A Birducopia of Sightings, Encounters & Activity as Fall Migration Season Winds Down (Or Picks Up?)

Cormorants gathered on guano-splattered rock

Fall season has been great

for the birds of California,

whether temporary visitors

or year-round residents.

California Quail

Mild temperatures and abundant sustenance guarantee food, safety and shelter for hundreds of avian species dropping out of the skies around the Bay Area in world class birding locales from Point Reyes National Seashore and Mount Diablo State Park to endless miles of San Francisco Bay shoreline and this blog's favorite and much beloved Jewel Lake / Tilden Nature Area in the Berkeley Hills.

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Recent reports on birding sites detail an embarrassment of avian riches everywhere around the Bay Area.

Brilliant male Mountain Bluebird
(photo by Elaine R. Wilson, CC BY-SA 2.5
<https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5>,
via Wikimedia Commons)

Sightings of exotic Mountain Bluebirds

near Patterson Pass Road.

Western Kingbird sighting near Vernal Utah

Western Kingbirds

at Heather Farms in Walnut Creek.

Lewis's Woodpecker

(Photo by http://www.naturespicsonline.com/,

CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>,

via Wikimedia Commons)

Lewis' Woodpeckers

at Briones Reservoirs.

Flotilla of Gray Pelicans at MLK, Jr Shoreline

As well as my own unheralded, miraculously small birding sightings, encounters and adventures in the Berkeley Hills, along San Pablo Creek, in Mitchell Canyon, and throughout west Marin County.

Bird-licious habitat at Mitchell Canyon, Mount Diablo State Park

Including a super-hot spot for birds – Limantour Beach – and just about everywhere, anywhere, where there's a forest or brush for cover, it's a bonanza of birds.

Limantour Beach at Point Reyes National Seashore

Aren't they blessed little souls!

Northern Waterthrush (photo by Fernando Burgalin Sequeria, Macaulay Library)

Naturally, what's good for the birds is good for the birders, and throngs of 'em are out in force this season hoping to spot a wayward Northern Waterthrush or off-course European Finch.

Excellent avian habitat in the Berkeley Hills (Tilden Park)

Many, including me, are hoping to up their Life List tally by a dozen species. It's that kind of year. And, for the proud and few, it might even be a Big Year . . . which, in any case, will have to wait, unfortunately, for me, at least.

Lesser Goldfinch (guessing)

Despite routinely spotting 20 to 30 species in my side yard or local park, paradoxically, I've not seen one-tenth or one-twentieth, even, of the possible number of unique avian visitors to our great Bay Area, a mighty big place, and easily 300 or 400 species come and go and stay.

Whimbrels feeding in the mudflats of Albany Bulb

Is it just me who hasn't seen, say a "common" Pine Siskin, Oven Bird, or Painted Bunting? Let alone a Tennessee Warbler, Cassin's Vireo, or Common Poorwill.

"Just" a common ol' Wilson's Warbler

Thought:

maybe I have spotted one

and just didn't know it.

Coots on shore near mudflats of SF Bay

Still, it's a Big Year right in my BerkeleyBackYard environs. My list is growing of several fortuitous, serendipitous, but very fleeting sightings of many splendid (and not so common) birds.

Stilts in San Francisco Bay

Some of whom I may not see again.

Varied Thrush spotted in Mitchell Canyon

A Varied Thrush seen and well photographed at Mitchell Canyon, Mount Diablo State Park. Also spotted over twelve months in Codornices Park, the Regional Parks Botanic Garden parking lot area, John Hinkel Park in Berkeley, Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve, and on Thanksgiving Day, two in my side yard, a first ever sighting of the pretty Thrushes showing up here.

White-breasted Nuthatch pausing from insect-hunting

A White-breasted Nuthatch spotted right off the bat at Mitchell Canyon, but not again after that.

Red-breasted Sapsucker in the Eucalyptus trees at Tilden

A Red-breasted Sapsucker, spotted for the first time in the Regional Parks Botanic Garden, and again elsewhere in Tilden Regional Park later. Strange, two sightings, apart, of a bird I had never seen before. (There's that thing again!)

Not-so-great shot of the Black-throated Gray Warbler

A Black-throated Gray Warbler spotted at Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. A magical encounter of a unique bird flitting into my life ever so briefly, in a place I had no business being. (Check out prior post on it.) I'll be lucky to ever see one again. And yet . . . it's considered "not so uncommon" to see one!

Lone Killdeer

Killdeers along the San Francisco Bay shoreline – true, I've never before seen one! Have I just not been looking for them? Amazing little dudes, I had never been aware, let alone noticed them before.

American Wigeon (?)

Wigeons at the Albany Bulb – ditto. Why would I ever notice a Wigeon before, and know it was a Wigeon I was noticing?

Hermit or Wood Thrush? (Who can tell?)

Hermit Thrushes – they're all over the place this fall, like I never can remember them being. (Could some of them be Fox Sparrows and/or Wood Thrushes I'm misidentifying.) Why did I not notice them as a "fairly common" bird before?

Angry looking bird: European Starling

European Starlings spotted at McLaughlin Eastshore State Park surprised me immensely for their otherworldly look and coloration. And besides, I don't think I could ever lay claim to actually positively ever having seen one. The photo here managed to stump a few fellow birders for a while!

Rehabilitated upland meadows at McLaughlin Eastshore State Park

By the way, McLaughlin Eastshore State Park is an amazing natural resource on our urban doorstep – rehabilitated, terraformed bird and wildlife habitat in an upland area known as the Berkeley Meadows.

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Golden-crowned Kinglets at Wildcat Gorge – or maybe it was just one, but he stuck around for twenty minutes in plain sight. My best ever sustained glimpse of the hardy little bird distinguished by an orange crown stripe emblazoned atop his little head. I consider it a rare thing to spot a Golden-crowned Kinglet, yet people report seeing them left and right.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

The EBRPD Bird Checklist, though, considers their appearance "rare" and "uncommon" all year round. So, what gives?

Orange-crowned Warbler - I think!

Come to think of it, even what you might regard as a pedestrian sighting in a local city park of, say, a common bird, like the American Robin, can thrill the heart with a voyeuristic glimpse into the mystery world of birds, a world where each small bundle of feathers and fat is a special and perfect miracle of creation.

American Robin red-breast enjoying a snack

Enjoy this snippet footage of an American Robin

for – not the whole world to see –

but for me alone to witness

a hidden bird doing whatever comes natural

to an American Robin

to any and all birds

caught in the act of simple, miraculous existence of . . . 

birds bein' birds:

ROBIN'S HIDDEN WORLD

Nutrient-rich mudflats and creek estuaries
along the SF Bay waterfront