Date: 3/20/25 12:31 pm From: David Assmann via groups.io <david_assmann...> Subject: [SFBirds] Signs of spring at Fort Mason - local interest
Lots of transitional season signs at Fort Mason - House Finches, American Crows, Northern Mockingbirds and European Starlings are all busy building nests. Large numbers of Brandt's Cormorants are staking out their nesting territories on Alcatraz. There's been a notable increase in the numbers of several species that soon will be heading north - including Golden Crowned Sparrows and Yellow-rumped Warblers (many now transitioning into alternate plumage). Townsend's Warblers, Hermit Thrushes and Fox Sparrows have started to sing. Male Brown-headed Cowbirds are arriving and singing - the first arrived last Saturday. Yesterday there were three, and today there were four. The Bullock's Orioles are still there, but moving around more - sometimes they are in garden and sometimes around the General's House. Yesterday I spotted my FOS Western Flycatcher, and today my FOS Warbling Vireo (an early arrival, but not the earliest I've had at Fort Mason - one arrived on March 18th in 2018). The warm weather ahead should bring in more migrants.
