Like Meena I had a double-header weekend of SFO to kick off the
season, though Saturday morning's cold dark drive to the lab on a
snow-dusted road made one wonder how much "spring" there would be. But
the enthusiasm of a mink bouncing about the small island across the
open water of the lab brought cheer to the waiting students, and the
birding turned out great on both days.
Highlights for Saturday's Group 1 ("the orioles") include two
(possibly three) pileated woodpeckers dancing about near the Podell
boardwalk, and later at Renwick Woods more pileateds calling and
drumming and flying about and generally showing off, trying to grab
our attention from the great-horned owl roost we were focusing on.
Wood ducks also provided cooperative views at both locales. For
Sunday's Group 5 ("the tanagers"), the wood ducks were less
cooperative -- flushing and flying away rather than staying put -- but
at Renwick we did witness a pair circle a number of times before one
of them disappeared into a nest cavity high in a tree. The owl was
absent on Sunday, making one wonder whether it had moved due to
Saturday's paparazzi scrutiny, or due to other factors (like Sunday's
more clement weather).
By the Renwick park suspension bridge on Sunday a blackbird with a
brown head flushed and landed across the creek; based on its thin bill
and patterned face I called it a rusty blackbird, but it wasn't a
great view, it didn't vocalize, and I failed to scrutinize it any
further. Later, when I reviewed Sibley, I wondered if it wasn't a
juvenile grackle.
The redtail hanging out by the Stewart Park tennis courts was next to
the tree with the nest Ann discovered earlier, making me suspect that
it might be active (there is just no good angle for wingless beings to
see what's going on).
Both days saw good numbers of cooperative hooded mergansers and common
mergansers, at least one bufflehead in the corner of fall creek, and a
relatively close raft of ring-necked ducks (scrutiny limited on
Saturday by the strong headwind). Both groups heard a (the?) brown
creeper's "sparkling" song at the same stretch of Sapsucker woods,
between the footbridge and Sherwood platform, though neither group saw
the bird.
Suan
PS. A large flock of ring-necked ducks were again in the second-dam
reservoir this morning. Also had a close eye-level look on Giles St of
a redtail perched with a fresh bloody squirrel in its talons.
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