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Audubon Bird Survey, 1999

The 17th annual San Francisco Christmas Bird Count was held on Dec. 28, 1999.  Of course we had a team at Lake Merced.  It was headed by Luke Cole who did a terrific job and counted 65 species between his 6:45 a.m. start and his 4:45 p.m. finish.  Though we didn't have anything terribly rare this year, we did have a pretty interesting count.  We only had 5 feral cats, suggesting most of them were off in the bushes.  There were no quail which has been the case for many years now.  Can you believe they found an Anna's Hummingbird nest?  Actually that's quite believable because with the balmy weather and the fact they often start nesting in January.  It's still pretty interesting.

Look at the eucalyptus trees around the lake.  Like elsewhere in San Francisco most of them aren't in bloom.  Then look at the numbers of warblers on our count -- they're quite low.  Not much in the line of insects and nectar about now.  It will be interesting to see if thing perk up after a storm or two and in a couple of weeks when the eucs bloom.  The euc bloom was about 3 weeks late in late summer and the ones which usually bloom in December seem to be late as well.

I've been surprised at the low numbers of cormorants on the lake too.  The 25 they saw on the count won't eat enough fish to make many fishermen mad.  I wonder if it has to do with water quality, few or no fish plants, or just normal migratory movement.  It's quite a change from the spring and summer numbers we see.  There is one thing I've learned from birding and studying nature for the past 30 years and that is the more I learn the more I find out that I don't know.

Happy New Year,  Dan Murphy

Area# 5     Lake Merced

Pied-billed Grebe 10
Horned Grebe 12
Eared Grebe           6
Western Grebe 2
Clark's Grebe 8
Double-crested Cormorant     25
Great Blue Heron 5
Black-crowned Night Heron   5
WOOD DUCK  1
Mallard  295
Cinnamon Teal 3
Ring-necked Duck  1
Greater Scaup 1
Bufflehead  1
Ruddy Duck  111
domestic duck 27
Turkey Vulture 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk       1
Red-shouldered Hawk       3
Red-tailed Hawk 5
Virginia Rail 3
Sora   2
American Coot 230
Killdeer  21
Mew Gull  58
California Gull 447
Herring  Gull 1
Western Gull 289
WesternxGlaucous-wing Gull  16
Glaucous-wing Gull        18
Rock Dove  397
Mourning Dove 38
Anna's Hummingbird              44
Northern Flicker 3
Black  Phoebe 10
Western Scrub Jay 11
Common Raven 10
Chestnut-backed Chickadee     27
Bushtit  52
Pygmy Nuthatch 25
Brown Creeper 6
Bewick's Wren 1
Winter Wren 2
Marsh Wren 11
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  21
American Robin 52
Cedar Waxwing 31
European Starling 40
Orange-crowned Warbler 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon)  4
Yellow-rumped Warbler  65
Townsend's Warbler  5
Common Yellowthroat  11
California Towhee 2
Fox Sparrow 15
Song Sparrow 18
Lincoln's Sparrow 1
Golden-crowned Sparrow 19
White-crowned Sparrow  63
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) 9
Red-winged  Blackbird  15
Tri-colored Blackbird  18
Western Meadowlark  1
Brewer's Blackbird  436
Brown-headed Cowbird  38
House Finch  7
House Sparrow 10