SF Bird Club September Newsletter

August Recap

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

august bird walk

Last month we went on a bird walk in Golden Gate Park. This time we walked around Middle and North lakes.
The highlights were the two belted kingfishers we saw. The male showed up at Middle Lake right as we started off and the female showed up right when we reached North Lake. We saw one hovering a time or two, but unfortunately we didn't get the chance to see them fish. Our checklist can be found here

male belted kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon)

song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) nibbling on a blackberry

the chestnut-backed chickadees (Poecile rufescens) were their usually chatty selves

stellers jay — our bird of the month from july the steller's jay (Cyanocitta stelleri)

black crowned night heron — we saw a couple of these black-crowned night herons (Nycticorax nycticorax)

wilsons warbler — the wilson's warblers (Cardellina pusilla) are bright yellow and look like they wear little black hats

canada goose — finally, we saw some canadian geese (Branta canadensis) which are not the typical noteworthy sighting on a birding walk... but we saw one goose leave its gaggle to hang out in a tree. the picture is a bit zoomed out but you can see its head poking out in the center left.

Thank you to everyone who came out:)

Member Submissions

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

First up Courtney did some international birding in the Philippines and Thailand and saw a common myna and a Philippine Black Naped Oriole. We've seen some of the mynas in Hawaii where they were introduced, but it's nice to see a shot of one in its native range!

George along with Megan and Heidi did plenty of birding on a trip to the Rocky Mountains.

pretty sure this is a hairy woodpecker (Dryobates villosus) and not a downy

they also spotted a steller's jay (Cyanocitta stelleri)

looks like an osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana). they might seem a little plain but they looks pretty striking when in flight

finally they saw a few female dusky grouse (Dendragapus obscurus)

James and Emily snagged another cool red-tailed hawk photo. Emily also lived out my sf birding dream by doing some birdwatching around the farallon islands and saw a bunch of cool birds and sent some photos taken by the oceanic society from their outing.

the common murre (Uria aalge) has a super interesting history with san francisco and the farralones. for a glimpse check out this kqed article

a booby; i think a brown booby (Sula leucogaster)

very goth shot of a black oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani)

Ani over in NYC did some more birding in McGorlick and saw a black and white warbler, perhaps the zebra of birds. He also saw a laughing gull in queens

Maeve and Felipe birded up in Olympic National Park in washington state.

i think this is a downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) not a hairy

screenshot taken from a video of some bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) messing about

finally they saw some of my favorites, the sanderlings (Calidris alba), going full cammo on a beach day

Aarsh saw some of his resident turkey vultures and robins in the south bay

Jeff F sent in a couple photos including this one of a mourning dove

Katlyn set up a hummingbird feeder on her SF balcony and now gets regular anna's hummingbird visitors

Sandy spotted an appropriately named black-necked stilt

Theresa shared a couple shots sent by a friend over in rhode island

a very suave looking ruddy turnstone (Arenaria interpres)

Jahee birded over in south carolina and saw some herons and egrets including this juvenile snowy egret

Janet spotted a great blue heron fishing in tomales bay

I did most of my birding this month in the high sierras in early August and Tomales Bay this past weekend. I only brought binoculars on these trips so I'm light on photos but my personal favorites were the clark's nutcrackers and american dippers I saw in the sierras and the ospreys and elegant terns I saw in tomales bay.

brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) in tomales bay. we got to see them fish from pretty close up while in the kayaks. they weren't quite as elegant as the aptly named terns but still very cool

I also stumbled upon a barn owl walking through the pandhandle at night

Spotlight Bird: Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon)

This month's bird of the month is the belted kingfisher.

Fun Belted Kingfisher Facts:

one of the few bird species where the female is more colorful than the male. the females have the blue and orange/chestnut band while the males only have a blue band.
their call is loud and harsh and the rattling has been described as sort of like maracas
they look like they have a cool spiky hairdo
they are reliant on water for their food so they winter in areas where the ponds and rivers dont freeze over
they nest in burrows that they dig themselves
when diving they close their eyes, really a third eyelid, and make use of what's called a nictating membrane which protects their eyes but allows them to still see albeit with impeded vision
when they catch a fish they bang it against their perch before swallowing
they are very territorial

September Bird Walk

august bird walk — another picture from the august birding walk

Fall migration is under way and hopefully we should start to see some more cool birds. The GGP lakes worked pretty well this last time so I'm thinking we give that one more go this time around and see if we can spot something new.

The birding walk will be on the satruday morning of September 20th. Head to the partiful link to rsvp.

Closeout

That's all; happy birding