month's newsletter here: september newsletter

september bird walk

In September we repeated last month's bird walk around Middle and North lakes in Golden Gate Park.
We saw a belted kingfishers again and this time we were able to see it dive one time. We also saw plenty of warblers and a common yellowthroat too. Our checklist can be found here

black-crowned night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) at north lake

the chestnut-backed chickadees (Poecile rufescens) are a common sight in the park

red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus). i cheated a bit, we did see one but this is a photo of one in the same spot from the day before

the warblers were active at north lake. apparently there was a chestnut-sided warbler hanging out at the lake, but we were unable to catch a sighting

wilson's warbler (Cardellina pusilla) with his little black hat

townsend's warbler (Setophaga townsendi)

Thank you to everyone who came out:)

Member Submissions

Thank you to everyone who sent me photos of the birds they saw!

First up Ting Ting also took some photos from our bird walk in GGP

stellers jay — steller's jay (Cyanocitta stelleri)

Gus and Anjali spotted a northern flicker up in seattle

Katlyn spotted a creeper and mountain chickadee up in tahoe and a cali towhee and black phoebe in the city

cali towhee — california towhee (Melozone crissalis)

brown creeper (Certhia americana) creepin

James and Emily saw a great horned owl!

Theresa saw a greater yellowlegs over in rhode island

Carol spotted a red-shouldered hawk

Aarsh and Laya caught sight of a bushtit nest; a very impressive feat of bird engineering. In Spanish they call these little guys "sastrecillo" which means little tailor

turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) on a stroll

Sandy did plenty of birding in the bay and in mexico

mourning doves (Zenaida macroura) in a nest in the east bay

turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) chompin on some racoon in the east bay

common ground dove (Columbina passerina) in cabo

Jahee did some birding in Korea and saw some oriental magpies in Seoul

Janet spotted a bunch of herons at the palace of fine arts

she also did some birding in Korea and saw some sparrows and crows

eurasian tree sparrow — eurasion tree sparrow (Passer montanus)

large billed crow (Corvus macrorhynchos)

I did some GGP birding as well as a little eyeball & iphone birding in korea where I'm currently writing this newsletter.

a pair of red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis). you can often find a pair, maybe the same pair?, around the bison enclosure or the lakes

another warbler from north lake, i think this one is an orange-crowned warbler (Leiothlypis celata)

vinous-throated parrotbills (Suthora webbiana) in Busan. to me they look and move like a korean bushtit but taxinomically they aren't too close..

heron and egrets — grey heron (Ardea cinerea) and little egrets (Egretta garzetta) also in Busan. I was able to see the grey heron catch two fish. I also saw another smaller heron but didn't properly identify it.

Spotlight Bird: Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)

night heron doing night heron things in GGP

This month's bird of the month is the black-crowned night heron. We've seen them on our bird walks and a lot of people spot them at the various ponds, lakes, and waterfronts in the city.

Fun Black-crowned Night Heron Facts:

they are found all over the world including in south america, asia, and europe
the largest rookery in the bay is in oakland where they are the city's official bird
they'll raise any chick in their nest no matter if it's their own or not
they seemingly shapeshift because sometimes they look elegant and skinnier and other times they look more short, squat and derpy in the face
despite their name they're pretty easy to spot in the dayime, though less active. they usually hunt at nightime to avoid competition.
they eat all sorts of critters including fish, amphibians, crayfish, rodents and eggs. they don't stab their prey like their great blue heron friends often do.

October Bird Walk

september bird walk — another picture from the september birding walk

Fall migration is in full swing and we've started to see some cool migrants and winter residents.

The birding walk will be on the satruday morning of October 25th. We'll head back to GGP but will repeat the strawberry hill & great blue heron lake walk instead of the chain of lakes one. Head to the partiful link to rsvp.

Closeout

That's all; happy birding